DevOps

The planning phase of DevOps involves determining what requirements exist for the product, usually based on end-user input, to help assess what the software should do, and which features are necessary. This includes bug fixes, enhancements, and new features. Based on planning, teams build out a road map for their software project, outlining how the plan will be achieved. The road map will break down tasks into epics, features, and user stories in that order. An epic represents a larger chunk of functionality, providing a high-level view of the important initiatives within a road map. Epics include features that deliver specific capabilities or enhancements to a software application. User stories are the smallest component in the hierarchy of the road map that break down features into more manageable and actionable pieces. Once the process, from epics down to user stories, has been planned, then the building phase can begin. Successful planning sets the stage for the full project.

The building phase is an iterative and agile approach to coding software. The software engineers and development team build code and collaborate to ensure that the code is completed and done in the correct style conventions. Code is then committed to a source code repository. This code can be merged with existing code if necessary, or branches of differentiated code can coexist. Human code is then converted to machine-readable code. DevOps is iterative and fast. Its focus is to build quickly but not lose quality or productivity. The code must be properly integrated and packaged for deployment so that the project can move forward. This is then assigned a version to ensure traceability.

Continuous integration automates the process of building code. When any contributor on a project changes a code, even if multiple people do that simultaneously, it triggers the continuous integration (CI) process. This automation takes any changes and compiles, tests, and verifies that new branch of code. This helps to ensure high-quality code, as well as speed when building new software. Modern DevOps is based around continuous integration automation, and major developer platforms feature CI.

In DevOps, deployment is referred to as continuous deployment (CD). Oftentimes continuous integration and continuous deployment are grouped together as CI/CD. CD is an automated process where code changes are deployed as they pass tests, which allows for faster releases. It takes the human aspect out of deployment, which reduces error and improves quality. This saves time for the organization because teams can focus on their software builds rather than releases. This also helps to regulate when deployments occur and ensure that there are fast feedback loops on new features and code changes. Shipping code through CD is faster and helps organizations stand out from the competition.

The operation phase is the Ops portion of “DevOps” and is a critical part of the software development lifecycle. The operation phase occurs after software is delivered to customers and focuses on maintaining, monitoring, and troubleshooting. This involves patch releases and addressing security issues to improve the performance for end users. Monitoring is an important part of operations, as it ensures that performance is as expected, and that the user experience is positive. If issues arise, then troubleshooting is required to diagnose and fix bugs. If the operation phase is successful, then the software is reliable, secure, and secure. Maintaining the reputation of the software for end users is key in this step of DevOps.

The continuous feedback loop is a way of improving the software and teamwork throughout the product lifecycle. Continuous feedback helps teams learn from releases and processes, and then change and sometimes enhance based on what is needed. This helps the iterative process of improvement. Correcting issues can happen as a product is being developed rather than at the end of the process. It also fosters collaboration among teams. Feedback can be based on the monitoring from the operation phase, from testing or incidents like outages. Having a continuous feedback loop and a commitment to learning and improving helps ensure high-quality software and customer satisfaction.

Common challenges of adopting DevOps practices include:

Siloed Teams – Teams lacking shared processes and goals are likely to prioritize different sets of tasks, resulting in sluggish and error-prone deliveries, so many organizations merge development, test, and operations engineers into a single DevOps team. Teams can also maintain their current organizational structure but work with a shared process and objectives. Being able to view a single, shared dashboard is essential to unite teams around a common definition of success.

Lack of Automation—Frequent working software deliveries require automation across the build-test-deploy cycle or teams will be burdened by manual tasks. Integrated toolchains accelerate deliveries while enhancing DevOps quality.

Lack of Traceability—Lifecycle traceability helps organizations adopt DevOps practices with precision and control. Prioritizing delivery of a customer request, rollback of a feature causing performance issues, or delivering different features to different customers or geographies all require fine-grained development and release cycle control. This degree of release control is only possible when DevOps practices are integrated with other lifecycle disciplines.

DevOps practices can be extended to embedded software in products, such as automobiles, cell phones, and medical devices, with some key differences:

Delivery Timing – Smart products typically require more controlled and nuanced delivery practices such as automotive software updates batched and timed to coincide with regular auto service intervals. Deliveries are typically timed to minimize disruption and ensure safety.

Safety and Security – Many smart products are safety-critical, with regulatory oversight extending to DevOps practices. These products must meet traceability and audit standards, and security over the software update chain of custody.

Delivery Methods – Embedded software can utilize over-the-air (OTA) updates, traditional web, CD, or other wired delivery methods.

Heterogeneous Environments – Teams can achieve a high degree of control over the computing environment in traditional DevOps environments. They can dictate the inclusion or exclusion of specific software and ensure that all software maintenance tasks have been carried out, as opposed to operations teams that don’t own physical hardware devices. Embedded software updates generally require more complex testing over a larger number of hypothetical configurations to ensure that the updates will operate in real-world conditions and configurations.