DevOps As A Philosophy

We have to believe that there are very few people who haven’t heard about DevOps by now. The concepts and tools of DevOps have captured wider attraction in the year 2018 and it seems to be growing in the next year.

DevOps is not an overnight change; instead, it is a gradual process where the more you adopt, the more you learn. You might have noticed that people are determined to implement DevOps in their environment and anticipate bigger benefits out of it.

We agree that DevOps can put your software development journey on the fast track but here, in this article, we are representing the other side of DevOps, DevOps as a philosophy.

The truth is, tools along can’t help to achieve something without the appropriate mindset. DevOps is not all about faster software development and delivery. In fact, it promotes a collaborative environment where software can be more efficient, error-free, faster, and more importantly, user-centric.

Let's be clear. There's likely been a number of times that you have heard this definition of DevOps stating that DevOps bridges the gap between Development and Operations. The ultimate goal of DevOps is to shorten the software development lifecycle, but one should not overlook the quality of software.

How Adopting DevOps As A Philosophy Can Make A Difference

Many pivotal tech organizations like Amazon, Netflix, NASA, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and many more are using DevOps as a methodology in their development environments.

But do you really understand the term "DevOps" and its whole philosophy?

You can’t say you are doing "DevOps" or "Agile" by only reducing the time of software delivery. If your organization is doing DevOps, then everyone in the team must be involved in the overall DevOps discipline, which focuses on strong collaboration and early feedbacks.

How "DevOps As A Philosophy" Contributes To The Overall Growth of The Organization

Here are some thoughts you need to consider to become one of the successful DevOps adopters out there.

According to Gartner, through 2023, 90% of DevOps initiatives will fail due to limitations of leadership approaches, not technical reasons.

The journey from not using DevOps to using DevOps would require everyone’s effort and attention as DevOps focuses on the whole team rather individuals. And that’s where your mindset can play a major role in adopting successful DevOps flow.

When you consider something philosophical, the following things are certain:

• You will be able to think rationally particular problem/issue

• You will be able to analyze and solve with a broader perspective

• You will be able to think independently and clearly

When you accept DevOps as a philosophy along with effective DevOps tools, the software development approach will be transferred to far-reaching and faster software delivery aligned with user feedbacks at each stage.

There are many traditional models of software development like waterfall, spiral, iterative, extreme programming model and many more. On the other side, DevOps is a new Culture based on Agile principles where importance is given to the approach, processes, and quality of software in a shorter period of time.

Why Is This DevOps Transition So Hard For The Organizations?

The journey to DevOps is painful for most organizations, for a number of reasons:

• People are against the change

• Uncoordinated groups and limited focus

• Unrealistic expectation of automation

• Lack of organizational change

Focusing on the aforementioned factors, you can gradually set a constructive atmosphere for DevOps in the organization.

Automation Is Misunderstood

Often we've heard that DevOps automates the software development pipeline with CI (Continuous Integration) and CD (Continuous Delivery).

But that's only half the truth.

Undoubtedly, DevOps refers to automating software development, testing, and deployment but that doesn’t mean human intelligence and collaboration are not required. While some flows can be effortlessly automated, some require advanced capabilities.

Remember, as George Spafford, Research Director at Gartner says,

“People, not process, are the most common cause of DevOps failures.”

In order to gain an edge over the competitors, one should focus on the quality of software development. Automation is essential and saves your lot of time and efforts by eliminating redundant tasks.

But what’s more important is the quality standard which is better maintained by the human and machines together. Here, people can help match the proposed development picture with the developed system so that they can focus more on client satisfaction.

Change Doesn’t Happen Overnight, So Proceed Gradually

You can’t expect success in implementing DevOps in one or two days. It may take days, weeks, and months to get matured.

Here, using DevOps as a philosophy can help build a mindset. A Slow yet strong push towards fundamental changes helps companies do wonder.

Software no longer remains within the boundaries of web and mobile. It is going beyond the rise of machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, IoT, and so on.

There’s a need for constant connection and a quality-driven mindset when it comes to the digital era. In such a scenario, concepts like DevOps can help you reap the benefits of synchronization to deliver value through the customer-centric software solution.

Don’t Do DevOps For The Sake Of Faster Delivery

What You Can Do Instead Is:

1. Identify real benefits from DevOps

2. Rely on DevOps as a philosophy to bring the cultural change

3. Define automation and collaboration for your organization

4. Look after overall infrastructure before proceeding ahead

5. Decide objectives and measurements

6. Don’t be afraid of failure, as you may fail in the first attempt

7. Develop the entire toolchain and train your employees

Have You Started Doing DevOps?

We believe that people and process must work in line with the common mindset to deliver value to the end user. And this principle applies to any type of software development.

Let us know your thoughts on DevOps as a philosophy via comments below.