By Wendy Dessler
DevOps is a rapidly evolving and expanding movement spreading through the technical community. Though it didn’t become popular until nearly a decade ago, it’s now a popular term to define an effective, agile infrastructure. In the world of technology, things move fast. You can’t get comfortable if you want your business to succeed. That’s why DevOps is so powerful; it pushes technology companies to keep moving forward through collaboration.
According to the Agile Admin, DevOps is formally defined as “the practice of operations and development engineers participating together in the entire service lifecycle.” It’s easy to see why this is such an effective way to run your day to day team, whether you’re developing software or a web application. Though some have argued DevOps is nothing more than a fad, it’s clearly here to stay since it’s now being used by so many SaaS platforms.
However, that doesn’t mean everything about DevOps is perfect. Like any trend, it’s always changing. Today, there’s a need to adopt new changes quickly if you want to succeed. DevOps has already faced a few challenges since it became popular, and many of these are still an issue today. Here are the leading challenges faced by DevOps today.
1. Agreeing on a Clear Definition.
One of the biggest challenges is in the definition of DevOps itself. While we can all agree DevOps is a way of doing things by combining development and operations, it doesn’t have a clear set of guidelines. For new companies adopting DevOps for themselves, this can be confusing, especially in the beginning.
The solution is for companies to develop their own definitions. DevOps is slowly becoming more formalized, and with it comes a new set of standards for businesses to follow. However, businesses still need to define exactly what DevOps means for their teams.
2. The Right Time to Use DevOps
While DevOps is great for many projects and teams, it’s not perfect for every project or team. It’s both efficient and time-saving, but only when done properly and in the right environment. Under DevOps, it’s important to prioritize assignments. This is even more important today when tech companies have to grow rapidly to stay competitive.
Teams will need to work diligently to determine the best time to use DevOps. Like all solutions, it’s not a one-size-fits-all magic formula. DevOps needs to be designed with unique goals and needs in mind. It isn’t automation, and it isn’t a single team. It’s a system and a principle that can be applied to many (but not all!) projects.
3. Quality Control
With the growing pressure to release more and more products and software quickly, many companies are overlooking small errors and bugs. These might seem minor, but they’re actually harmful to your entire company reputation. Consumers today have little patience for things that don’t work, and they’re not likely to give second chances once their first impression is compromised.
DevOps promotes fast production, and this allows mistakes to slip through the cracks. Making sure your software is rigorously tested needs to become a more integral part of the DevOps mindset. Beyond this, DevOps shouldn’t stop when the project is complete. That’s why you need to monitor your site in order to prevent future problems.
4. Managing Completed Projects
Once projects are completed and you’ve moved on to bigger and better things, it’s easy to abandon these old projects altogether. However, when this technology is still being used by past customers, that’s not possible. Under DevOps, there’s a lot of focus on the latest-and-greatest technology. This is great for innovation, but it doesn’t help your legacy customers. There will need to be a comprehensive system overhaul that focuses on innovation across the board without leaving technology (and customers) behind.
5. Culture Shift
Finally, the arguably biggest challenge of DevOps is making the initial transition. DevOps is a big culture shift. Gartner estimates DevOps initiatives fail 90% of the time when there are no cultural initiatives. Introducing DevOps changes the entire dynamic of your company. It brings new teams together and changes the perspectives of everyone.
If you don’t have a system in place to help your teams transition to this new mindset, you’ll likely run into more roadblocks than if you’d avoided DevOps altogether. Companies need to focus on selling the DevOps ethos and may need clear incentives to encourage teams to get on board with the new idea.
Making the Switch
Despite these challenges above, DevOps is a worthy change for any organization. It encourages innovation, collaboration, and positive change. This is something that benefits both your employees and your customers—when done right. If you don’t take these challenges seriously, you run the risk of driving your team into the ground.
Like any investment in your company, DevOps will take time. Don’t expect it to work perfectly overnight. There are a lot of moving parts to figure out before you can launch new projects and create a system that works for everyone. As long as you’re willing to face problems head-on, you’re ready for DevOps.
About the Author:
Wendy Dessler is a super-connector who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, and networking. She frequently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing and focuses her efforts on developing customized blogger outreach plans depending on the industry and competition.
