by Companies that apply DevOps are faced with continuous delivery and integration, with the ease of having code updates and additions automatically sent to the central repository. Among other factors, this leads to a shorter development cycle, which, in turn, favors product quality and cost savings.
The methodology also allows teams to work in a stable operating ecosystem, better integrating activities and cooperating with each other. All these benefits can be associated with one or more DevOps tools, but it is necessary to understand when, in fact, the model can be applied.
Discover in this article the risks and precautions to avoid a bad implementation.
Issues that may arise in the implementation
When a company moves to adopting DevOps in its development ecosystem, there are upfront costs that seem to be worth it. A DevOps engineer is hired to do all the necessary implementation, selecting the appropriate tools for the projects, but the result does not always come out as expected.
After months, the same standard of quality and delivery can be observed in the team’s work, reflecting little or no difference from before the application of DevOps. And the efforts to make the strategy work become colossal, with increasing investments in implementation.
This scenario reveals some inconsistency. After all, with so many advantages of DevOps, why not see an improvement in the development process? There can be many reasons, such as the complexity of the project or the selection of tools.
One of the reasons why implementation can fail is managers’ false notion of what the methodology actually is. Seeing it only as the application of tools, such as artificial intelligence , for process automation is one of the main mistakes to be made.
The success of DevOps is not just about the adoption of technologies. To actually implement it, it is necessary to know its real benefits and know how to recognize if they are aligned with the needs of your company.
If your idea is to carry out this action only from articles and videos on the internet and / or implementing tools, most likely the strategy will fail and you will not see good results.
Some risks you run are seeing productivity decrease and costs increase , making the process dependent on ineffective tools that can even generate problems with updates, in addition to reaching systems with low quality user experience .
When is DevOps implementation not indicated?
The risks are tied to the notion that DevOps requires a change in processes. As part of a new culture, the methodology can be accepted by those who participate in the projects, leading to success, or it can be rejected, misrepresented and even undermined, leading to failure.
In the second case, it becomes easier to point fingers instead of really understanding the real question of why the strategy didn’t work. But how to identify the causes before wasting time with the actual implementation? Check below some contexts in which the methodology is not indicated.
Lack of knowledge and inadequate culture
It is often because of failing to understand the concept of DevOps or focusing on integrating people into the new culture .
Is the team ready to eliminate manual work? Will the efforts really help speed up operations testing and implementation? Or will the team struggle to deal with automation? Knowledge plays a crucial role so that all changes do not hamper productivity.
Thus, it is important to verify if there is room to apply the DevOps culture or if, at least, it is possible to gradually adapt the receptivity.
Focus on product development
When solutions are under constant development, updates and new features are frequently released . The problem to adopt DevOps arises when we talk about small and medium companies.
Teams work with limited resources, having to worry about issues related to other operations. In this way, activities become hampered, and there may be delays in resolving issues such as tool updates and replacements.
Creating a DevOps Department
A mistake for those who choose to work with DevOps is to create a department to manage the strategies and related infrastructure. Many companies decide to do this without reassessing their entire structure, which can cause processes to fail.
Going further, this context deviates from the principles of the methodology, because the idea is not to have a department controlling the teams and forcing them to work together, but to focus on the processes themselves to improve productivity .
Therefore, the creation of a new department tends to go against the grain, since it only adds a new stage to the work, with more people to validate the actions. If your idea when betting on DevOps is to create an environment of innovation , you can bet on a more linear production flow, without hierarchies.
Syncing DevOps with other frameworks
Companies that still think about maintaining old structures should rethink the idea of implementing DevOps, especially if their processes work as they are. The inclusion of a new methodology usually causes a culture shock, demanding efforts for adaptation.
Following this context, instead of choosing to change systems, companies often choose to create a hybrid culture , which is not wrong, depending on the planning. However, maintaining an old structure can get in the way of DevOps implementation.
If your company fits into any of the above cases, our recommendation is clear: forget about DevOps. Instead of generating better results, the chances of just wasting time and money are high.
