DevOps: Helping Maximize the Benefits of Agile Delivery

Transcription

1 A Poit of View DevOps: Helpig Maximize the Beefits of Agile Delivery Executive Summary Eterprises today eed to rapidly evolve to meet customer requiremets, combat competitio, adopt disruptive techologies, ad maage budget cuts, to sustai ad grow i this post crisis era. With busiess agility emergig as a key requisite to stayig ahead of the competitio, eterprises have adopted Agile methodologies to ehace the pace of software developmet ad alig with chagig requiremets. However, these iitiatives sometimes fail to deliver the desired beefits, maily because of the absece of collaboratio amog differet stakeholders. This ecessitates chages to the stadard approach to achieve the objectives of faster time to market ad higher retur o ivestmet. This paper examies how Agile delivery methodology ca be exteded to resolve key issues. Itroductio A dyamic market characterized by rapidly chagig customer eeds is puttig immese pressure o eterprises to lauch solutios i a timely maer to retai market share. To operate successfully i such a eviromet, eterprises eed to be agile eough to take advatage of ew opportuities. Besides usig techology to automate their systems ad processes, eterprises have typically embraced Agile software delivery methodologies to reduce the time to market their solutios. However, the beefits derived from these efforts are ofte limited because of a lack of collaboratio amog the differet fuctios withi a orgaizatio. Eterprises should therefore review ad refie their approach toward trasformatioal Agile iitiatives to completely realize the related beefits ad maximize the retur o ivestmet. Agile Adoptio i Eterprises Today, iformatio techology (IT) plays a critical role i the efficiet fuctioig of a eterprise. This depedece ofte traslates ito eormous demads o the IT teams to accelerate the delivery of IT applicatios. As a result, eterprises costatly strive to haste the pace of software developmet by adoptig emergig techologies ad methodologies such as Agile delivery practices. Agile methodologies advocate icremetal developmet based o cotiuous feedback from the product ower, which helps idetify issues earlier i the delivery lifecycle thus eablig adjustmets to the product desig based o the chagig requiremets. This dramatically reduces developmet cycle times, cuts costs, ehaces quality, ad sigificatly shortes the time to market. Widespread Agile adoptio i eterprises, however, has ot resulted i the delivery of fully operatioal software withi the specified timelies. Siloed fuctioig of the developmet ad operatios teams has led to desigers, developers, testers, support staff, ad the ifrastructure provisioig teams workig with little or o collaboratio. Widespread Agile adoptio i eterprises, however, has ot resulted i the delivery of fully operatioal software withi the specified timelies. Siloed fuctioig of the developmet ad operatios teams has led to desigers, developers, testers, support staff, ad the ifrastructure provisioig teams workig with little or o collaboratio. More ofte tha ot, the developmet teams chur out code at regular itervals ad these 'potetially shippable products' accumulate before the operatios team is able to release them for productio. Whe the operatios team evetually releases the software applicatio, it ofte fails to fuctio as expected, i the productio eviromet. This is usually due to the failure i meetig the o-fuctioal requiremets whe the applicatio is i productio. Eterprises eed to desig ad implemet iteral processes ad operatig procedures i a maer appropriate to achieve cotiuous deploymet of workig software.

2 Key Challeges Faced by Eterprises Based o our experiece with eterprises usig Agile methodologies, we have idetified some key issues faced by orgaizatios that fuctio i silos. These issues cause delays i solutio delivery, software failures i productio, ad ed user dissatisfactio. Time lag betwee developmet ad deploymet Developmet teams workig i the Agile Scrum model deliver fuctioality icremetally, that is, at the ed of each sprit. However, this fuctioality is ot deployed ito productio immediately because of multiple costraits icludig the lack of readiess of the operatios team. The developmet team limits its role to deliverig the fuctioality after obtaiig sig-off from the product ower, ad geerally moves to the ext sprit without focusig o how the completed deliverable subsequetly progresses towards deploymet. The delay i deployig the fuctioality to productio ca be attributed to the followig reasos: Iability of the ifrastructure team to provide the target deploymet eviromet (release/test ad productio eviromets) accordig to the specificatios of the operatios team Poor cofiguratio maagemet Absece of operatig mauals ad the cosequet lack of iformatio to ed users about usage, maiteace, ad troubleshootig Lack of traiig of productio support persoel resultig i poor servicig of L1 ad L2 support Miimal collaboratio amog teams The lack of collaboratio amog differet teams maifests i the followig ways: Lack of uderstadig of performace requiremets: Developmet teams write the software code without a clear uderstadig of the o-fuctioal requiremets that the ed product should meet. As a result, the teams fail to architect the uderlyig techical compoets of such requiremets durig desig, ad build them to alig with the operatig eviromet. This discoect betwee the developmet ad operatios teams results i poor quality solutios, icapable of satisfyig the specified parameters related to respose time, uptime, the time required to restore fuctioality durig a disaster, ad so o. Disparate eviromets: The developmet teams, fuctioig i silos, write the code ad test it i the developmet or quality assurace eviromet that typically uses differet tools ad methodologies ad does ot mirror the release testig or productio eviromet i etirety. Subsequetly, whe the operatios team tests the product i the release or productio eviromet, the applicatio ofte fails, ecessitatig several chages to the software. These uaticipated chages ca iterfere with the smooth fuctioig of the productio systems, further delayig deploymet ad solutio delivery. Multisite deploymet issues: Global eterprises require applicatios that ca be deployed at multiple locatios ad with multiple laguage iterfaces. This requires the developmet team to cosider the iheret geography specific costraits ad cultural differeces while cofigurig the applicatio. Such limitatios could iclude factors such as low telecom maturity, slow etwork speeds, ad liguistic ad cultural diversities. Lack of aligmet betwee busiess ad IT: Developers are quick to embrace the latest techologies ad tools. But they ofte fail to adequately focus o the requiremets of busiess cotiuity, scalability, reliability, ad repeatability. I cojuctio with isufficiet kowledge about the impact of a applicatio o busiess, ifrastructure, ad ed user experiece, this divide results i poor quality applicatios that either meet user expectatios or deliver busiess value. Addressig the aforemetioed issues, ad breakig dow the silos i traditioal software developmet eviromets, is vital to icreasig efficiecy. Siloed fuctioig of the developmet ad operatios teams impedes the deploymet of IT solutios despite the adoptio of Agile methodologies. This ivolves a paradigm shift i the approach to software developmet ad the adoptio of a collaborative style of fuctioig that ecourages commuicatio amog teams. A Approach to Resolve Key Issues The discoect betwee the developmet ad operatios teams, ad the associated problems, gave birth to the cocept of DevOps, which focuses o elimiatig the barriers betwee the two fuctios by brigig the two teams together. I the DevOps model, the developmet ad operatios teams work i syc through the software developmet lifecycle. The DevOps culture ivolves collaboratio amog teams right from ideatio to desig ad build, ad test to productio. By eablig the DevOps way of workig, eterprises elimiate silos, remove waste (o-value addig activities such as redudat process steps, uecessary documetatio ad so o), lower developmet cycle times, ad quickly deploy solutios ito productio to sigificatly reduce time to market. 2

3 DevOps ecessitates a fudametal shift i the approach to software developmet ad resolvig IT problems. It requires developers to collaborate with operatios to gai a clearer uderstadig of operatios related activities icludig performace testig. Further, the operatios team provides cotiuous feedback ad draws developers' attetio to how the applicatio impacts ifrastructure, ad fuctios i real world eviromets. The operatios team works i tadem with the developmet team to sort out IT issues, thereby facilitatig We recommed that eterprises the developmet of high quality software. By creatig a culture of two-way commuicatio adopt a DevOps way of workig i betwee the developmet ad operatios teams, DevOps bridges the gap betwee these their Agile eviromets to two key fuctios. achieve the cotiuous delivery of We recommed that eterprises adopt a DevOps way of workig i their Agile eviromets to achieve the cotiuous delivery of workig software. workig software. A Practical Approach to Establish a DevOps Eviromet The four fudametal teets to a successful establishmet of a DevOps eviromet are culture, automatio, collaboratio, ad metrics. Culture: Icorporate a DevOps midset withi the eterprise, with a focus o fosterig collaboratio to achieve shared goals. I the absece of a collaborative orgaizatioal culture ecompassig people ad process, automatio iitiatives will fail to yield the desired results. The DevOps way of workig establishes a culture that elimiates hierarchical iteractios, promotes ope commuicatio, ad ecourages feedback. I additio, such a eviromet motivates people to ask questios ad fid aswers, ecourages kowledge sharig, ad removes the fear of failure. Automatio: Automate routie, predictable tasks such as build ad itegratio, regressio testig, cofiguratio maagemet, ifrastructure provisioig ad cofiguratio, ad applicatio deploymet to rapidly deliver high quality software. Deploy automatio tools that help brig the developmet ad operatios teams together, thus esurig cotiuous deploymet. Metrics: Establish a mechaism to defie, aalyze, ad report metrics to idetify leadig ad laggig idicators that ca trigger improvemet iitiatives. Typical metrics iclude, delivery cycle time, frequecy of deploymet, applicatio performace, applicatio stability, mea time to recover, service level agreemets, defect desity, operatios cost, ed user experiece ad customer satisfactio idex. Collaboratio: Collaborate throughout the software developmet lifecycle, share kowledge, best practices, provide feedback o performace, troubleshootig, ad so o. Implemetig DevOps practices i a Agile Eviromet Successfully itroducig the DevOps way of workig ito a Agile developmet eviromet depeds o the followig key factors: Ivolve the operatios team through the developmet lifecycle right from ideatio through build, test, ad cotiuous deploymet. The operatios team should provide iputs o requiremets related to the deploymet eviromet, security or firewall, data base backup, ad restoratio eeds to esure these requiremets are built ito the product desig. Automate build, itegratio, release, ad deploymet activities. Facilitate collaboratio betwee the product ower ad the operatios team to esure all stakeholders have a clear uderstadig of the o-fuctioal requiremets. Product owers should collaborate with the operatios ad developmet teams to gather iputs related to deploymet ad support. Create exclusive product backlog stories that specify performace requiremets, ad capture the o-fuctioal requiremets icludig operatig istructios ad mauals, guidelies for rollback ad roll forward, ad so o. Coordiate with the operatios team for ifrastructure provisioig ad pla for the ecessary ivestmet. Esure the Scrum team has appropriate represetatio from the operatios team for everyoe to get familiarized with the others ature of work ad associated challeges. Large orgaizatios ca cosider job rotatio to achieve this. Esure participatio of the operatios team i sprit plaig, sprit reviews, ad sprit retrospectives for them to provide iputs o operatioal aspects. 3

4 Expad the scope of Defiitio of Doe (DoD) to iclude validatio of code i earproductio eviromet, completio of support istructios, ad dry ru of these istructios. Alig the eterprise release schedule with sprit plas based o the sprit completio patter. Track key metrics icludig percetage of timely releases, icrease i umber of releases, proportio of defects that ca be attributed to operatios related issues, ad so o. By istillig the DevOps way of workig ito Agile eviromets, eterprises ca icrease reveue ad profitability, ehace applicatio quality, reduce cost of operatios, shorte developmet cycles, reduce the time to market, ad improve IT service maagemet. By istillig the DevOps way of workig ito Agile eviromets, eterprises ca icrease reveue ad profitability, ehace applicatio quality, reduce cost of operatios, shorte developmet cycles, reduce the time to market, ad improve IT service maagemet. Coclusio Eterprises have failed to fully realize the beefits of Agile delivery because of the gap betwee the developmet ad operatios fuctios. Implemetig the DevOps approach to software developmet ca help eterprises achieve cotiuous delivery of workig software thereby ehacig ed user satisfactio ad maximizig the beefits of Agile delivery. About the Author Ravishakar N Ravishakar N works with the Global Cosultig Practice (GCP) uit at Tata Cosultacy Services (TCS) as the competecy lead for Agile ad DevOps. With over 20 years of experiece i the IT idustry, icludig 13 years i IT process cosultig, Ravi provides advisory services to global orgaizatios i desigig ad implemetig quality ad process improvemet iitiatives ivolvig Agile ad traditioal methodologies. He also develops cosultig offerigs aroud DevOps ad has created a offerig to eable a IT orgaizatio assume a agile way of workig withi a short period of 90 days. I additio, Ravi has published several papers i research jourals ad idustry forums. 4

5 About TCS' Bakig ad Fiacial Services Busiess Uit With over four decades of experiece workig with the world's leadig baks ad fiacial istitutios, TCS offers a comprehesive portfolio of domai-focused processes, frameworks, ad solutios that empower orgaizatios to respod to market chages quickly, maage customer relatioships profitably, ad stay ahead of competitio. Our offerigs combie customizable solutio accelerators with expertise gaied from egagig with global baks, regulatory ad developmet istitutios, ad diversified ad specialty fiacial istitutios. TCS helps leadig orgaizatios achieve key operatioal ad strategic objectives across retail ad corporate bakig, capital markets, market ifrastructure, cards, risk maagemet, ad treasury TCS has bee raked #2 i the 2014 FiTech Rakigs Top 100 of global techology providers to the fiacial services idustry, by both - FiTech Forward (a collaboratio of America Baker ad BAI) ad IDC Fiacial Isights. TCS has also bee recogized as a 'Leader' ad a 'Star Performer' i Everest Group's 2014 PEAK Matrix reports for Bakig ad Capital Markets Applicatio Outsourcig (AO). About TCS' Global Cosultig Practice TCS' Global Cosultig Practice (GCP) is a key compoet i how TCS delivers additioal value to cliets. Usig our collective idustry isight, techology expertise, ad cosultig kow-how, we parter with eterprises worldwide to deliver itegrated ed-to-ed IT eabled busiess trasformatio services. By tappig our worldwide pool of resources osite, offshore, ad ear-shore our high caliber cosultats leverage solutio accelerators ad practice capabilities, balaced with our kowledge of local market demads, to eable eterprises to effectively meet their busiess goals. GCP spearheads TCS' cosultig capacity with cosultats located i North America, UK, Europe, Asia Pacific, Idia, Ibero-America, ad Australia. Cotact For more iformatio about TCS' Global Cosultig Practice visit: global.cosultig@tcs.com About Tata Cosultacy Services Ltd (TCS) Tata Cosultacy Services is a IT services, cosultig ad busiess solutios orgaizatio that delivers real results to global busiess, esurig a level of certaity o other firm ca match. TCS offers a cosultig-led, itegrated portfolio of IT ad IT-eabled ifrastructure, egieerig ad assurace services. This is delivered through its uique Global Network Delivery ModelTM, recogized as the bechmark of excellece i software developmet. A part of the Tata Group, Idia s largest idustrial coglomerate, TCS has a global footprit ad is listed o the Natioal Stock Exchage ad Bombay Stock Exchage i Idia. IT Services Busiess Solutios Cosultig All cotet / iformatio preset here is the exclusive property of Tata Cosultacy Services Limited (TCS). The cotet / iformatio cotaied here is correct at the time of publishig. No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, trasmitted, posted or distributed i ay form without prior writte permissio from TCS. Uauthorized use of the cotet / iformatio appearig here may violate copyright, trademark ad other applicable laws, ad could result i crimial or civil pealties. Copyright 2015 Tata Cosultacy Services Limited TCS Desig Services I M I 01 I 15 For more iformatio, visit us at