DevOps lifecycle is the series of stages that bridges the gap between software development and IT operations, promoting a faster and seamless integration and delivery of software applications.Â
In this article, let us know the major devOps lifecycle and the best practices to implement devOps.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is the faster and continuous delivery of software applications by acting as a bridge between the development team and operation team. It enhances an organisation’s capacity to deliver more in less time and at a faster rate. DevOps removed the boundaries between the two team which was slowing down the development and delivery process of software applications.
Without devOps organisations there used to be several delays in the software development lifecycle. Developers build the code, and integrate it and then the IT ops team would start to package and deploy the code. This process created significant delay where both the team had to set up a back and forth communication.Â
What is DevOps Lifecycle?
DevOps lifecycle is the continuous and iterative set of practices which is used to facilitate the integration between software development teams and IT operations teams. It is used to streamline the development process of software and ensure faster and more reliable release with high quality.Â
The DevOps lifecycle is a closed and continuous cycle which contains the stages involved. The devops lifecycle first development stages include planning, code, build and test. Now, the second stages include deploy, operate, feedback and monitor.Â
Stages of DevOps Lifecycle Explained
Check the development and operations stages of DevOps explained below.
1. Plan
As the name suggests, this stage is used to plan and research the entire project lifecycle. This stage conducts meetings to discuss the project requirements during the development process.Â
2. Code
After the design and architecture of the product is decided then the process reaches the development stage where developers prepare the code for the product. Git is used to manage code changes and enable collaboration with the team within the organisation.Â
3. BuildÂ
As the coding process is completed and approved the product development moves to the next stage where integration issues are identified and the build process is started.Â
The continuous integration (CI) process starts from this stage. In this stage dependencies such as frameworks, libraries, and modules which will be used to run the code properly.Â
4. Test
Many test cases are prepared to ensure the software’s quality and reliability. These tests ensure the functionalities, performance, security of the developing software. The complete test case strategy is documented and test case scenarios are developed.Â
Automation testing ensures the Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Development (CD) of the product. Automate test cases help fasten the development process. However, the QA teams have to create automated test scripts or purchase an automation testing tool to create low code test script creation.Â
5. Deploy
After the development and testing, the tested code is deployed to different environments where people can use the application and give feedback. The production environment marks the product development stage where customers can interact with the build in real time. Majority of bugs and lags are fixed before this stage.
Automatic deployments are extremely popular these days as it can create seamless flow simplifying and improving the deployment process. It can help in achieving Continuous Deployment (CD) and automatically pushed to production environments when software passes the testing stage successfully.Â
6. Operate
After deployment, the software development enters the operational phase where it is available to the users in real time. A dedicated operation team takes over the software development process and ensures its availability and everything runs smoothly to provide a better experience to the users.Â
Also, Learn Best DevOps Certification Course in 2024
7. FeedbackÂ
This stage consists of creating a feedback loop where the operation team collects the feedback which helps them identify the areas for improvement and assess whether any changes are required. The DevOps lifecycle continues and each stage improves the latest version of the software.
7Cs of the DevOps Lifecycle Explained
The seven important Cs of DevOps lifecycle are given below.
- Continuous DevelopmentÂ
- Continuous Integration
- Continuous Testing
- Continuous DeploymentÂ
- Continuous Feedback
- Continuous MonitoringÂ
- Continuous Operations
1. Continuous DevelopmentÂ
This is an initial stage of DevOps lifecycle which involves planning and coding of the product. The planning stages develop the objective of the software product, usability and lays out a plan to develop the software. The coding stage comes after the planning of the software is completed and coding starts.Â
This stage comprises a collaboration between developers, testers, designers, and other stakeholders, Developers make small changes in software, fix bugs, add features, and make improvements in the code.Â
Continuous development focuses on minimizing failures and constantly making adjustments in development as per the requirement. For continuous Development, the dev team leverages Git and other popular web based platforms.
2. Continuous Integration
In this stage, the developers commit changes to the source code more frequently i,e. On a daily basis or weekly basis. It helps find any problems earlier if present. The code is continuously integrated with the existing code. Any change in the code must be integrated continuously to reflect the changes to the end users successfully.
The Continuous Integration pipeline detects any new commits in the source code repository. It conducts the source code quality analysis and executes all unit and integration tests.Â
Jenkins is a popular Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Development (CD) tool in devOps used to automate changes in building, testing and deployment.Â
3. Continuous TestingÂ
Continuous testing involves automated testing to ensure every functionalities of the software is validated and running. This stage is committed to finding bugs using automated testing tools like Jenkins, Docker can be used to simulate the testing environment.Â
Automation Testing saves a lot of time and resources in executing the test cases manually and preparing test cases. With automation testing test cases can be prepared, scheduled, and reports are generated effectively. After the testing, the code is then continuously integrated with the existing code.Â
Also, Learn How to Become a Successful DevOps Engineer in 2024?
4 Continuous DeploymentÂ
The Continuous Deployment stage takes the delivery process of software one step ahead where it aims to automate the deployment process to production environment without any human intervention.Â
Chef, Ansible, SaltStack, etc are some of the tools which are used to execute tasks frequently without any errors. Containerization tools like docker help provide consistency across various stages such as development, testing, and production environment.Â
5. Continuous Feedback
In this stage, the user feedback of different users is continuously collected to filter out any issues in the product. Nowadays automatic feedback collection is done using feedback surveys, error reporting and other advanced systems. Users generally submit their feedback using feedback forms, emails, support tickets, community forums, etc.Â
The application development is improved by collecting continuous feedback between operations and development of the next version of the current software application.Â
Also, Learn, What is Cloud Based Deployment and its importance?
5. Continuous Monitoring
The Continuous Monitoring phase involves watching the visibility and performance of a system. It aims at providing continuous and up to date insights into various metrics under the operation team. This stage relies on collecting real time data insights, data analysis and constantly responding to risks.
The complete documentation report about working of the application is created and issues like low memory, server failure, etc are resolved during this phase. It ensures the availability and security of the operational services during this stage.
7. Continuous OperationsÂ
This is the final stage of the DevOps lifecycle where the focus is on maintaining a seamless and stable IT environment without any interruptions. It ensures various planning such as performance tuning, backup and recovery processes, changes in the software infrastructure, response management, alerting, and continuous operations without any backlogs.Â
The complete management and maintenance of the software is carried out in the production environment ensuring that the system remains stable, available, secure throughout the lifecycle.Â
Best Practices of DevOps Lifecycle
The important practices of DevOps lifecycle include certain approaches mentioned below.
Agile Project Management
Agile development is an interactive approach of software development where software is developed in smaller increments instead of a single massive release. Planning, results, code, are continuously evaluated which allow teams to work on feedback easily. The four major stages of agile project management include to do, in progress, code review, and complete.
Teams break a large project into smaller tasks and continuously start the development phase.Â
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Use the Right toolsÂ
There are many devOps tools which can streamline the development process. Many tools and frameworks can automate the processes in devOps lifecycle which also improves the quality and speed of delivery.Â
Some of the popular devOps tools are Jenkins, Docker, Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, and other tools which can help make DevOps lifecycle faster and more effective.
Shift Left with CI/CD
With Continuous Integration and Continuous Development, developers continuously integrate changes in the code in a shared repository. Automated tests are used to validate changes in the code. By shifting testing and validation left in the software development process issues can be detected earlier and fixed with less cost and time.
Implement Automation
Most of the routine tasks can be automated using advanced tools and frameworks available. Instead of manually checking the code, CI/CD automates the process of testing, deployment to develop the software application faster. Automated test cases for unit testing, end testing, integration tests are carried out to test any faults in the changes made in code. Â
Gather Continuous FeedbackÂ
It is important to collect regular feedback as it keeps the team informed about any pipeline failures in the product and fix them at earliest. It ensures the availability and continuous operations of the product. Collecting continuous feedback helps to understand what is working and what needs improvement.Â
This continuous feedback loop ensures that the improvements in the product align with the users need and business goals.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
IaC is a practice where resources such as network, storage, servers are defined and managed with code. IaC allows for rapid deployments and DevOps team can quickly meet the changing requirements and scaling as per the need.Â
Infrastructure as a Code manages computing infrastructure through machine readable files rather than manual processes. It enables consistent and repeatable configurations.
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DevOps Lifecycle FAQs
Q1. What is DevOps?
Ans: DevOps is a set of practices that aims to streamline the processes of software development and IT operations. The major objective of DevOps is to shorten the software development lifecycle, fasten the development process and make more reliable and quality releases through automation and collaboration.
Q2. What are the seven stages of devOps lifecycle?
Ans: The seven stages of a devOps lifecycle are mentioned below.
Continuous Development
Continuous Integration
Continuous Testing
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Feedback
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous Operations
Q3. What is DevOps lifecycle?
Ans: The DevOps lifecycle is a continuous software development process which uses best practices to plan, build, integrate, code, deploy, monitor and operate software development lifecycle through continuous feedback.
Q4. What is the DevOps workflow?
Ans: DevOps is the set of practices which is used to bridge the gap between software development and IT operations. Its main goal is to fasten software development processes and implement continuous delivery.
