DevOps has been discussed a lot. Many different definitions, guidelines, and principles describe what it is. There must be more information to correct many of the myths surrounding it.
Anti-patterns can be defined as a response common to a problem but often ineffective and could even prove counterproductive.
Before diving into DevOps, learning about DevOps’ anti-patterns is best. IT engineers used to call them bad ideas in the olden days. Since the advent of political correctness and diplomacy, anti-pattern has become a widely accepted term.
Anti-patterns are wrong because we know the pattern is right. Identifying and addressing these anti-patterns is crucial to the successful adoption of DevOps services. What are DevOps Anti-patterns? How can they impact your project, and how do you avoid or break them?
What is DevOps Anti-patterns?
When designing an application/website architecture or establishing a coding workflow, it is easy to encounter recurring problems. Software engineers do not have to solve every problem from the beginning since some can be reused as code snippets at the micro level.
They are reusable scenarios that can be used to solve various problems. The development team can optimize the code and reduce the amount of work. DevOps projects that lack a collaborative mentality will fail and become anti-patterns.
AntiPatterns, a 1998 book that introduced the term anti-pattern, was the first to use it. It is also known as a pattern of failure. This refers to solutions that seem useful at first but do more harm than good.
Anti-patterns may occur for a variety of reasons. For example, they can be caused by a code that has been reused in the past but is no longer effective.
DevOps = Dev + Ops
When we talk to someone about DevOps, the first thing they say is that DevOps merges the bridge between Development and Operations. This is how the name “DevOps” was coined. This is true, but not to the fullest extent.
Collaboration between DevOps and Ops is only a small part of the overall process. DevOps is much more than just that. DevOps involves a variety of practices and processes that are followed throughout the entire delivery pipeline.
Deployment of Code to Production
DevOps is only DevOps if the code is deployed to production. DevOps must be a stable and comprehensive partnership between dev and ops.
Poor integration or communication, however, can stop deployment. Although a DevOps team can lead the implementation, they do not have control over production environments and cannot deploy code. They get the tooling right, set up a CI, integrate it with open source, and perform a security scan.
The process of implementing DevOps can be months long if the other half, DevOps operations, is not on board or needs to understand the scope of their responsibility. There will be endless meetings and reviews.
Define Specific Days for Implementation
It is difficult for experienced PMs to set a deadline when implementing a DevOps Culture, especially if they only have a starting point or have no precise, measurable/definable conditions.
To break the DevOps anti-pattern, you should opt for DevOps consulting services to define practical KPIs for each stage of your implementation plan. With a step-by-step, practical transformation plan, you can see which project stages are on track and which are a constraint.
The three most important DevOps principles are Flow and Feedback.
- Flow: Business and Dev Process Optimization to Understand the Overall Flow of How Things Are Done.
- Feedback: Listen to and respond to customers’ feedback about speeding up the process.
- Continuous experimentation: Engineers will have to devote time to new experiments. Reward teams who take risks.
DevOps Is Not a Team or Job Title
It is impossible to take your company to the next stage by creating a DevOps Team or renaming existing Dev and Ops Teams into DevOps. Hiring a DevOps Engineer would not help either.
DevOps is, as mentioned in anti-pattern, a culture that embraces all departments within a company. First, you need to break down the silos and get teams working together rather than hiding behind walls and blaming each other for all issues.
In this case, the DevOps pattern is to identify the root causes of the silos you have in your culture. Does it concern the organizational level? Is it organizational level? You may have hesitated to change a legacy system because you fear the changes. Everything in your organization is decided at the top level.
Agile DevOps is Same
DevOps complements agile, but the two are different. DevOps, often supported by cloud development services, allows you to manage the entire engineering process.Agile is useful when you have to manage complex projects. Agile shows you how to develop your software. DevOps is the tool to move your software seamlessly from development to production. Agile helps bridge the gap between the customer’s requirements and the testing/development teams. DevOps bridges the gap between traditionally separated development and operations teams.
DevOps Teams are Important
DevOps is centered on eliminating silos within an organization. By bringing together a DevOps group, you create a silo. You’ll need to integrate this new team with your other units. You will only get irony if you want to create a DevOps group for the long term.
If you want to pioneer DevOps, you can create a DevOps short-term team. DevOps can be subjective, and there is often ambiguity when you first try to adopt it. During the early stages of DevOps, it makes sense to create a team to work on the implementation strategies, guidelines, tools, etc. Once your DevOps objectives are defined, the team must be disbanded to embrace DevOps fully.
Choose the Most Hyped Technologies
The rapid development of new technology is causing the technological landscape to change at an unprecedented pace. This is evident in the conversations: “My friends and me talked, and he suggested Kubernetes for boosting our productivity!” Or “everyone and their mothers are talking about this new tool. How about we implement it on your project?”
Watch out for cloud solutions, software development, or mobile app development trends, but rational decision-making is key to most projects. This is especially true to avoid any DevOps deployment pattern. All PMs should ask themselves: “Do I and my staff need this?” This mindset will help them decide the thousands of tools and practices to use.
Lack in Documentation
Documentation is essential, as a newcomer can rely on it in the event of a staff replacement or turnover. The constant changing of infrastructure configurations would be detrimental.
PMs must set standards to ensure that documentation is accurate and detailed. This includes what was configured and deployed, why it was made, when, etc. Teams can reduce technical debt by following good documentation guidelines.
DevOps only automates
DevOps and automation complement each other. Only get too deep into automation once you know what your team does daily. Using Ansible, Terraform, or any other Infrastructure as Code tools is a good idea if you need to learn how to perform manual tasks properly. You will benefit from IaC but should step back and understand the entire team/company’s processes.
The Key Takeaway
This post should have clarified some of the common misconceptions about DevOps. There are many more than the ones I have listed. Don’t believe anti-patterns because you hear them a lot. Remember that if fifty million people are saying something stupid, it’s still stupid. The important thing here is not to let anti-patterns- outright wrong, partially right, or factual- hold you back from making informed DevOps decisions for your organization.Utilizing expert guidance and AWS consulting services, you can navigate the DevOps landscape with confidence, ensuring that your approach aligns with best practices and leads to successful outcomes.
DevOps is a culture within an organization that relies on four core pillars.
- Collaboration between ALL teams is essential.
- Building interterm relationships and defining the overall goals.
- Choose the best tools for your business.
- Changeability and gradual scaling.
If you combine these four main pillars, you can solve cultural, technical, and operational problems that could directly influence the application development process.
