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What is DevOps?
DevOps enables a continuous delivery of value to to end-users. Let's take a look at it, and the benefits it offers, in more detail.
This article offers an introduction to DevOps and a discussion on its core values.
Let’s start with a simple definition.
What is DevOps?
A simple way of understanding DevOps is by considering the definition proposed by Donovan Brown, Microsoft DevOps Program Manager:
DevOps is the union of people, process, and products to enable continuous delivery of value to our end users. You cannot buy DevOps and install it. DevOps is not just automation or infrastructure as code. DevOps is people following a process enabled by-products to deliver value to end-users.
The Value of DevOps
Donavan Brown’s definition of DevOps suggests that there are three components to DevOps:
- People
- Process
- Tools
Bringing People Together
In DevOps, people need to collaborate more. While Agile espoused the concept of collaboration across multidisciplinary development teams, DevOps encourages collaboration across development and operations.
To be successful, these collaborative teams need to share a common goal. They need a common way of looking at success. They need a common set of metrics to track their progress, a common practice of continuous improvement and a sense of unity.
Delivering Value Faster
Teams should harness the value their processes can bring. The process should focus on more value and less waste. Manual handoffs, delays and waiting times should be knocked off to increase efficiencies.
That is not to say that teams should measure their success in reducing and removing waste to deliver the same thing. The measure of success is doing more for our end-users. And we can do more for our end-users by obtaining feedback from them so that we can deliver value faster.
Executing a DevOps Strategy
To deliver value faster, we need the right tools. Tools not only provides automation, but it also eliminate waste, rework, and it allows us to measure feedback to enhance our productivity.
Effective tooling also helps us improve collaboration and encourages and facilitates experimentation. It enables testing so that we can deliver the results that we expect.
The Goal of DevOps
Gene Kim introduced the notion of the Three Ways, which describes the values and philosophies that frame the processes, procedures, practices of DevOps, as well as the prescriptive steps.
To briefly summarise the concept of the Three Ways:
- The First Way is the move from development to operations and the automation of that.
- The Second Way is the idea that you have a feedback loop from operations to development.
- The Third Way is the idea of experimentation in which you make cycles faster and create a continuous flow and work in a data-driven way based on your observations in real production.
If you’d like to learn more about DevOps, check out the full online course from CloudSwyft Global Systems Inc, below.
This article is from the online course:
Microsoft Future Ready: Fundamentals of DevOps and Azure Pipeline
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Microsoft Future Ready: Fundamentals of DevOps and Azure Pipeline
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