Constant innovation is a vital building block of successful product development. However, all that innovation can also be a cause of headache for operations teams, as it is their job to ensure the product works efficiently and reliably – an aspect that radically new ideas often overlook.
It’s not surprising then that there is often conflict between development and operations teams. As to why DevOps is essential for IoT, the answer is simple: in a widely inerconnected and fast-moving market, innovation is just as important as the reliable functioning and safety of our products. In order for IoT product development to be successful, Development and Operations teams have to work together closely.
Related reading: Check out our 2-piece series on DevOps!
Part 1: Agile Operations: The Evolution of DevOps
Part 2: DevOps Part 2: Methods, Practices and Tools
Challenges of Innovative Companies
In other words, developers are focused on delivering innovative and technologically advanced new products or features, while Ops teams aim to make sure that those features or products work reliably. Users, on the other hand, want both: fancy products that work as expected, always.
In order for your company to be able to satisfy that need, your Dev and Ops teams will need to recognize that they are parts of the same process. The isolated nature of these disciplines is a result of the way they historically evolved. Yet breaking down these walls is key to achieving organizational excellence and the competitive advantage of high quality products.
In today's fast-paced technology environment, where development is progressing at breakneck speed using Agile methods, the emphasis of quality that DevOps enables is vital. For IoT-enabled products, where the development of hardware, software, and services are carried out in parallel lifecycles, the integrated nature of a DevOps approach could be the key to success.
Enhancing the Velocity of Innovation with DevOps
There are certain infrastructural conditions that allow Dev and Ops teams to be able to collaborate efficiently. First and foremost, developers often struggle with a lack of integration in their toolchains. Tool boundaries may disrupt the flow of data and processes within the process of development, but also in communication with the Ops team. This disconnect needs to be overcome first to enable a DevOps approach to work out in practice.
Related eBook: DevOps Guide: Implementing Continuous Integration & Delivery
Communication between teams is also essential. Feedback from all parts of the lifecycle needs to be incorporated into Dev and Ops processes upstream and downstream.
As the primary obstacle of any DevOps implementation, this problem is actually easier to overcome than you'd think. Integrated ALM software may be used to close the gaps between teams and tools, resulting in an integrated development environment. With Agile and DevOps features offered by these tools, a collaborative platform could integrate the entire value stream.
To learn more about how codeBeamer ALM supports DevOps teams, watch our webinar titled Agile Operations – DevOps in Practice, contact us, or start your free trial right away.
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Agile Operations – DevOps in Practice
