By Chris Gordon, ITSM Managing Consultant, Logicalis US
With the emergence of cloud computing and software-as-a-service, Businesses now demand applications and updates to be released in rapid succession. Enterprises thus require their DevOps teams to closely align Development and Operations activities.
To bridge the gap between Development and Operations, which historically functioned in isolation, thought leaders in both groups need to establish a collaborative culture. To determine just how well your organizational process is aligned for DevOps, here are five key areas to probe:
- What is the release cycle for applications that drive the Business? The answer helps set expectations from the Business and identifies if DevOps needs to accelerate the cycle.
- Does your Development team follow an Agile model? Agile development accelerates code releases through sprints (iterative Development cycles) to produce production code within two or four weeks. This aligns Development cycles to Business expectations as far as when to expect new app features.
- What automaton processes are needed for effective Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery? When Development tries to create Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery models, they are often constrained by processes for which they rely heavily on Operations. Operations can often help speed up integration and delivery.
- How effective are the hand-offs between Development and Operations? For instance, there should be defined windows for handing newly-developed code to the testing team, and the testing team should have sufficient time to provide feedback. Development then needs time to revise the code so testing can verify it’s ready before hand-off to Operations.
- Which intersections between Development and Operations can best improve Change Management? This is the highest-value opportunity for building a collaborative culture. There’s always room for improvement in advancing and managing expectations relating to Change Management and to better align the DevOps team to growing Business
The Next Step—Streamlining Change and Release Management
Ultimately, the one overlooked key driver for effective DevOps is all about getting change management and release management processes working well together. And that’s what we’ll focus for our next blog—“Streamlining Change Management and Release Management to Drive More Effective DevOps.”
For more information on ITSM strategies and best practices, contact Chris Gordon at Chris.Gordon@us.logicalis.com.
This is the third in a series of blogs that gives IT leaders a better understanding into the realm of possibilities enabled by an effective IT Service Management (ITSM) strategy. Each of these blogs offers ITSM best practices that can help you innovate and improve your IT processes and strategies so that they align to the needs of the Business.
To view of all of Chris Gordon’s ITSM blogs published to date, visit https://logicalisinsights.com/categories/chris-gordon/