5 steps to follow for a successful DevOps transformation.

DevOps is the reason behind the success story of many businesses including Netflix, Amazon, and Google. Amazon has been able to speed up the life cycle of software development by automating the updates. If the ultimate objective is faster, and quality releases, then implementing DevOps is the way forward.

Change is the only constant. The same is the case for DevOps. I know these transitions can be frightening at times however I must say not adapting to the latest technology trends could be catastrophic. DevOps aims to tackle one of the most critical problems of IT, which is bridging the gap between Dev and Ops. This can be achieved by clear and gradual improvements. 

Gartner recently released a report that, by 2022, 75% of DevOps projects would fail to meet the goals due to issues related to organizational learning and change. But how to avoid that? Well, Businesses may stop being a part of this statistic by adopting AFour’s best practices for handling change during DevOps Transition.

1. Setting up Realistic Goals

Understand where your business is and how you want your transition into Digital or DevOps to look like. Spend time upfront transforming these thoughts into concrete goals that can be tracked as milestones and can be used to prioritize efforts. Don’t “do DevOps” just for justifying the point that your business “does DevOps.” You need to become an organization that retains an emphasis on the entire delivery pipeline. Start with a straightforward, honest evaluation of the way you are currently delivering apps. Define your success. 

What are your key areas? Revenue? Higher prices? Agility?

2. Using failures as a stepping stone to success

Since DevOps is mainly linked to doing things quickly, there is always a probability of initial failure, but with proper direction and approach, these circumstances can be dealt with. The company and the teams need to realize that DevOps’ strategy is to remove the uncertainty between the teams. Just like Agile’s “fail and change faster” approach, DevOps failures are a step in the right direction. It’s the first step towards learning from the mistakes and turning your DevOps practices into one that can lead you to even greater results, sooner than later.

3. Focusing on Test automation

IT managers and DevOps leaders should be able to choose the right tools and processes to support DevOps. Test automation is more than just automated testing; it is the ability to take code and data and run standard testing routines to ensure the consistency of the code, the data, and the overall solution. Testing must be continuous with DevOps. But this culture of test automation should come from top management, and thus much of the business that retains and observes legacy practices may find it a little difficult to kick off this culture in the organization as a whole.

4. Feedback is a must

The disparity between Dev and Ops can be conquered by a feedback loop that can help recognize and remove bottlenecks. A feedback loop allows teams to fix mistakes and keep a close eye on trends that interrupt continuous software delivery. The proper feedback loop mechanism helps the teams by eliminating the bottlenecks that create the problem and thereby growing overall efficiency. Many basic processes solve the feedback loop when it comes to software development — Daily Scrum, code reviews, unit checks, continuous output performance tracking, etc.

5. Patience is the key

One important thing is that many people miscalculate that DevOps can be used as an instant solution, but in fact, that’s not the case. Patience is the key here; it takes a few months to get used to the DevOps processes. It is not an easy task for an organization to discontinue all the legacy practices; they need to think carefully and carry out the DevOps initiative. A lot of major corporations took time to evaluate DevOps, but none the less, they’re all enjoying the benefits right now.

We all know that DevOps is here to stay, and it’s the requirement of any software-powered enterprise today. Doing DevOps, the right way begins with the right way of thinking and finding out the vital processes that you can easily automate. DevOps will be much more exciting in the coming years.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution without worrying about the development process, AFour Technologies specializes in DevOps Services to produce actual business results.

AFour Technologies holds expertise in generating immense ROI through intelligent infrastructure provisioning, continuous software development with minimal efforts.