Collaboration between different departments (usually the development team and operations team) of a business and the utilization of agile testing are becoming more and more common place not only in IT but other industries as well. Information Week emphasizes that IT teams at “enterprises of all sizes” must “embrace the DevOps movement”.
The concept of “DevOps” is not exactly the same for every business. This buzzword means a lot of different things to different people. Regardless of how your organization defines the term, here are some tips for making it work for your business:
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Synchronize Dev and Ops correctly
The best time to schedule updates is in the middle of a business day, when both teams are already working. The Development Team can provide the Operations team with updates and Ops can gain some insight of what they can do to help make the development process come along more easily.
Don’t let corporate policies get in the way
Management has the responsibility to support collaboration and to break down any policy barriers between the two segments of the company. The development team must be provided with the resources and freedom they need that will empower the success of the project.
Giving continuous feedback is a must
DevOps is more successful when feedback is provided for every step of the process, from development to management. Don’t focus so much on the end-result. Everyone involved in the collaboration should provide each other with feedback and learn from their mistakes.
Be careful with whom you give access to sensitive data
While you do want to provide everything everyone involved needs to be as productive as possible, you don’t want to give TOO much access to those who do not need it – especially when that information contains sensitive data. Companies should still take security measures during DevOps projects.
Underutilizing people
Don’t forget that Development and Operations projects involves very human processes – it’s not all about technology, even if you are using a lot of technological processes and tools like automated mobile testing. While these tools are certainly an essential aspect of DevOps, the people themselves should still be in control.
Have a solid recovery plan
Downtime is problematic for any organization. According to The Wall Street Journal, “4 in 10 firms don’t have a disaster recovery plan”. There is always the risk of loss or even theft if you don’t have a protection and recovery plan. Every department should be trained on what to do in the event that there is an any type of emergency. If one department fails to recovery lost data quickly, that is going to cause problems for the entire collaboration team and set the project back. Once you have a recovery plan in mind, it’s worth the effort to have simulated failure scenarios.
Consider WAF updates part of change to the application code
Businesses striving to keep their Web Application Firewall updated on a regular basis require a great deal of operational effort and interaction between the security team and other departments involved in the DevOps process. The development and release processes are simplified when the WAF is viewed as an integral part of the application.
Good communication and organization are the key components to any DevOp collaboration project.
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