DevOps is not a tool. DevOps is not a process. DevOps is a mindset. Sure, you will need tools and processes to enable your DevOps program. However, success in achieving DevOps cannot be accomplished simply by throwing process or technology at it. No matter how much money you invest, you need to get everyone on the same page with a common mindset. Without that, you will find it extremely difficult to realize the gains you envision.
Start by ensuring that you have all the right players at the table. There are a lot of folks in your organization who participate in the overall Agile development process. It begins with the customer, who will define requirements and set expectations of delivery and quality. Product Management represents the voice of the customer; they define the backlog and set priorities. Development will build code as specified in the backlog and then produce software in deployable packages. QA will test the code and packages for quality and performance. Security analysts will test for vulnerabilities.
Infrastructure will provide the environment where the packages are to be deployed, and likely the systems to deploy them. Operations will test packages for operational readiness and conduct the deployment. Operations will also implement the monitoring required to ensure the service is running to operational standards. Technical writers will author supporting documentation so end users will know how to take advantage of the software. Marketing will ensure that the marketplace is aware of what is to be delivered and what value it brings.
All of these groups are involved and will need to contribute in the overall release train. DevOps is not a simple serial process, but rather an interlock of teams participating in a carefully choreographed manner.
Participants up and down the process will participate or have influence in activities that they do not directly own. For example, while operations may be responsible for the stewardship of deployment, they should have input much earlier in the process. Their input to backlog creation would define how SLAs are implemented, and provide insight on best practices for executing deployment packages. When working with QA, operations can leverage reusable sanity/smoke tests built by QA to validate the success of deployments into all production environments. By participating in these earlier steps, the operations team provides necessary and valuable contributions to building the release that better enables the activities they own later on in the process.
This interplay of activity is crucial to the DevOps approach. And the players must play nicely to make it work. Be mindful of who participates even though it may seem ancillary to the core part of the process. Ensure everyone involved is prepared to take on a collaborative mindset. This is crucial to success.
In the next blog, we will discuss the challenges faced when taking on DevOps and why it is important to get everyone on board.
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