| 30 Nov 2020
As many organizations adopt and look forward to improving their DevOps processes, it becomes increasingly important to get the most out of a DevOps framework. Considering the impact of COVID-19, the size of development/support teams is reducing and certain industries are looking to automate things even further.
Here are some key pitfalls to avoid while working to achieve your DevOps objectives:
Skills: The foundation of any process or technology is the continuous improvement of skills within the IT organization. One of the key objectives of the DevOps Framework should be to empower the Development teams to manage their build and deployment operations. The teams should be trained on best practices and key tasks within the pipelines to be enforced. The CI/CD pipelines should be flexible enough for the teams to work on managing the parameters and should accommodate minor changes to processes, as deemed suitable.
Choosing the Tools: DevOps is a very vast area that has many tools for each activity. It is more common for multiple development teams associated with various business units to have their own tools and create multiple silos. One of the key aspects of identifying tools is to map them to your own goals. It is the responsibility of the DevOps COE team to identify the right tools which cover a major chunk of the objectives.
Some of the key points to focus on are mentioned below:
Centralized DevOps Teams: While it is great to have a DevOps COE, it often leads to the creation of a centralized DevOps support. This approach has some pros and cons:
Pros
Cons
As an alternative – based on the size of the project team and organization – it helps to choose between a centralized and a distributed DevOps team structure. In the case of distributed DevOps teams, the COE would develop the framework and perform the necessary engineering while individual project teams derive the process and use it in their projects.
Security: I was recently interviewing candidates for a DevOps role and asked them- “What are the security checks you would add as part of your DevSecOps pipeline?” The answer I got from more than 3 to 4 candidates was “All DevOps is about is to build and deploy; and if there is an additional security aspect to it, then add Sonar Scan.”
Well, DevSecOps is way beyond just Sonar Scans.
It is the COE’s responsibility to continuously evaluate the following areas and bring in tools/processes within the CI/CD Pipeline:
While each of the above-mentioned areas is a potential pitfall, they also offer a great opportunity to bring in efficiency and deliver a secure product for the business. In this article, I have made several mentions of the DevOps COE and its role. A strong COE with experienced professionals continuously evaluating process improvement helps minimize the overall DevOps costs.
The following are the responsibilities of the DevOps Center of Excellence:
Conclusion
With the advent of Covid-19 pandemic, the effective utilization of DevOps services is more important than ever. Every organization must ensure that the following parameters are met while implementing DevOps processes to achieve their DevOps objectives.
Building a strong COE team with experienced professionals, helps evaluate process improvement from time to time and minimize overall DevOps costs. These practices can help you achieve your DevOps objectives effectively.
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