Cut Red Tape With Strong DevOps

A common frustration among government agencies is the long and complex process in which new data and software is developed. Development and operations, or DevOps, is a phrase used to describe the agile relationship between Development and IT Operations efforts. The goal of DevOps is to change and improve the relationship by advocating better communication between the two units.

Red tape in government software development processes is all too common before effective DevOps practices are put in place. Before these processes, the communication between IT and development departments can be incredibly slow and frustrating – if it takes place at all. When you consider that development teams write code, followed by review from Privacy and Compliance, then to Operations to establish an environment, then to Security for review, this process can take forever! And it can be especially frustrating that at any point, all progress can be halted and sent back to the drawing board.

GovLoop’s recent online training helped navigate the process in which any government agency can empower DevOps to move government at the speed of business. Our featured panelists included:

• Diego Lapiduz, Software Engineer, 18F, GSA
• Jeff Wootton, Senior Sales Engineer, Delphix

Establishing effective DevOps practices helps break down the silos between these stages. It is a major culture change that will allow collaboration between IT development and operations teams from the beginning, allowing agencies to develop and ship code efficiently.

According to Wootton, empowering techniques and tools are the answer to jumpstarting DevOps at your agency. Taking in mind quality of code, speed of development, and managing cost, he discussed how best agencies can better manage data creation. Lapiduz says the best place to get started is beginning with small ops tools for developers and creating a reproducible development environment.

Government agencies have been stuck in the past when it comes to revolutionizing the way that they technologically advance. By continually subscribing to the legacy method of development, it ensures that agencies will continue to be subjected to red tape and slow processes that hold up progress in IT development. We can come to the conclusion that this legacy process is complex, costly, and slow. With shrinking federal budgets and growing strains on valuable resources, prioritizing DevOps can make an enormous impact.

DevOps enterprise software provides a framework and interfaces to optimize self-service data for apps teams. This results in an accelerated level of collaboration and developer flexibility. Essentially, creating a platform to allow these departments to make real time updates to information rather than allowing data creation to sit in a continual state of review and limbo.

Empowering DevOps can take your agency away from the red tape processes that hold up innovation. It will allow your data to hit quality level targets and avoid production bugs. It will allow projects to be met at accelerated delivery deadlines and it will do so at lower expenses due to limited steps in production.

Want to learn more? You can view the entire online training on-demand!