This blog post is an excerpt from our new ebook, DevOps in Government, download the full report here.
What is DevOps?
As government transitions away from linear application development processes and into the new era of collaborative processes, application development is becoming quicker, cheaper and more efficient. Instead of operating in their traditional silos, developers and operations staff have begun to work together on projects from start to finish.
DevOps is an evolving philosophy and framework that encourages faster, better application development and faster release of new or revised software features or products to customers. It evolved from original agile practices in project management that were then applied to technical project management and IT projects. The practice of DevOps encourages smoother, continuous communication, collaboration, integration, visibility and transparency between application development teams (Dev) and their IT operations team (Ops) counterparts.
Benefits of DevOps
The very core of DevOps is collaboration. Bringing more minds to the table engenders more diverse ideas and helps focus teams on a common mission. Plus, it increases transparency across an organization because different departments and teams are working more closely together. But in addition to the basic benefits of collaboration, there are a ton of other reasons to use the DevOps process. It can help your agency achieve:
Quicker development
WithDevOps, the end goal is to develop and shape code more quickly and efficiently, and with more iterations. Because developers and operations teams don’t have to waste time throwing code back and forth over a metaphorical wall, they can release iterations of their product sooner, as well as make changes or improvements to those applications.
Greater quality assurance
Faster services does not mean sacrificing quality with DevOps. Actually, the process minimizes errors through two distinct attributes. First, DevOps allows both teams to see the full scope of a project. That means they have a better understanding of how any single change will affect the rest of the application without derailing an entire project. Second, automation replaces many human processes. DevOps reduces human error by automating many core development and deployment functions.
With DevOps,
“we see higher-quality solutions, and at the same time we see flexibility,”
– Texas.gov Director of Technology Peter Eichorn.
Better end products
When developers and operations workers incorporate DevOps practices, they gain a better understanding of the product they’re working on. Developers get to know the real-world conditions in which their code will operate. Operations teams learn what makes their services tick and why they were built that way. Together, both teams can make better decisions about how to build and deploy services, and that results in a better product overall. And because there are minimal barriers between the development and operations environments, employees can make changes with minimal stress to ensure that applications keep pace with evolving needs and scenarios.
Happier end users
Ultimately, DevOps helps government agencies better serve citizens in the digital age. As users increasingly expect government resources to be provided with the same mobility, agility and utility as private sector services, agencies seek ways to quickly meet those demands. When they turn to DevOps, they’re able to deliver those services and meet citizen expectations.
To learn more about the ‘why’ of DevOps for government today and how effective DevOps can be in government, download our full report here.
Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash
