DevOps seeks to include the IT operations team as an important stakeholder in the development process. Instead of developers solely coding to meet the stakeholder’s requirements on time and on budget, they are also held responsible for how easily it deploys, how few bugs turn up in production, and how well it runs. Developers also focus on providing software operations can asily support once it’s in production. Instead of bringing operations into the conversation after the product is complete, the DevOps methodology includes operations in the development stream.
Development’s view:
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Roll a product out to meet customer specifications within a certain timeframe
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Continuous delivery means recurring change as bugs are fixed and features added
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Fast changing environments are needed to support dev
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Agility is key
Operation’s view:
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Supporting the product for customers
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Keeping a handle on IT security
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Planning for deployment to production state
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Changes are slow/incremental
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Consistent environments are needed to support operations
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Stability is key
Why DevOps is important
In organizations where DevOps is not a priority, development is often viewed as customer-focused by trying to solve problems and deliver solutions while operations is viewed as a barrier to development’s mission. By combining these two often competing mindsets, both sides can be satisfied. The result is a product that potentially has fewer bugs, higher availability, increased security, and a process for improved development over the life of the product that works for both the developers and the operations people.
It is also possible to implement a DevOps methodology in a pure operations teams. In this scenario the operations team is also Development because they stand up a webserver, provision virtual machines, or code configuration management systems. In this case, operations needs to wear both the development and operations hats by meeting customer needs while also addressing security and supportability of the solution.
What isn’t DevOps
A person cannot be a DevOp. You don’t hire a DevOp.