How to implement and improve DevOps processes

DevOps fundamentals

1. Continuous Integration and Delivery

• Shifting left – testing early can prevent problems, increasing the quality of releases and avoiding issues cropping up at the end of the development cycle. Developers and operations teams can define ways of working by ironing out differences in deployment and making all environments as close to production as possible.
• Early and often – don’t integrate too late or too infrequently. If code spends too much time with one developer, you’ll face problems when it merges with the main repository. It will make it harder to understand conflicts and lead to lost time.
• Include testing in stories – developers need to be involved early on in user stories. This will help them understand product managers’ thinking and communicate business requirements. Plus, automated tests for features will be Built-into the process, cutting down time spent fixing bugs.
• Redefine roles – automated testing frees up QA engineers to spend more time supporting developers, leading to better testing strategies, tools, and datasets.
• Automation celebration – don’t let automation be seen as the enemy. Appoint automation cheerleaders to instill confidence and allay concerns. Focus on the fact automation takes care of tedious tasks so people can focus on more interesting projects.

2. Collaboration

• It’s good to talk – keep collaboration on track with constant feedback and clear communication. Use tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chat to stay in touch.
• Establish and share goals – make sure team-level and individual goals are well defined with clear objectives. Everyone should be working towards the same big-picture goals too.
• Don’t dismiss diversity – see the benefits of geographical and cultural diversity. Embrace different ways of working and learn from each other. And ensure inclusivity and sensitivity are central to your process.
• One organisation, one language – establish a unified way of communicating – face to face and digitally – that helps everyone feel invested and know that their contribution is valuable.

3. Automation

• Consider the why – make sure there’s a defined purpose behind why automation is being used, from improving operational efficiency to empowering employees or ensuring process quality.
• Include the right people – it’s vital that key stakeholders are involved in strategic planning, particularly the IT team. The more they understand the goals, the easier it will be to get them to support automation and provide the resources you need.
• Start conversations about scaling – are you planning on a centralised approach or keeping automation limited to a particular function or team? Consider creating a ‘centre of excellence’ to explore new technology or practices, or delivery pods responsible for developing their own automated processes.
• Pick the right processes – automate tasks that are repetitive and prone to human error. Think about how they impact the customer experience and whether automation alone can solve issues, rather than wasting time and money on costly improvements first.
• Pick the right people – you’ll need a skilled and experienced lead developer, which might mean hiring in new talent, an eager team who you can train where necessary, and someone to oversee quality and manage automation.
• Gather the information you need – bring subject experts in early, hold a process walk-through so people can understand the changes, and document as you go so the new approach is clearly defined.

4. Metrics: measure your progress