DevOps in Government 011001000000110100101101110001000000100011101 101111011101100110010101110010011011100110110 101100101011011100111010000100000011100000111 001001100101011100110110010101101110011101000 110010101100100001000000110001001111001001000 000100011101101111011101100100110001101111011 011110111000000101100001000000110000101101110 011001000010000001001110011001010111010001000 0010111000001110000 0100010001100101011101100100111101110000 0111001100100000011010010110111000100000 0100011101101111011101100110010101110010 0110111001101101011001010110111001110100 0010000001110000011100100110010101110011 0110010101101110011101000110010101100100 0010000001100010011110010010000001000111 0110111101110110010011000110111101101111 0111000000101100001000000110000101101110 GOVLOOP 010000010111000001110000 E-BOOK 2019 1 In any organization that creates its own technology applications or software, there are two broad teams that complete that task: developers and operations staff. Traditionally, these teams follow a linear development Executive process. Developers create code for the service based on broad parameters provided by the organization’s Summary leadership. Once the developers build the product, they send it to the operations team to deploy and manage. This handoff is often referred to as “tossing it over the wall” because operations and development staff pass the product off without truly understanding how each team is using the application. It’s like there is a wall between them that prevents transparency or meaningful communication. That wall creates all sorts of problems. Because developers don’t have a clear view of how operations will use the service, the product they create often doesn’t stand the test of real-world deployment. The new service can disrupt existing workflows, overload or damage current IT systems, compromise security or even fail regulatory requirements because developers didn’t have enough information during development. DevOps is a project management methodology that solves this problematic product handoff between developers and operations staff. Instead of operating in silos, both teams collaborate on a project from start to finish. The phrase DevOps is simply a condensed version of the terms “development” and “operations,” but what it actually means is not as simple. That’s because it’s an IT services management approach, and is related more to a cultural shift and organizational environment than technology. So instead of being a specific toolset, analysis or process, it’s a more holistic approach and cultural mindset change. For the purposes of this e-book, we are defining DevOps as an IT services management approach that stresses communication, collaboration, continuous feedback, experimentation and integration between software developers and IT professionals. In the following pages, we offer practical tips to improve and achieve DevOps from government experts who are leading successful efforts at their organizations. We’ll focus on four critical categories: culture, automation, measurement and sharing (CAMS), and how DevOps tools and technologies can aid in these areas. These tools can make development and operations workflows more streamlined and collaborative, automating previously time-consuming, manual or static tasks involved in integration, development, testing, deployment or monitoring. Additionally, we’ll take a look at why DevOps matters to all government employees today, and how it affects end users and citizens; methods you can use to achieve DevOps; benefits of DevOps; and its history. 2 DevOps at a 75% 2x 80% of CIOs identified DevOps as a IT teams practicing DevOps of government efforts to Glance top priority. processes are two times as likely transform performance don’t to exceed their goals in profit, fully meet their objectives. market share, and productivity. What impact does 2,604x DevOps have on 80% How much faster advanced of federal IT projects were self- government? How does DevOps teams recover from 17% described as “agile” or “iterative” it help you achieve IT incidents. of technology professionals said in 2017. in 2018 that their teams have your agency’s mission, fully embraced DevOps. and where did it evolve 0010001100101011101100100111101110000011 from? These stats will 7x lower 1001100100000011010010110111000100000010 help set the context for failure rate on IT changes made why DevOps culture, by advanced DevOps teams 0011101101111011101100110010101110010011 technology and compared to lower-performing 0111001101101011001010110111001110100001 teams. outcomes are more “Within 3 months,0000001110000011100100110010101110011011 IT improved important than ever 0010101101110011101000110010101100100001 for governments at all its time to resolution 66%, levels. reduced call 0000001100010011110010010000001000111011waiting time 50%, and increased0111101110110010011000110111101101111011 customer satisfaction 1000000101100001000000110000101101110010by 140%.” 0100010001100101011101100100111101110000 - Carol Johnson, IT director for Telegraph Media on DevOps 000010111000001110000 strategies in 2016. 0111001100100000011010010110111000100000 Source: Atlassian and HDI Trends You Need to Know: DevOps and IT Support 0100011101101111011101100110010101110010 0110111001101101011001010110111001110100 0010000001110000011100100110010101110011 3 0110010101101110011101000110010101100100 0010000001100010011110010010000001000111 0110111101110110010011000110111101101111 0111000000101100001000000110000101101110 010000010111000001110000 What is DevOps? Benefits of DevOps The ‘Why’ of As government transitions away from linear Collaboration — the very core of DevOps — is DevOps for application development processes and into the always a good thing. Bringing more minds to the Government new era of collaborative processes, application table engenders more diverse ideas and helps Today development is becoming quicker, cheaper and focus teams on a common mission. Plus, it increases more efficient. Instead of operating in their transparency across an organization because traditional silos, developers and operations staff different departments and teams are working have begun to work together on projects from more closely together. But in addition to the basic start to finish. benefits of collaboration, there are a ton of other reasons to use the DevOps process. It can help your That’s where DevOps comes in. agency achieve: DevOps is an evolving philosophy and framework Quicker development: For many DevOpers, this is that encourages faster, better application the most important benefit of the process. With development and faster release of new or revised DevOps, the end goal is to develop and shape software features or products to customers. It code more quickly and efficiently, and with more evolved from original agile practices in project iterations. Because developers and operations management that were then applied to technical teams don’t have to waste time throwing code project management and IT projects. The practice back and forth over a metaphorical wall, they can of DevOps encourages smoother, continuous release iterations of their product sooner. And communication, collaboration, integration, when they need to make changes or improvements visibility and transparency between application to those applications, they can do so faster development teams (Dev) and their IT operations because both teams have a shared understanding team (Ops) counterparts. of the project’s functions and goals. Greater quality assurance: But even as workers deliver more services faster, they don’t have to sacrifice quality with DevOps. Actually, the process minimizes errors through two distinct attributes First, DevOps allows both teams to see the full scope of a project. That means they have a better understanding of how any single change — say, a 4 change in a line of code or an update to a hosting Happier end users: Ultimately, DevOps helps platform — will affect the rest of the application. government agencies better serve citizens in In traditional development processes, one change the digital age. As users increasingly expect could derail an entire project. That’s far less likely government resources to be provided with the same because of the collaborative workflow of DevOps. mobility, agility and utility as private sector services, Second, automation replaces many human agencies seek ways to quickly meet those demands. processes within DevOps. DevOps reduces human When they turn to DevOps, they’re able to deliver error by automating many core development and those services and meet citizen expectations. deployment functions. Better end products: With DevOps, “we see higher- quality solutions, and at the same time we see flexibility,” said Texas.gov Director of Technology Peter Eichorn. When they incorporate DevOps practices, both developers and operations workers gain a better understanding of the product they’re working on. Developers get to know the real- world conditions in which their code will operate. Operations teams learn what makes their services tick and why they were built that way. Together, both teams can make better decisions about how to build and deploy services, and that results in a better product overall. And because there are minimal barriers between the development and operations environments, employees can make changes with minimal stress to ensure that applications keep pace with evolving needs and scenarios. 5 CAMS and DevOps Some people group DevOps goals into four categories: culture,