Why Shift to DevOps?

“We’re not ready for such a big change to our application development.”

“Not another software upheaval!”

“I can’t find the budget or the resource to make the transformation to DevOps.”

“I’m concerned about the ongoing costs of CI/CD.”

Sound familiar? It’s estimated that around half of enterprises are planning a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) initiative in the coming years. What that estimate does not reflect is the seriousness — or lack thereof — with which this shift towards DevOps is being considered. Sure, DevOps is on the radar of many companies. But significantly fewer are making concrete steps towards it.

Yet, the transition to the DevOps approach of continuous improvement really doesn’t need to be scary. In fact, nowadays making the change couldn’t be easier. There are plenty of tools, guides and services available to help enterprises shift their current infrastructure into a CI/CD environment. Indeed, Apexon’s JumpStart program does just that in as little as 7-8 weeks using Jenkins.

If this is starting to sound like a hard sell, well… just look at the main business benefits:

1. Speed Up “Time-to-Value”: You’ve charted out the value stream, you understand the composite investments and their liability to the organization. Extracting value fast is key… and DevOps is a main accelerator to maximize return on investment (ROI) from software development.

2. Early Defect Detection: As soon as the code is checked from a developer’s separate pipeline, a unit test is run over that code. If there is a problem in the code, it gets reported and fixed immediately, before the code gets merged into the main pipeline. The probability of defects occurring at a later stage is therefore reduced, saving considerable time and alleviating the headache of trying to pinpoint defects at the end of the process.

3. Reduce Overhead: In addition to time, the cost of finding and fixing defects at production stage is certainly more than catching them early in a DevOps environment. Less defect accumulation, early defect detection and more automation all combine to reduce the overall costs of development, testing and deployment. In other words, Quality Engineering in action!

4. Data Focused Decision Making: In the CI/CD development process, interaction with stakeholders, including customers, is ongoing. Frequent integration shortens the feedback loop, which provides the opportunity for real competitive advantage. Organizations with tight feedback loops are better equipped to notice the latest trends, respond with well-informed decisions, and move forward quickly.

5. Increase ROI:  DevOps improves developers’ productivity for better ROI. It’s been estimated that a 5% hike in developer productivity could save a team of 200 developers up to $1 million per year. That’s impressive! To determine if the economics will apply in your own situation, carefully analyze how much time and effort your team spends on resolving defects once in the testing phase.

6. Reduce Assumptions: Continuous improvement reduces the implicit assumptions that developers need to make, since their work is integrated continuously into the actual application. Again, this aptly illustrates the benefits of the QE approach of DevOps, versus the more traditional QA set-up (develop, develop, develop, then test).

7. Improve Quality: Automated test practices and continuous releases raise the standard of your digital initiatives. In real terms that means better customer satisfaction, reduced costs and no unscheduled last-minute work that can send your costs soaring.

8. Measurably Healthier Software: One of the less talked about benefits of DevOps is the ability to track ‘complexity’ and diagnose software health issues. Integrating continuous testing enables true quality engineering for more robust applications.

We understand that making the shift to DevOps can seem daunting. As mentioned already, there are tailored programs available exactly for this purpose, as well as a host of other handy hints and tips online. To discuss a particular challenge, you can always get in touch with us directly.