Whether you use Agile, SOAP, REST, scrum or kanban… if you’re in IT, DevOps can help you. That’s a fact.
DEVelopment OPerationS. Devops. Tools. Strategies.
A way of operating procedures that let software devs and IT teams (DBAs, for example), network admins and security specialists… collaborate more efficiently. When I first learned about devop, I had no clue about it. Or how it would help me and my team find ourselves and automate our production process. It has.
Because DevOps, in the end, benefits our customers. We develop our products and software much more quickly because of them. They keep our companies in business.
Here are 5 ways to make devops work for you, your development and operation teams.
1. Read
In 2012, Forbes said that “great leaders must be readers.” In the article, Forbes makes the argument that reading challenges you, reminds you of what you’ve already learned, and lets you find sources to back up your claims. I agree.
In fact, Bill Gates himself reportedly reads for one hour – before bedtime. Our greatest resource in life is our mind – filling it keeps us useful and knowledgeable.
The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win, by Gene Kim
The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology, also by Gene Kim
The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Ronald G. Reinertsen
The DevOps 2.0 Toolkit: Automating the Continuous Deployment Pipeline with Containerized Microservices by Viktor Farcic
2. Find One Great Person (And Add)
Development and Operations require two different skillsets. (For example, what are the chances you would find a professional novelist who is also interested in quantum mechanics?)
Instead of gathering a team of jack-of-all-trade so-and-so IT professionals… Look for the pros and team members who excel at dev, but show lackluster skills when it comes to op. Such as code cutters who may aren’t apt at the development stage of the process.
3. Support Problem-Solving Engineers
If you’re an engineer, a department manager or team leader, this tip goes without saying: solve the problem. When there is a problem, rather than call in the entire department to brainstorm a solution – let the engineer that problem is happening to, to solve it.
People will never learn how to solve their problems by dancing around them by committee.
4. Separate Clutter
DevOps is supposed to make things easier. For all the benefits this culture/methodology has, all of that is worthless if 5-10 people are cluttering it up with configuration tasks and instances.
Why does this happen? People may spot the same problem, continually reporting on it, therefore mucking up the log. This keeps happening – while the log made by the individual— who diagnosed and solved the initial problem—is smothered under incoming “updated” logs. It is congestion at its worst.
Therefore, hand SSH tasks to a few key developers and keep their instances away from the rest of the group. Your production system is the key system that keeps production running. (If that seems simple, it’s because it is.) Developers familiar with Scrum or Agile methodologies already understand this importance.
5. Why Goals Are Made For Concrete
Whether you’re a professional or inexperienced, where you start is valuable. How you start will save hours of headaches and hurricanes down the road. This can be done taking a long, hard, analysis of your organisation’s goals – and evaluating your current level of performance.
Reviewing your organisation’s goals will solidify those goals in every teams’ eyes. Without those goals, how are you going to track metrics? How are you going to know whether you succeeded or failed? Achievement requires observation, it requires measuring, and it requires iteration.
All of it starts by answering the questions: “What problem are we trying to solve? What are we doing here?”
Conclusion
DevOps has been oft-regarded as a cultural shift. Because it is: Beyond the tools, software, programs or cloud services used, DevOps is a collaborative mindset. Therefore, it’s crucial for the success of your organisation/business if your teams can work together effectively.
As IT professionals, there is no room for bad blood or ego. We are doing what we’re doing to get the job done.
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