Introduction

Did you know that DevOps can accomplish tasks in minutes, which used to take hours or even days of work? By streamlining processes, companies can focus more on their business or the product, rather than getting bogged down in operational details. This efficiency is a key reason why the IT industry is adopting DevOps at such a rapid pace. In the next few minutes, I'll show you how thousands of companies are evolving and adopting DevOps culture.

What is DevOps?

Hi, welcome. My name is Imran. I'm a DevOps consultant and a trainer. Let me help you understand what DevOps is and how it can solve some business-critical problems.

A Story of Transformation

Everyone likes a good story, and here it is. Meet Emma. She's an artist with a passion for collecting artworks and owns an art gallery from which she sells her pieces to the public. Emma wants to expand her business online through a mobile app, allowing users around the world to access her gallery and make purchases. However, Emma doesn't have a team to develop this app. She needs developers, testers, and admin personnel to accomplish this task.

The Journey Begins

Emma approaches a software consulting firm and explains her idea. Reggie, the Director of Dev and Ops Team, explains the process of development, delivery, and service of the software. Avi, the Project Manager of the Software Development Team, details the software development process to Emma. Freddy, Head of Operations, explains how the mobile app will be hosted on the cloud server. Convinced, Emma decides to sign the deal.

Understanding Software Development

Emma is curious and wants to understand the software development process. Here we go:

1. Requirement Gathering and Analysis: Information like product features, user requirements, and market conditions are collected.
2. Planning: Determines the cost, resources, and risks associated with product implementation.
3. Designing: Architects design the software and produce design documents, serving as roadmaps for developers.
4. Development: Developers write the software code based on the design.
5. Testing: Software is tested by software testers for any defects and is promoted to production only after fixing all issues.
6. Deployment: Software is deployed to the production environment for user access.
7. Maintenance: Balancing regular changes and system uptime.

SDLC Models

The Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) has different models such as Waterfall, Agile, Spiral, and Big Bang. Each model offers a different pathway to the same destination, chosen based on factors like cost, risk, and time.

Challenges and Solutions

In the Waterfall model, each phase must be completed before the next begins. However, Emma prefers to observe and modify the product development process, making the Waterfall model unsuitable. Instead, she opts for Agile SDLC, where development is divided into smaller tasks completed in iterations of two to four weeks. This allows for regular feedback and adjustments.

The Role of DevOps

Avi instructs Freddy from the operations team to deploy the code on servers for testing. However, frequent deployment requests and unclear instructions strain the ops team, causing delays and errors. This frustration is a common issue when Agile development meets traditional operations.

Bridging the Gap with DevOps

Reggie, understanding the potential for business loss due to unhappy customers, recalls learning about DevOps at an Agile conference. He brings in a DevOps consultant to integrate the code delivery process, emphasizing collaboration, communication, and automation.

Implementation of DevOps

The DevOps consultant trains the dev team on ops concepts and the ops team on Agile concepts, fostering better collaboration. Automation is introduced across all tasks in the code delivery process, from code build and testing to infra changes and deployments. This eliminates human errors and saves time.

Conclusion

With a fully automated DevOps lifecycle, Emma's requests are quickly fulfilled, leading to happy customers and a thriving business. Emma's idea has now become a full-fledged business, thanks to the power of DevOps.