"Currently, DevOps is more like a philosophical movement, not yet a precise collection of practices, descriptive or prescriptive."

~Gene Kim, co-founder of Tripwire Inc. 

Like abstract art or that indie movie your quirky friend made you watch, the DevOps methodology is one that is largely open to interpretation. Nevertheless, there is still a range of principles and best practices that DevOps engineers and project managers need to be aware of.

In this ultimate guide to the DevOps development process, we'll take a peek under the hood at all the important fundamentals that power the DevOps process. If your agency and development teams are looking to implement DevOps project management into your software development lifecycle, here is everything you need to know!

The DevOps process might be loosely defined and open to personalization, but that doesn't mean it's a lawless free-for-all. Here are some of the DevOps practices that are central to project management in this field:

Software products are a bit like Jenga towers: Change or remove one element and the whole structure might come toppling down. This is why continually integrating and testing new features and code are key elements of the DevOps process.

CI is a software development practice that entails continually integrating code changes into a shared repository or codebase. Automation tools are then used for continuous testing.

This helps teams resolve integration issues as new code is added, rather than having a major mess to fix at the end of the development process.

CD expands on CI by requiring that code changes be prepared for a release to production after they are built and tested. Following the build stage, code changes are deployed to a testing/production environment, where testing tools are used to ensure that the code is ready to be delivered to end users.

This process makes sure that software is kept ready for delivery all the way through production.

IaC aims to speed up how fast DevOps teams can deploy new infrastructure, by treating it similarly to application code. IaC involves provisioning and managing infrastructure using code, along with techniques such as version control and continuous integration.

By defining infrastructure via code, engineers can quickly deploy new components in a way that is streamlined, standardized, and repeatable.

One of the biggest DevOps objectives is to make software development faster and more efficient. 

What’s one way to do this? Automated testing and development.

CI and CD both heavily rely on DevOps tools to automatically build and test new code. By automating these IT operations, DevOp project management helps speed up the process of creating new code while also boosting quality assurance.

Continuous monitoring and code review is another key aspect of the DevOps process. By implementing monitoring and feedback loops, development teams can keep a watchful eye on a product's performance throughout its development phases.

Along with continually monitoring product performance, gathering and implementing feedback from clients and other stakeholders is another important part of DevOps development. 

Your clients are the ones that your product ultimately needs to impress, so collecting and incorporating their feedback throughout this process is a great way to ensure they are satisfied with the end result.

When properly executed, DevOps can offer a lot of distinct advantages. Here are some of the top benefits of DevOps project management:

In DevOps, speed is the name of the game. By leveraging automation and repeatable processes, DevOps helps software development teams shorten the timelines for deliverables without requiring them to burn the midnight oil.

At the same time, these standardized and automated operations are designed to ensure a high-quality finished product. It isn't often that you get to have your cake and eat it too, but with DevOps project management, efficiency, and quality can go hand in hand.

Teamwork and collaboration are two pillars of a DevOps culture. This is because DevOps project management requires the ongoing collaboration of an agency's development and operations teams.

In traditional project management, these teams often end up working in silos. In DevOps project management, though, it's a much different story.

Effective communication and collaboration are key to improving employee engagement and establishing a culture where everyone works together toward common goals.

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DevOps is designed to streamline an agency's development, testing, and deployment processes. In turn, this leads to an increased frequency of releases — without having to sacrifice quality in exchange.

Given that agencies will typically spend four to nine months developing a single software project, speeding up the frequency of releases with DevOps is something that can allow them to serve more clients while thrilling them with speedy software delivery.

The continuous integration, testing, and monitoring that DevOps entails can drastically improve the quality and reliability of a software product. With DevOps, each iteration of a product is thoroughly tested and prepared for deployment.

This allows teams to optimize the product throughout its development process and address issues as they come up — rather than waiting until the end and hoping for the best.

Along with helping teams discover and fix issues that could impact the product's performance, the process of continuous integration and testing DevOps requirements can help teams fix any security vulnerabilities within the product. This enhanced security is something that your clients are sure to appreciate.

DevOps project management can provide a lot of benefits, but only when it is properly executed. Here are a few actionable tips for implementing a DevOps process that will yield exceptional results:

If you're switching from traditional project management to DevOps project management, you probably aren't going through all that effort just for the fun of it. More likely, there are gaps and inefficiencies in your current development process that you are looking to resolve.

Like we mentioned earlier, DevOps is a process open to customization. By assessing your current situation and identifying gaps, you can create a DevOps process for your agency specifically designed to help fix those concerns.

DevOps project management is a fluid, dynamic system that requires a lot of ongoing collaboration between teams and team members themselves. While there is a lot of time-saving automation involved, it's not something you can just wind up and let run.

With that in mind, one of the best things you can do to ensure the success of your DevOps process is to stress the importance of collaboration and communication. 

Your teams won't be working in silos following predefined plans anymore, so it’s essential that they are prepared to embrace the ongoing teamwork that DevOps requires.

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One great way to prepare your agency for a transition to DevOps project management is to embrace the tenants of DevOps culture. Once again, this starts with developing an agency that prioritizes and encourages communication and collaboration.

Agile methodology is another core aspect of a DevOps culture. It’s a flexible project management approach that emphasizes continuous feedback and collaboration, and breaks projects into short work cycles called “sprints.” The goal of each sprint is to review progress and iterate continually to result in the highest-quality final deliverable possible. The more your agency can incorporate agile development principles into its development process, the closer you'll be to establishing a DevOps culture.

A carpenter is only as good as his or her tools, and the same goes for a DevOps project manager. Tools for automatically building and testing new features are going to be vital throughout the DevOps lifecycle.

By using high-quality tools to automate your DevOps workflows, you can take full advantage of the improved efficiency they can offer. Choosing tools like Teamwork (which offers deep integrations with other DevOps tools) is doubly beneficial, allowing you to create a seamlessly integrated DevOps tech stack that is simple for your team members to use.

Learn why Teamwork is the trusted task management tool for agencies and client service teams worldwide

The benefits of implementing a DevOps development process are likely to be well worth the effort. But that doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be a bed of roses getting there.

Along the way, your agency is sure to encounter numerous challenges needing to be solved. You may also face some internal resistance, whether it's from team members resistant to change or executives who don't understand the need for a new development process.

The key is not letting these challenges upend your commitment to implementing a DevOps process. If you have decided that DevOps is the right choice for your agency, overcoming resistance along the way is just part of the process. Nothing worth having comes easy!

The ability to monitor product performance in real time is one of the pillars of DevOps project management. To do this, you will need to establish clear performance metrics along with monitoring and feedback loops. When coupled with CI and CD processes, this will allow you to continually analyze and improve your product throughout its development.

Metrics can also be used to analyze the results of your DevOps process in order to improve it as well. These can include:

  • Lead time

  • Cycle time

  • Error rates

  • Deployment frequency

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DevOps is a process that takes the idea of continuous improvement very seriously. This mostly applies to the product you are developing. However, it can also apply to the project managers and teams creating the product.

After implementing a DevOps development process, you and your team should strive for continuous learning and improvement by:

  • Collecting and incorporating feedback from team members and clients

  • Implementing training programs

  • Using metrics to analyze results

When it comes to DevOps project management, Teamwork makes the dream work! Teamwork is a project management and collaboration platform that comes chock-full of tools and features designed to assist DevOps project managers and their teams.

With Teamwork, you can break DevOps projects down into individual tasks and cycles, assign tasks to team members and track their progress, communicate effortlessly with staff and clients alike, and so much more!

To see for yourself why Teamwork is the perfect tool for powering your DevOps process, sign up for Teamwork today!