Favoured DevOps tools and methodologies revealed

DevOps is mostly about people and when it comes to tools, if it ain't broke don't fix it

One of the goals of DevOps is to automate aspects of the production pipeline so that viable software may be released at short notice. Just how short this notice needs to be will have a bearing on the delivery model preferred. These models start with continuous integration and can end up with continuous deployment, in which testing is fully integrated into the production process and updates are delivered as soon as they reach the end of the production line.

• Continuous integration - merging all developer working copies to a shared mainline several times a day
• Continuous delivery - making sure the software checked in on the mainline is always in a state such that can be deployed to users
• Continuous deployment - software is deployed directly into production without being first deployed on a test server

In Computing's recent research among companies that had implemented DevOps or were in the process of doing so, continuous integration was the most popular model (68 per cent), although continuous deployment was not far behind at 58 per cent. Continuous deployment, the methodology used by Facebook, was an ambition for 38 per cent.

DevOps is more about people and processes than it is about tools, and to achieve their delivery goals most organisations were planning on using what they already have in their toolbox rather than bringing in new ones, at least in the early stages.

A detail manager in the education sector set out why this was the approach that his organisation had chosen.

"Human nature means people resist change, they don't want to learn new tools, they want to keep to the old ones, so you're just proving to them that the new tools are going to make you faster or better," he said. "But the change has to be gradual and that's why it's keeping the old ones and slowly adding new ones. When the new ones prove their worth and their value, then you get rid..."

Management tools are an exception, however.

"If you're going to new processes then it's likely the management tools you need are going to change because they're going to have to reflect whatever the process is that you want," said an IT consultant in finance. "So the management tools are going to have to change, but in terms of the software tools, well, if it ain't broke don't fix it."

The main categories of tools that our research participants told us that they will eventually need to acquire for DevOps were release management, code management, software deployment integration, development integration and continuous integration tools.

Topping the list of actual tools in use or planned for DevOps was the VisualStudio IDE followed by the Github online project management and Jira issue tracking tools.

A research report including the full list of tools will be available on the Computing website shortly.

Computing's DevOps Summit 2016 will be held in central London on 5 July. Attendance is free to qualifying end users.