Building a Boat
Envision building a watercraft that can ensure the protection and continued expansion of your business’s value for stakeholders. It’s crucial to keep in mind that the vessel should be trustworthy, dependable, and constructed to meet the highest industry standards for both present and future needs.
Furthermore, this ship must depart on schedule and within the proposed budget. Moreover, we must manufacture ten more boats before the year comes to a close.
Before embarking on the construction process, it’s imperative to identify the most efficient approach to launch this watercraft. Without the ability to leave the dock, the boat’s purpose becomes obsolete. Moreover, due to the boat’s stringent requirements, it may be more difficult to launch a bigger vessel.
Although lacking in boatbuilding background, I perceive the process of building a watercraft to be similar to that of software creation. As the organization grows in size and importance of its goals, the demand for safety and reliability increases. Both tasks are intricate and require exceptional skill and accuracy.
Nevertheless, I have confirmed that it operates effectively on my current PC.
In the past, the responsibilities of designing software and providing consistent support and maintenance have been split between different teams. Imagine the production environment as a vast open sea, harboring potential threats such as pirates, sharks, unseen reefs, and unforeseen customer complaints. IT managers can attest to the lack of communication between software engineers and system administrators during significant service disruptions.
Check out our blog on why software developers require familiarity with multiple languages.
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In software development discussions, pre-production stages are typically given more attention than software deployment. During the beginning of a project, it’s critical to consider aspects such as product specifications, available resources (such as programmers and testers), technology feasibility, and the project’s timeline. These factors enable the project to begin. However, the approach used to enter production isn’t our responsibility.
It’s like attempting to launch a battleship by constructing it in the center of a baseball field. The same applies to “IT” when it unexpectedly fails to function.
DevOps begins by constructing a runway. This runway enables the rapid and secure deployment of code into production while simultaneously automating as many routine procedures as possible.
It’s crucial to understand that just starting to code doesn’t imply that it should be immediately distributed. Instead, it’s essential to carefully examine each stage of the process to ensure the final outcome, which could be a software application or a boat, is secure and free of errors.
Nevertheless, only a quarter of businesses have initiated the process of adopting DevOps principles and practices entirely.
Now, What Can I Do?
To ensure that value is continuously provided from code deployment to production, it’s crucial to implement DevOps practices. However, this may call for a shift in attitude and behavior among the employees in the organization.
DevOps is a fusion of software engineering and IT operations, intended to simplify and enhance the process of Continuous Delivery (CD). It encompasses the integration of all stages of software development – from concept to deployment – into a single workflow. Automation may be used to ensure high performance, auditability, security, quality, and stability.
In an ideal scenario, a DevOps engineer should possess a broad range of technical abilities, from software programming to server and environment management, to database administration. They aren’t the ones who create the code, but they’re in charge of supervising the development and deployment of application code. Consequently, a DevOps engineer must be extremely adaptable and versatile while being open to learning and implementing new tools. The duties of a DevOps engineer go far beyond administration; they are essentially the problem-solving and maintenance team in charge of continuous delivery process, ensuring everything runs efficiently.
DevOps engineers typically possess the following skills:
- Scripting and automation programming languages, such as Python, Bash, Powershell, Ruby, and Perl.
- Tools like Ansible, Puppet, Chef, and Kubernetes are employed to manage virtual machines and containers, including VMWare and Vagrant or Docker.
- Administration of cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
- By employing orchestration technologies like Jenkins, Travis, and Bamboo, continuous integration can be accomplished with platforms such as Github, Gitlab, Bitbucket, and Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS). These technologies and services together form a powerful combination for streamlining the development process.
- Comfortability with RESTful APIs, API management, and microservices architecture.
- Acquaintance with the principles and practices of automated testing, including expertise with Selenium and other test automation tools and frameworks.
- Experience with Java and C++ is advantageous.
Despite the numerous Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) solutions accessible in the market, the fundamental DevOps soft skills such as customer-centricity, the capability to swiftly learn new information, comprehension of the requirements of other team members, and the ability to take a wider perspective remain as significant as ever.
An Industrial Love Story
To quote Eugene Kim, the writer of The Phoenix Project:
The Technology Department poses a substantial risk to the company’s ability to achieve its objectives in the domains of strategy, operations, financial reporting, and regulatory compliance. In today’s age, it is imperative for every organization to function as a technology firm as well.
Operating information technology as a separate department from the rest of the organisation is no longer viable. In every situation where a customer, whether internal or external, anticipates receiving a benefit from the company, IT must be fully integrated into the process.
To illustrate, imagine an assembly line where the customer’s requirements serve as the input and the output is a benefit to the customer. If the process takes too much time to deliver actual results, the line will have to halt regularly to exchange information or wait for a response. By using a value stream map to monitor the journey from the moment a customer’s idea is captured to the moment they have a resolution or feel they have received value, possible areas of improvement can be pinpointed. This exercise enables us to pose questions such as: Is any step redundant? What is the cumulative duration of each procedure?
Ensure that your company is a dependable provider of value. DevOps strives to establish a smooth integration of development and operation.
Consequently, technology partners must recognise that their position within the organization must be adjusted. They are not merely a support mechanism for the company, but rather play a crucial role in a sophisticated operation that is designed to generate profits. To ensure that this process is as efficient and uncomplicated as possible, it is necessary to examine some of the more conventional practices that could result in delays and complications. Furthermore, it is essential to be thoughtful and empathetic towards those who may be hesitant to adopt any changes.
Effecting changes can be arduous, particularly in well-established organizations. A great starting point is to examine how minor modifications can conserve time and money. For example, having a DevOps team member in a development project could enable more frequent releases, or utilising one of the numerous cloud platforms created for DevOps-friendly systems could demonstrate the lower costs compared to operating an on-premise security system. Providing this evidence to key decision-makers may aid in justifying the implementation of these changes.
Let Us Know How We Can Help!
To offer our largest corporate clients the best possible service, we have incorporated DevOps engineers into their teams. This has proven to be a valuable step, not only because it accelerates and improves the safety of product delivery to customers, but also because it motivates companies to advance by adopting a Continuous Delivery and DevOps mindset.
At Works, we take immense pride in our thorough hiring process that assures the best quality candidates. This year, only the top 1% of applicants were chosen out of a total of 46,500 applications. Our selection standards are strict and entail candidates demonstrating advanced proficiency in the required skillset, as well as high levels of aptitude and familiarity with fundamental concepts and industry best practices. We are confident that when you collaborate with us, you can be reassured that you will receive the utmost quality of service.
Our devotion to supporting companies in adopting the DevOps mindset is steadfast, and to showcase this, we are providing a discount on any long-term engagement if you hire our DevOps engineers to collaborate with you. If you’re interested in availing of this offer, simply reference this thread, and I will contact you.
