DEVOPSdigest

The challenges of remaining competitive and delivering superior customer experiences have led businesses worldwide to discover the merits of adopting DevOps. The methodology helps in breaking down silos existing among departments and brings about a culture change. The culture change is premised on keeping the products glitch-free and enhancing the quality of customer experience.

The success of DevOps is underpinned to a large extent on achieving continuous integration and conducting DevOps testing. Although DevOps refers to the collaboration between the Development and Operations teams, there are many misconceptions surrounding the term. Let us discuss and debunk them.

Notwithstanding the role of DevOps in achieving faster time-to-market and enhanced quality of software, there are quite a few misconceptions accompanying it. The following are common myths surrounding DevOps and continuous integration.

MYTH 1: DevOps is all about test automation and tools

DevOps is a conglomeration of practices. These include collaboration, culture change, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous testing. It is not about tools that can be bought off-the-shelf but includes the leveraging of the above-mentioned practices to get the right approach. Yes, DevOps test automation(link is external) forms an integral part of this methodology with tools like Selenium, JIRA, Git Hub, Docker, and CircleCI as examples. DevOps helps enterprises to deploy applications in the shortest possible time and update them as and when needed. In fact, no single tool can transform a team into a DevOps team. DevOps is not about following a “one size fits all” approach but understanding and implementing the core values in creating an all-encompassing culture.

MYTH 2: DevOps is only for start-ups and smaller organizations

Implementing DevOps in large organizations can be a challenge given the multiplicity of processes, departments, and approaches. This has led to the misconception that DevOps is suitable for small enterprises only. However, large organizations need it as well, for the presence of silo-based processes and departments can lead to a lot of wasteful expenses and reduce competitiveness. A successful DevOps strategy including DevOps software testing adopted by a large organization can help in streamlining processes and identifying weak points in the workflow. It helps the operations of an organization to mature such that it allows continuous integration and continuous delivery of software.

MYTH 3: DevOps is all about hopping to conferences

Implementing DevOps can have its set of challenges given the misconceptions and lack of understanding. In this context, it is better for the developers or DevOps quality assurance experts to attend relevant conferences. This would help them in getting exposed to a lot of ideas related to the field. Attending such conferences helps in learning about new concepts, tools, and technologies. However, bringing about digital transformation through DevOps testing and other means needs a cultural shift among the employees. The conferences can be of help wherein learning about various case studies related to DevOps implementation can widen the horizon of the attendees.

MYTH 4: DevOps requires everyone to be a developer/system administrator

The common belief that everyone in the DevOps team should be a developer, system administrator, or an expert in DevSecOps is not accurate. Since the methodology calls for collaboration between the Development and Operations teams, it needs to be understood that not everyone in the latter is adept at coding. However, a good understanding of the coding process would help address any technology issue, especially in the cloud infrastructure. By having developers and system administrators, the DevOps team can institute proper security policies, write better test cases for DevOps testing, and set up proper backups. It is more about inculcating a cultural change among the employees to ensure the workflow becomes fast, secure, and reliable.

MYTH 5: Operational teams can become redundant

The argument still finds its place among many that the elimination of bottlenecks between the Development and Operations teams can lead to the reduction of staff and budget. However, this is farther from the truth. DevOps includes the review of tools, techniques, and practices to improve personal interactions, optimize the workflow, and deliver value to the end-customers. In doing so, it prescribes strict implementation of a DevOps testing strategy(link is external). It envisages a unified team right from the ideation stage to the final delivery of products or services. DevOps is about transforming the processes, employees’ approach, and the quality of deliverables to help the organization remain competitive.

Conclusion

With ever-changing technologies, practices, and methodologies, organizations need to adopt DevOps and improve their deliverables. Debunking the common myths about DevOps can help stakeholders to understand the value of this principle in allowing collaboration, automation, continuous integration and improvement, and accountability.