9 Best DevOps Practices for a successful DevOps Journey

The recent shows the DevOps software market reached $2.9 billion in 2017 and the figure jumped by $6.6 billion in 2022. Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) have become essential part of the software development process, as more than 50% of organizations implement DevOps.

For the growth and development of the business, there must be overall progress in the different processes and operations followed within the organization. Several applications are implemented in the organization that allows the smooth functioning of the various processes.

All these processes should be able to integrate for working in combination. The digital asset management system will help develop the digital data, which can be integrated with the product information management system for sharing these product-related digital details across various channels for eCommerce.

While we can discuss the development process, it’s most helpful to understand What is DevOps and How Does It Work?

The development of the business needs the implementation of some additional tools or systems that help manage the various developmental processes within the organization. DevOps is a methodology used for the .

It helps connect the organization's development team and the IT operations team. This union helps enhance the collaboration leading to betterment in the process functioning. This leads to increased speed and improved quality of software development.

This improved communication increases the speed of the process as the teams get notified when one team completes its process and the other needs to initiate it. Working together with the development and organization team can set shorter cycles resulting in faster innovations. This enables the team to stay ahead in the competition.

DevOps enables frequent code versions and allows for detecting defects in the codes. Failure can be detected faster using this application, and the recovery time is also less.

You’re all done with some basics!

Let’s move towards DevOps benefits to businesses:

The organization gains several benefits by implementing the DevOps system. These benefits of DevOps include:

• Faster delivery time: Implementation of the DevOps applications helps the different teams to gain speed in their process. This enables the teams to release their deliverables more frequently, improving quality and stability. This application helps the teams continuously provide deliverables and allows them to build, test, and deliver the software with automated tools. DevOps leads to automation of the process, making it continuous, thus making the process faster and more efficient. It has a quick feedback cycle that helps in immediate response to issues or errors, thus fastening the process.

  
  

• Improved collaborations between the teams: The DevOps platform follows the culture of collaboration between the operations and the development team. This helps the teams share responsibilities efficiently and combine their work with co-workers. This helps in saving time and enhancing the efficiencies of the designed software. This improved collaboration between the teams leads to a dynamic and round-the-clock environment favorable for improving the software quality and achieving the timelines faster for the deliverables.

  
  

• Rapid deployment: The DevOps platforms allow for smaller cycles, thus increasing the frequency and velocity of its testing and release. This gives a competitive advantage of improving the software rapidly by adding new features and repairing bugs.

  
  

• Quality and reliability: Implementing the DevOps platform allows for practicing continuous integration and delivery to ensure safe and functional changes. Apart from that, it also improves software quality. Monitoring the teams frequently leads to gaining real-time performance details for the application.

  
  

• Security: The DevOps platform incorporated the security feature in the continuous integration, continuous deployment, and continuous delivery as a per of the development process. It incorporated security by integrating active security audits and tests for the agile development processes and DevOps workflows.

  
  

• Enhanced customer experience: Implementation of the DevOps leads to enhancing the deployment frequency and recovery time, lowering change failures, etc. The automated process ensures the reliability and stability of an application with flawless performance and reaps the benefits of improved customer satisfaction.

  
  

• Early defect detection: Using the DevOps platform, the teams communicate and continuously monitor the testing of the codes. This helps in building the quality of the software. The different teams involved share their feedback that helps detect the defects that can be solved at the early stage, leading to better and .

  
  

• Innovative mindset: Implementation of the DevOps leads to streamlining the process, propagation of efficient releases, and ensuring quality build. This helps release the pressure from the teams and provides them immense scope for developing an innovative approach to resolving various issues.

Top Best DevOps Practices for Successful DevOps Implementation:

It is important to follow its proper implementation strategy to gain the maximum benefits of using DevOps. It is necessary to check and follow the best practices for DevOps, and that includes:

• Centralized units for DevOps: DevOps uses several tools like Splunk and Jenkins that should be created and operated through the centralized unit. This same centralized unit can be used to implement the . An especially dedicated team should look after and maintain these centralized units for tools and provide guidance programs for implementing the DevOps.

  
  

• Shift Left with CI/CD: In the traditional method, the teams would shift their task to the left if there is any defect detected in the software. This means the task will be shifted back to the earlier stage of the development life cycle. This DevOps team follows the continuous integration and delivery technique. This Continuous integration and continuous delivery approach allow delivering high-quality software faster. This allows for making the software delivery more predictable. This enables one to focus on preventing the problem instead of solving it later. The issues raised can be detected at an early stage and resolved. This shortens the test cycle and feedback loop between the developer and end-user. This leads to flawless product delivery.

  
  

• Implement Test Automation: It is important for regular testing for robust software. While implementing the DevOps, the developer checks the software at various stages of software development and not at the end. Manually testing the application at various time points can be tedious and time-consuming. For speeding up, the SDLC DevOps allows an automated process for testing the software at various intervals. This time is useful in addressing innovative test cases and preventing bugs. The testing frequency can also be added using the automated process for testing to improve product quality.

  
  

• Implement Continuous Deployment: The various subprocesses for the deployment include Code creation, testing, versioning, deployment, post-deployment, etc. The QA team needs to test the codes and clear them. The operations team then deploys these codes for the production environment. The continuous deployment process involves releasing the codes in versions and not at once. Different tools are used for continuous deployment. As these are automated processes, it does not require human intervention.

  
  

• Keep All Teams on the Same Page: DevOps allows all the stakeholders, like teams related to operations, development, deployment, etc., to remain well coordinated with the latest real-time updates. All the teams need to stay on the same page to avoid doubts. It is important to follow the strategy and keep all the teams and members on the radar.

  
  

• Exercise Patience: All team members may not have the same thinking and learning speed. It is important to educate the members regarding the DevOps platform and its related tools to keep all the team members on the same page. It is important to understand that the implementation of the DevOps application is to adapt to the application and provide the necessary training for the staff to handle and work with it. Training might take time, but it will help build a stronger base for handling the application.

  
  

• Implement Automation in Dashboards: The DevOps dashboard provides detailed reports and insights for the various processes and operations. These include the details for the test, duration of the tests, success or failure rates, etc. The automated dashboard reviews the team members regarding the changes made in the server and the database. It provides real-time insights into the ongoing SDLC proves and a holistic view of all the changes. It provides all the details in logs, graphs, metrics, etc.

  
  

• Monitor the Application's Performance: The application's performance decides its success or failure. It is important to monitor the application to optimize its performance. Monitoring by the development and performance team can provide useful data on its functioning.

  
  

• Brings Cultural Change: DevOps can help bring positive cultural change in the way the organization functions. It helps the different teams work in unison and can lead to improved performance and productivity.

Bottom Line:

Various teams play a crucial role in developing the different processes and operations taking place within the organization. The improved collaboration between the operations and the team of developers can help in improving its functioning. This leads to improving revenues. Implementation of DevOps is valuable for overall development as it helps track performance and improves productivity.