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There are many misconceptions about DevOps, the most common of which is that it is simply automation. While automation is a part of DevOps, it is not the main focus of what we mean when we use the word.
Today, DevOps is best understood as a set of practices and cultural values that help organisations improve their software release cycles, their software quality, their security, and their ability to get fast feedback while reducing risk.
According to leading research published by DORA there is strong evidence that DevOps practices lead to higher IT performance, which in turn leads to improved business outcomes as measured by productivity, cost effectiveness, and market share.
Research by Dr Nicole Forsgren has pinpointed 5 main categories that make up "DevOps". Those categories are:
This is perhaps the single most important aspect of DevOps. Without a a supportive culture, nothing else can more forward efficiently. Transformational leadership, either from management, or from peers, has been shown to impact productivity by as much as 50%. Good Transformational leadership isn't just desirable, it is essential to reap the benefits of DevOps. (Learn more...)
This can be summed up as "Lean Product Development", which itself is composed of 3 main sections:
Nobody likes having their work held up by another team. Conversely, nobody likes holding up other teams. One of the most simple ways to avoid such situations is by designing systems that can be developed and released independently of each other, along with teams that are empowered to make changes independently of other teams. This requires good inter-team communication, and also often results in the adoption of technology such as microservices and containers. (Learn more...)
Continuous delivery includes a slew of technologies and practices, such as using proper version control, deployment automation, continuous integration, test automation, trunk-based development and Learn more...
In 2017 the developers at the Web Services Group (WSG) along with sysadmins at Network and Communication Services (NCS) upgraded the infrastructure of the Web Management System (WMS) and took this opportunity to revisit the way they collaborate and provision servers in order to address common pain points.
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