DevOps is defined in many organizations through their use of tools, methodologies and culture, typically resulting in a redesign of the teams that build and deliver applications and infrastructure. Fundamentally, DevOps represents a shift in attitude towards the value that custom software development can provide. DevOps empowers an organization by automating software development lifecycle events, from the creation of code through promoting it to production, without manual steps, delays or introducing human error. A key performance indicator for the value of DevOps to an organization is the reduction in mean time to value (MTTV) of the developers’ efforts.
In a DevOps model, resources that were siloed by function in traditional software development shops, are realigned under an application or service with all necessary skill sets in a single team. Utilizing Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment tooling with full coverage tests in a single build pipeline for all necessary targeted environments enables the cradle to grave development lifecycle, lowering the overall MTTV. Streamlining teams into DevOps models reduces the typical handoff and environment change management that traditional software organizations encounter. With a DevOps model, organizations benefit from operational efficiencies, improved communication, application scale without major redesign, and reduced security exposure.