DevOps is a method designed to help software developers to shorten the development life cycle and reduce lags and testing mishaps. As a result, a software company with a solid DevOps strategy can easily overtake the competition and cut themselves a bigger slice of the market share.
However, DevOps is not something you can implement overnight. It’s also not something most businesses can implement by themselves, with the current resources and work environment. That’s why services like DevOps consulting services by RTS Labs have been in high demand in the last period.
In order to identify the business’s automation needs and find the processes that can be improved with DevOps strategies, it’s best to ask for help from a specialized company. They will be able to offer guidance and use their experience in the field to provide useful tips for your specific type of business.
Of course, this doesn’t mean there won’t be anything else left to do from your side. A proper DevOps implementation comes with fundamental cultural changes and requires everyone’s involvement. It’s also a process that needs to be well understood by the decision-makers and executives.
Lastly, it’s important to know that no two DevOps implementations are the same. Given that each business is unique, it requires a different strategy for each new project. Still, there are a few elements that are part of every winning DevOps strategy, so in today’s article, we will focus on the steps every business needs to take to succeed in this complex and transformative process.
Break Down the Silos
According to a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services study, 50% of enterprises say organizational silos are a challenge to delivering value to the market faster, while 46% say resistance to change is a major issue.
The standard organizational culture in software development companies promotes silos (separate departments, working independently from each other). As a result, the company registers delays in new code deployments, increased difficulty in testing, and an overall conflictual environment since employees feel their goals are not matching.
DevOps looks for ways to automate repetitive tasks and focuses on collaboration between developers and IT operations. Even more, it redefines their goals, so the entire team now works to make the customer happy.
In short, this strategy changes the organization of the entire company and simplifies the roles of each team member involved in the development process.
Focus on Automation
Both the development and the testing processes have areas that can be automated. DevOps identifies these areas and looks for ways to improve the entire production process by freeing employees’ time and workload.
To take it one step further, advanced DevOps strategies use Artificial Intelligence to take automation to the next level. By integrating AI-efficient solutions into the development process, businesses increase performance accuracy and decrease the need for human intervention (which translates into fewer man-hours logged for redundant tasks). Additionally, by using intelligent AI solutions, it’s easier to identify and fix software issues before the code enters the official testing period.
Integration with the Cloud & Other Platforms
The main purpose behind DevOps implementation is to improve the development process and switch to a continuous production system with high-quality results. This part in itself is challenging enough for any company, but there’s also a chance to step ahead of the competition (who is also doing DevOps) by also integrating with technologies that encourage remote collaboration, like the cloud.
Additionally, you may find other platforms to integrate with the DevOps implementation, to improve progress tracking and employee monitoring.
Still, it’s important to pay attention to the changes these new platforms will bring. After all, the DevOps implementation is a huge change on its own. So, before making any rushed moves, pay attention to the way your employees react to the initial transformation.
Give Yourself Time
You cannot reform an organization from top to bottom (that’s what DevOps does) without taking things one step at a time. In fact, rushed implementations are at the top of the list of reasons why DevOps implementations fail. So, the best strategy one can apply is patience. Also, if you’re not familiar with the environment, it is best to find a specialized company, with lots of experience in your field.