Companies and businesses are always looking for new ways to optimize their processes and operation. One method that is growing in popularity is DevOps. DevOps is essentially a group of practices that combines software development with IT operations. The overall goal is to shorten the development life cycle and provide continuous delivery, without negatively affecting quality.

While implementing DevOps at your company can bring about brilliant results and have many benefits, it isn’t always easy to do. There are several things you must do and practices that you must follow in order for the implementation to go smoothly. With that in mind, let’s go over a couple of effective DevOps practices that you must follow.

Don’t Lose Sight of the Importance of Logging and Monitoring

Speeding up the software development process is a huge benefit of DevOps, but it is important not to lose sight of other things of importance. Most notably, logging and monitoring. Logging and monitoring will allow you to always keep a close eye on your code and infrastructure.

In particular, consider using a remote logging service. A remote logging service actually entails a service that will ensure you can always get a clear look at your code and encounter any issues before they become major problems. Without monitoring your logs, errors can easily slip through the cracks and cause you major headaches later on.

Don’t Put Testing on the Back Burner

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Just like it’s important to still take logging and monitoring seriously, the same goes for testing. Sure, testing is known to slow down the entire process and can muddle the waters, but it is incredibly important. Releasing or deploying software or update without testing can lead to missed errors, performance issues or other problems. If these reach the end-user, it can negatively affect your company.

One of the best ways to test is by using automation. It is a nice compromise as it is still incredibly effective, and more efficient (both in terms of time and money). There are several tools and technologies that can assist you when it comes to automatic testing, so be sure to do your research.

Collaboration is Key

While DevOps focuses a lot on tools and technologies, it is actually the employees of your company and how they work together that can have the biggest impact on the success of your DevOps implementation. Development and operations teams need to buy in and be willing to put the work in.

Unfortunately, many people aren’t all that receptive to change. They likely have been doing things at work the same way for years, and introducing a major change could stress them out. Be sure to let them know all of the benefits that DevOps will bring, and reiterate how important it is for everyone to work together.

Take Your Time

While it is normal to immediately want all of the benefits of DevOps, it is important to take your time with it. It will be impossible to completely implement DevOps in a single day. In fact, trying to rush things could have bad results and overwhelm your staff. Be sure that your team is fully ready to embrace it and is familiar with what it entails before diving in.

When you are indeed ready to implement DevOps, it’s a good idea to implement in small batches. Try it out on a single team or project, and if that goes well, then begin to expand it. While it can be quite hard to be this patient and diligent, doing so can often lead to better results.

Use Feedback and Learn From Shortcomings

While you might think the hard work is done once DevOps has been successfully implemented, that isn’t the case. You need to measure the success and see the different ways things can be done better. Be sure to take feedback from clients and even your own staff, as that can be invaluable information. Use their feedback as constructive criticism and look to improve your processes in any way that you can.

If things need changing or altering, be sure to actually take that information to heart and make changes. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, they offer you no value. It may take several attempts to get things to the right place, but when you do, the results will speak for themselves.

In conclusion, if your company is able to follow these five effective DevOps practices, it will go a long way in helping you succeed.

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Thank you for reading.

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