DevOps

Agile DevOps: What is it and Why is important for my company.

What is Agile?

Agile is a methodology for project development processes. This methodology is based on the liberation of project activities incrementally to work on them in lockstep, which means the project is being tested as it evolves on the fly. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, right? Well, we are making a serious mistake, this is very important because our project will be reduced in time which translates to fewer resources invested, without risking the quality of the project.

Table of contents

Framework

It is not enough to say that a project is “Agile” if you are not implementing the methods that it requires. Particular metrics and parameters need to be applied to accomplish a real Agile project, for example:

  • SCRUM
  • XP (Xtreme Programming)
  • KANBAN

Let’s take SCRUM as our example; not only because it is our favorite, but also due to its versatility that makes it the one that best adapts to our needs.

Sprint planning

SCRUM is based on sprints or iterations that are defined with the requirements received by the project owner; these requirements must be analyzed by project stakeholders, so the team can detect and prepare the list of activities of the project.

Note: Remember that in SCRUM everything must be efficient and effective, so the Sprint planning should not exceed 8 hours.

Sprint development

Once the sprints are planned, the initial sprint is arranged with the project owner. This sprint should be displayed in a “SCRUM taskboard” for greater visibility and control of tasks; each stakeholder is responsible for your cards and their flow.

Here are 2 crucial points:

1. Daily meeting: According to the SCRUM method you need a regular meeting that cannot exceed 15 minutes to discuss quickly and concisely everything related to the project. Each team member answers the following questions:

  • What did I do since the last meeting?
  • What will I do from now on?
  • What impediments do I have to fulfill my objectives?

These three simple questions will help the Project Manager to understand, analyze and channel the project’s efforts.

2. The execution of each sprint should not exceed more than one month. If this situation happens, the sprint activities must be examined and divide the activities to have standardized, clear and concise sprints.

In the second point, it is crucial to take into consideration the comments of each team member. Each one needs to externalize his or her limitations and barriers, so the Scrum Master can help to eliminate those obstacles.

Sprint presentation

Demonstration: During this phase, the team presents the sprint development to the project owner; During this stage, the client reviews the project and provides useful feedback to improve the activities. The client’s feedback is essential since the team can make changes according to the needs and new comments. Therefore a higher quality project will be delivered.

Once the sprint has been reviewed and modified when needed, it will be ready to be released incrementally, which means progress in the project.

Retrospective: After the end of each sprint a meeting is held where team members analyze what happened during the finished sprint. They review and document their mistakes to avoid this to happen again in the next sprint.

Note: The retrospective meeting can be held outside the office in a more relaxed and pleasant way.

This is how SCRUM can help you build and develop a quality project taking care of resources and delivery times.

I mean, who likes the conventional, slow and tedious development methodology? If you, like us, though that nobody wants it, then what are you waiting for?

What is DevOps?

Surely you heard this word before, but do you know what it is about?

No, DevOps is not a career or an IT specialty much less a profile. DevOps according to Wikipedia is a development methodology. Yes, software. This methodology is composed of the terms Development (Dev, Development) and Operations (Op, Operations), pretty clear, right?

Let’s dig a little deeper, DevOps is based entirely on the principles of communication, collaboration and integration of team members. DevOps professionals are capable of working in the field of development and operation of IT systems.ALSO READ:Nearshore DevOps

Planning

Plan your activities correctly as well as your processes is a fundamental part of the adoption of a DevOps methodology.

A baker does not want the cake to fall, right?

That’s why choosing a planning model is crucial. Above we talk about some Agile methodologies that can work correctly with your needs.

So be sure to implement a planning method and everything will work out just fine.

Coding

Although the most important thing is to have resources who will develop the coding of the project, another substantial part is the support of tools capable of helping us to manage the development as well as its versions during the development cycle of the project. In this way, we can also reverse changes instantly if something goes wrong.

Tests

We assure you that your developers will want to skip this part, but do not pay attention to them since it is an important part of the development cycle.

Tests implementation is crucial in all areas; natural sciences, social sciences, technology, to name a few. This stage refers to testing the solution in search of any failure or anomaly that must then be corrected.
Of course, when the tests are planned and before releases there is no problem.

But, what happens when you have continuous releases?
In this case, the most thing will be that you implement test automation, one of the many beneficial features of using DevOps. In this way, your tests will be carried out effectively and efficiently.

Releases

CI: Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration by its acronym in English is based on the constant release and integration of code and solutions. These are released so quickly they develop.

CD: Continuous Delivery
Release or release Continuous by its acronym in English is based on the fast and constant process of release of deliverables for the project in question.

If you want to know more about to Why to create a CI/CD pipeline on AWS, click here.

Monitoring

Surely you would ask yourself, what’s next? Well once the releases, integrations and relevant tests are made, the ideal is to implement a monitoring system. So you will have an expanded range of vision on the current flow of your solution, you will be able to visualize the performance, functionality and errors of this, giving you the opportunity to take actions in a better way. Remember that what can not be measured, can not be improved.

Continuous Improvement

A good and recommended practice is that after an implementation as large as it is a methodology of process optimization is that you must analyze the results obtained to attack the points in need of improvement, thus maintaining a continuum of continuous improvement in your services.

Still doubts?

In a few words, Agile DevOps was born from the need to develop more efficiently and effectively, which implies a correct administration, quality, implementation.

How do we achieve that? Through the standardization of implementation, release, and test. Since this process is repeated continuously, we need a release strategy that will continue with the implementation or integration, and the result will be an automated process capable of maintaining the project quality.

Improve the productivity of your company by working with a model “Nearshore DevOps” , as well as saving time and money, as did Boatsetter, one of our clients.

Published by
DevOps Guy

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