The time is now to review your current DevOps methodology and look for areas of improvement. The fog is lifting off our pandemic-enforced lockdowns and your teams have most definitely learned a lot during the past year-plus of remote work. Most of all, your teams have had to stretch and pivot because your in-place development methodologies weren’t ideal for remote or hybrid team working models.

1. Conduct a Post Mortem of your DevOps Methodology During the Pandemic

DevOps is about continuous learning and feedback. Take the time as your organization opens up to a hybrid work model or doubles down on remote work to take stock of how your method fared during the pandemic.

Talk to your development and operations teams about what technology worked during the pandemic for them. Ask about your toolchains, automation, and security. Did your teams have to do any workarounds in the remote world? If so, make sure you capture and document them for future reference and for the benefit of your organization.

Also, reflect on the temperature of your DevOps culture. Did your teams not miss a beat once you moved to a remote working model? Did working remotely adversely affect your collaboration and communication between team members? Are there concerns about how a hybrid work model affects team collaboration and communications?

Such a post-mortem doesn’t mean calling yet another meeting. You can push out questions through your Slack channels plus meetings and standups that are already on your calendars.

 

2. Review your Definition of DevOps Success

It’s important to have a definition of DevOps success for your organization. Some common measurements of DevOps success include:

  • Availability and uptime
  • Work in progress
  • Repository speed
  • Deployment frequency
  • Deployment stability

The first step here is to evaluate whether your pre-pandemic measurements of DevOps success still apply today. Review your current measurements against your operations and performance during the past year-plus of remote working. Be sure to document any changes to your measurements and communicate that to your DevOps teams.

3. Update Developer Onboarding Training with your DevOps Methodology

While you shift your operations to a post-pandemic working model, whether remote or hybrid, take the time to review and update your developer onboarding training. Here are some examples of onboarding training items to capture or update and communicate:

  • Communications and collaboration channels for escalation of issues and problem solving
  • Accounts and access to cloud services
  • Documentation of your DevOps Methodology in written and graphical form
  • Training on your toolchain in written and graphical form (Bonus points for a video)

Standard practices and create reference materials to ensure that your teams are following the DevOps methodology you set for your organization, not the developer’s interpretation of DevOps. Some developers may also carry forth DevOps practices from their previous employer.

4. Automate your Workflows

According to the 2021 Anchore Software Supply Chain Security Report, only 47% of the respondents have automated remediation workflows to help developers fix issues that are identified in scanning.

Now is the time to review the automation (or lack thereof) of your remediation workflows. While you’re at it, take stock of other automation opportunities across your DevOps pipelines to help improve the productivity of your development organization.

5. Conduct a DevOps to DevSecOps Transformation

Cybersecurity lessons are all around us now. There comes a time when even a finely tuned and maintained DevOps methodology needs to support additional security requirements. As new breaches make headlines, new government executive orders (EOs) hit the street, and attack vectors now could be time for your organization to make a full-blown DevOps to DevSecOps transformation. Making such a transformation is the best way to lock down the security of your DevOps toolchains and software supply chain.

Final Thoughts

A DevOps methodology should represent the current state of a development organization complete with lessons learned. Taking a continuous improvement approach especially after such a life-changing event as the pandemic makes good business sense. Work to maintain your development team’s agility and prepare to face challenges in the new world of work together.

Do you want to learn more about DevOps pipelines? Check out our on-demand webinar, How To Secure Your DevOps Pipeline In a Post-SolarWinds World!