Challenges Businesses Face When Implementing DevOps
The idea of Development teams co-existing with the Operations department to ensure that the development cycle for new releases is quicker than ever… oh man, a couple of years ago – that would have been a dream come true.
Even though the practice has been around for a good decade, it is still seen as a new pipeline strategy for companies to implement, and let me tell you… It’s taking the software world by storm.
As amazing as DevOps can be when implemented correctly. It does not come without it’s own host of challenges. After all, we are making polar opposite departments work together, it’s like magic!
If you are curious about what kind of obstacles your business will face when trying to implement DevOps, you are in the right place. Through this article, we are planning on going through some of the biggest obstacles you will need to overcome, and exactly how to do that.
Calling A Truce Between The Dev Vs Ops Warfare
Okay, there were no swords involved. But, development teams have always been cliched as tossing a bunch of code over a giant wall, just for the operation team to leave the code piling up due to having better priorities.
As the stereotype goes, the code gathers dust, until Ops finally get into gear. As you can imagine, from a business perspective – this doesn’t just hinder your pipeline, it throws it completely off-track.
This mentality is also one of the biggest obstacles that you will need to overcome to get these two teams to co-exist.
The big problem is that Development teams are constantly hustling to push out all the patches, bug releases, and hotfixes as quickly as they can. Whereas, Operations teams mostly focus on providing 100% customer service satisfaction.
The ideology of DevOps is implementing tools and processes to accommodate both departments needs and help them prioritize tasks more efficiently.
The first thing DevOps aims to do is align the goals, vision, and pipeline tasks for both of these teams. Removing the virtual tug of war that stops the workflow and providing conformity to the workflow.
So far, one of the best practices used by businesses is implementing cross-functional project aligned teams. Orchestrating things such as a roadmap, hierarchy for the project, architecture, design, and development criteria – basically, everything both departments are responsible for mapping out.
It may sound easy to combine this into one giant organizational mindmap. However, it can be costly and often involves third-party help. Here is a guide for you to get a better understanding of how to implement this in your business.
Tools May Be Nifty But They Can Be Deadly
Trying to choose the right tools for your team is like going to the worlds largest candy store, and being told you can only choose one thing. It’s virtually impossible to decide.
The flashy tools, diverse range of options, and seemingly universal solution solvers can all be tempting. But, what you need to remember is each tool comes with it’s own cost. Whether its infrastructure, time, or training resources.
Remember, the key focus of any DevOps team is the team members itself. You don’t want to be wasting time wondering if you can implement tools that your team won’t bother using, right?
The first step to overcoming this is to hash out the team’s processes. This will give you an understanding of where there are obstacles in the processes. From there, you can browse the tools available to solve distinct problems that you know your team is going to face.
This will prevent you from wasting time looking at more tools that you need. Remember, you also need to train each member of your team on tool functionality, which is both time and money.
Throwing Out The Old – And Bringing In The New
If you have ever moved homes, you might know just how bad hoarding can be. You have a bunch of useless junk just laying around. Half of which you don’t even remember buying.
Changing your processes and implementing DevOps is going to be pretty much the same experience. Remember, living in the digital world, software is evolving all the times. Competitors are adapting with the change, are you?
The old software may have served your company well for years, but there are guaranteed to be faster, smarter, more compatible options out there.
This old software is also known as legacy software, which is the name of our next big obstacle.
Microservice infrastructure is the next big implementation you will need to make when it comes to implementing DevOps in your business. It’s also the stage that most teams fear because everything suddenly becomes new, and far more advanced.
The only problem is microservice hierarchy has it’s own distinguished obstacle course for you to race through. Before you can even consider implementing this, you will need to lay down the brick and mortar for automation, configuration management, and of course, continuous delivery.
This is because microservices tend to carry a ton of operational weight, which the above functionalities will help diminish.
By Tom English
