Photo by Doz Gabrial on Unsplash
Come to the Bright Side. We have a collaborative environment.
DevOps was officially coined in 2009, but its principles have been generating buzz since at least 2006.
Along with building up a base of advocates, this innovative approach has been strongly lambasted for undermining the time-tested practices rooted in the development processes.
But, rather than being a nemesis to the traditional approach, DevOps brings the entire application development life cycle to a whole new level and fosters the long-needed skills in developers.
Educating Developers With DevOps
DevOps Helps Developers and Programmers to Think Automation
Before DevOps hit the spotlight, developers had to commit the code after it had cleared the unit tests on particular machines. Thus, they didn’t have ‘a greater picture’.
Today, developers can get a broader view and go beyond everything that goes with clicking “Commit.” This also helps tech specialists to get away from old-school ways of doing everything manually, even if they are not particularly into automated testing.
A Source of New Skills
Back in 2014, the DevOps model was strongly criticized for putting unnecessary additional pressure on developers. It was said that DevOps deprived developers of being able to specialize in what they do best: crafting code.
The common picture associated with DevOps in those times was an exhausted techie running around because he had to dabble in QA / testing, systems administration, database management, and whatever else.
In reality, the DevOps model just expands the skill sets that developers had to possess to succeed in their careers.
Today, even in companies that haven't leveraged DevOps, developers are more accountable than they were a decade ago for code (which is a bummer for unmotivated employees).
You Build It - You Run It
It may seem as simple as the person who generated the bug should own the problem end-to-end, otherwise the team will just toss junk over the wall at the scapegoats.
Within the traditional approach, developers often think their job is done when the product owner approves the ticket. So you might imagine the frustration when you can’t just shirk your buggy code and pin it all on the other team players.
The reality is that testing on an agile DevOps project is performed by all the team members, including devs, testers, and ops people.
Collaboration and Transparency
In the traditional developer and operations environment, a developer writes a piece of code, assigns it to the island of QE, and then dumps it in the operations department. There is little to no handshake in this lifecycle. And if you mess up something, you can always say that you didn't receive the ABC instruction that the developers sent you.
So it’s like those good old school days when you’re trying to dominate everyone else’s efforts, in pursuit of your A+.
On the contrary, the DevOps approach reminds you of the college times when everyone is chipping in united by a shared goal. DevOps not only generates crucial concepts and tools to create automated workflows but also boosts the integration of team collaboration tools to these workflows.
The Bottom Line
Love it or hate it, the DevOps approach has caused irrevocable changes in the tech world. And instead of going against the stream, it’s better to embrace complementary DevOps practices, thus improving operational productivity, quality, and revenues as well.
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