What are the Factors to Consider for a Successful DevOps Automation

What are the Factors to Consider for a Successful DevOps Automation

Traditionally, a company's development and operations teams were frequently isolated, leading to disputes, which slowed down the deployment procedure. Adopting the DevOps methodology, where the two groups collaborate, expedites the software development process more efficiently. 

With rapid technological advancements, software and applications require modifications from time to time to suit different user preferences. Regularly updating and testing these software and applications can be repetitive and time-consuming. DevOps automation can be handy in speeding up the entire development process. 

Here are the factors to consider for successful DevOps automation: 

1. Your Needs

Before starting the automation process, you must determine the repetitive tasks within the continuous improvement(CI) and deployment(CD) pipeline. This includes:

• Building
• Testing
• Configuration
• Deployment
• Operation
• Monitoring

The tasks in the below categories are candidates for automation:

• Happen frequently
• It needs more than three people to execute manually.
• Audit records are necessary for compliance.

Knowing what you need also helps to determine which processes don't need automation.

2. Key Performance Indicators(KPIs)

KPI should be centered on the objective of project completion. They should also ensure proper service maintenance. That way, they can show you where trouble areas associated with your processes are before they develop into more significant problems. Check the table below for some of the KPIs you can measure;

3. Cost-Benefit Analysis

After identifying the processes necessary for automation, the next phase is to consider the return on investment. Evaluate the cost of automating the processes and compare it to the projected returns. This should let you know whether your automated processes are cost-effective or not.

4. Security

Security should be a significant concern for everyone on the DevOps team during the automation process. A minor mistake can cause extensive outages. The team should direct a sharp focus on software supply chain security.

5. Automation Concepts and Tools

New tools and services have led to DevOps's high growth rate. It would be best if you focused on the fundamental ideas that enable firms to use DevOps automation to accelerate their business instead of constantly integrating new, flashy technologies and services. Selecting the appropriate tools for automation will be successful after you understand the principles and prioritize the elements that are still missing.

6. Lifecycle of the Project and Service

DevOps operation team focuses on the present and the future. The development department focuses on maintaining the automated services as the project materializes. This is possible because they don't need to focus on application and software creation. This improves customer relations.

7. Bottlenecks

After identifying what you need, it's advisable to discover why you haven't achieved them to accelerate the process. For instance, if your main objective is to release minor software updates regularly into production, some factors hinder your progress:

• Do your software developers stall the process by checking in poor code?
• Do your testers take a lot of time to test a minor change?
• Does testing require manual preparation and loading of data?
• Do your developers spend much time guiding testers to deploy software updates for testing?

After Identifying the Bottlenecks:

• Automate the tests if you are wasting time testing them repeatedly.
• Automate tests that need a manual startup because they waste a lot of the tester's time before they can start testing them.
• As much as testers and developers work in the same team, developers must perform enough tests of their own before letting others do it.

What are the benefits of DevOps automation

DevOps automation has many advantages that are crucial in taking your business to the next level.

Below are the benefits of DevOps automation.

1. It Improves Developer Productivity

DevOps automation reduces the time developers spend on a specific task. What took them six hours can take them half the time or less after automation. Developers can use that time to attend to more essential issues in your company, while automation caters to repetitive processes. Your organization can also create new software and applications more frequently, giving you a lead against competitors. 

2. Provides Room for Scalability

Effective communication between teams enables the development team to use automated testing, which helps fix and address issues as soon as they happen. This creates a bug-free, scalable, and more secure development environment where engineers can innovate and scale processes with your company.

3. Speed

DevOps enables quick transitioning from one stage to another because teams work together. Automation allows any process to be executed at any time without manual input from the team members. This speeds up the processes involved in delivering the project.

4. Consistency

Automated processes are consistent and predictable. An automation tool will always perform the same task unless it's reset to perform a different job or execute the same task differently. 

5. Improved Quality

Adopting the DevOps methodology means that every team member is accountable from the development phase of a software or application to the final step of delivering it to the customer. The team implements the various stages with the same goals making sure everything goes as planned. Automating the process eliminates human errors, which improves the overall quality product.

6. Cost-Effective

Automation eliminates the need for a big team, reducing the organization's expenditure. The firm can use the funds saved for more important issues or use them to automate more processes.

7. Less Risk and More Security

Software development is prone to bugs, downtime, and other security vulnerabilities. Developers are expected to fix those issues, which can sometimes be overwhelming. Automation provides a quick method of solving problems without compromising the safety of the software or application.

8. Correction of Defects

The software can be defective and not working as expected, and developers may need to identify the problem. A DevOps automated process can pinpoint the exact problem and remove the faults.

9. Improved Customer Experience

When the end-user gets a product with no defects or bugs, their confidence in buying and using your products increases because they get value for their money; your clients can even refer you to another user leading to a more extensive customer base.

What are DevOps automation best practices?

For the best results you have in DevOps, you must put into place the best practices. Do you know them? The table below highlights DevOp's best practices.

Conclusion

The power that comes with adopting a DevOps methodology is immeasurable. Your development and operations team working together for a common goal gives you a competitive advantage against your rivals who still use the traditional method. Embracing the strategy will see your organization's sales skyrocket, and you're assured of quality products and quick delivery to your customers. Guru solutions are efficient in DevOps automation services.