DevOps - a long or short term solution?
Dan Hartveld, CTO at Red Ant, looks at the pros and cons of DevOps in order to work out whether it is here for the long term
It used to be considered acceptable for each technical discipline to work in isolation. Developers, system administrators, testers etc. would work on tasks with very little or no conversation with other IT professionals.
This would often lead to a number of problems, eventually delaying projects or resulting in faulty software.
DevOps, the current tech industry trend, is a new way for software developers and other IT professionals to coordinate activities, as a more efficient way to work, allowing new software to be released sooner and for those projects that don't work to be reconfigured more quickly.
This leads to a more constant delivery of new features, rather than the traditional structure where a host of new features are released all at the same time.
However, as with all relationships, there are both advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages
There are several clear advantages to be had from DevOps. Collaboration can help alleviate deep-rooted problems such as the industry acceptance that projects will tend to run late, won't work properly or will cost more than anticipated. Prior to DevOps as a solution, this would mean that many projects would go back to square one. With DevOps, a solution is suggested early on which means those problems are handled and worked through, saving time and money.
Also, if any issues arise, they can be dealt with by team members who can take ownership and solve the problem.
Previously, working in isolation meant that any problems detected once the project was live were dealt with by maintenance and support teams who would have to source someone who could solve the issue by going up the development chain - an inefficient and impractical way to work.
By getting developers to deal with their systems problems and faults, it will not only help resolve the issues more quickly but also naturally improve the developer over time getting them to make decisions that are best for the user based on their experience of handling issues and requests rather than guessing what they think a user wants.
Disadvantages
Once you're invested in the idea of DevOps there's a temptation to take it a step further and abandon the idea of specialists altogether and encourage your developers to develop skills in multitasking as QAs, system administrators and release managers etc. However, even though this may seem an attractive option from a cost and resource point of view, the risk is that your developers might become a type of ‘jack of all trades and masters of none'.
DevOps is also naturally suited to a development team that is already agile, i.e. fast iteration cycles, flexible scope model and dedicated long term resource allocation etc. If your team currently works in something such as a fixed scope model, then introducing DevOps will need wider business support to change the way the team works, otherwise it will feel like progress has slowed and functional targets are no longer being met.
Collaboration doesn't necessarily mean that everyone agrees with working together. On occasion, the move towards DevOps has been accused of being elitist, with those on the management side of the divide setting the rules and running the show for those on the development side. For DevOps to be effective, it is essential that there is mutual respect across departments. This can be a struggle for those not used to such a free flow of information.
Change to ways of working are always going to cause a stir no matter what industry you work in. However, with the continued speed at which advancements in technology are taking place and the increasing demands from businesses who want to keep up, a new collaborative and communicative effort is surely the best way to move forward. Therefore, it is likely that DevOps is here for the long term, built on mutual respect, trust and communication.
Dan Hartveld is CTO at Red Ant