Accelerate Your Software Development Process with Data-Driven Automation and DevOps Culture
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Running a successful business is a lot like riding a bicycle: it requires balance, forward progress, and the right tools. When it comes to managing your team's software delivery lifecycle (SDLC) and application lifecycle management (ALM), automation provides the speed, agility, and reliability needed to stay balanced while keeping up with ever-changing customer demands.
Automating your SDLC and ALM processes is no small feat, but with the right strategy and tools in place, it can be an effective way to optimize development cycles and ensure quality control.
To get the most out of SDLC/ALM automation, you'll need to bake it into your company culture, bringing in concepts from DevOps, Agile processing, and beyond.
Understanding DevOps Culture
Achieving a balance between development, operations, customer feedback, and software quality requires both collaboration and coordination among all of your team's stakeholders. One of the fastest and most effective ways of achieving this is to embrace development operations, or DevOps.
DevOps culture shifts traditional roles within an organization by emphasizing communication, collaboration and integration between teams. It promotes rapid experimentation in order to quickly find creative solutions that meet the needs of customers while maximizing organizational efficiency.
This shift allows teams to move faster and react quicker when dealing with complex problems or unexpected changes that arise during product development cycles.
Tools like Stormboard allow teams to initiate data-first collaboration, where real time updates keep every single stakeholder informed of progress and shifts. With a focus on easy to understand visual organization, Stormboard allows teams to make a quick and seamless move towards a DevOps culture.
In order to embrace a DevOps mindset, companies must be willing to
Tackle data silos between departments
Promote team autonomy
Include automation-driven SDLC processes in their data governance
Fully adopting a DevOps system may require a complete change in how your team approaches issues.
For example, instead of seeing security as something entirely handled by Quality Assurance, DevOps encourages every department, including the developers, to take responsibility for the ultimate goals of a project.
If you’re familiar with Agile ALM, you can quickly see the connections between an DevOps culture and a successfully agile team.
How Does Automation Play Into DevOps?
When you start implementing DevOps, automation becomes vital to the development process. Automation enables teams to more quickly and efficiently collaborate on projects, while ensuring that quality standards are maintained throughout the SDLC.
Automation also eliminates manual testing processes and tasks that slow down product launches. By automating different aspects of the SDLC, teams can increase their productivity and reduce errors.
Think of your SDLC/ALM like riding a bike – if you’re doing it manually, it takes longer to reach your destination. However, when you automate parts of it, you're installing a gear shift that can take you way further & faster - with increased control.
A DevOps team becomes a group of high speed bike racers, working together and shifting gears as much as possible to get where they’re going.
The Benefits of Automating ALM
Automation streamlines the process of making changes to the existing codebase, allowing for more efficient maintenance and faster turnaround times for bug fixes or feature enhancements.
A fully automated ALM and SDLC system also
Drives Compliance - When everything is automated, it’s easier to document and track processes for compliance requirements.
Reduces Risks - Automation means that tasks are performed faster and more accurately, reducing the chance of human error.
Standardizes Processes – With a consistent set of automated steps, teams can ensure they follow best practices each time they deploy code.
Reduces Communication Gaps Between Departments - Automation can help teams work together more closely, reduce the need for cross-team communication and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Streamlines Development - Automation helps developers move faster and with more confidence, as they can quickly deploy code without worrying about manual steps or potential errors.
Eliminates Human Error - Automation eliminates potential human error, reducing the chances of costly mistakes or outdated processes.
The more your team gets comfortable and confident with automation, the more time they have to focus on innovating and bringing your company into the future.
Challenges of Automating ALM
When you make the shift to a new way of doing things, it always takes some getting used to. Automating your system means you’ll want to give more focus to
Maintenance - Automation only works if it's properly maintained over time; as requirements change or new features are added, teams need to continually update their automated pipelines and scripts.
Security - Automation can increase the risk of security vulnerabilities if processes are not properly configured and monitored.
Cost - Automating ALM requires an upfront investment in tools and resources that may not be immediately recouped in terms of cost savings.
If you take the time to plan how and when you’ll implement a new system, you’ll be able to side step a lot of these issues.
How to Start Automating ALM and SDLC
Automating your ALM and SDLC processes can be a daunting task, but with the right tools and strategies in place, it can be done quickly and efficiently.
Step One: Choose The Right Automation Tool
There are many different types of automation tools available, so make sure to do your research before selecting one. Be sure to look for features such as scalability, flexibility, integration capabilities and ease of use.
Step Two: Develop a Clear Strategy
Before starting any automation project, it’s important to develop a clear strategy that outlines all stages of the process. This will ensure that everyone involved is on the same page and that all tasks are completed in a timely manner.
You can use a tool like Stormboard to get all the stakeholders involved and make sure that every member of the team can access the plan at any time. Its embedded integrations will also allow everyone to see how the process is progressing in real time.
Step Three: Understand Your Existing Processes
Before diving into automation, it’s important to understand how things currently work. This will help you identify areas where automation can be implemented, as well as any potential stumbling blocks that may arise during the process.
Step Four: Test and Iterate
Automation is not a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process that requires regular testing and iteration. This will ensure that your processes are running smoothly and efficiently, as well as help identify any potential problems before they become major issues.
Automation Best Practices
Implementing a new process is quite the challenge, especially when it involves changes for your entire team and beyond. Following these tips from experts should make the process as smooth as possible.
Tip One: Have A Clear Strategy
Teams need to have a solid understanding of their development process and tools, so they can properly configure automated pipelines.
Get as many stakeholders as possible involved in creating the strategy. This will help them get excited about the digital transformation.
Tip Two: Integrate With Your Existing Process
Automation should be integrated into existing development and deployment processes rather than replacing them entirely. This helps drive compliance and keeps everyone on track.
It also helps keep costs low.
Tip Three: Automate All Stages Of ALM and SDLC
In order for automation to be effective, it should be brought into every single stage of ALM. This keeps everything running smoothly, prevents errors and inconsistency, and ensures that the team can collaborate throughout.
Tip Four: Introduce DevOps as A Whole Culture
In order for automation to be embedded into the organization’s culture and processes, it needs to be seen as imperative to the whole. T
his means when you explain the process to your team, you should pitch it as a cultural shift, not just another tool for them to learn.
The Bottom Line
SDLC/ALM automation is a powerful tool that can help organizations streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve the quality of their software development lifecycle.
As technology continues to evolve and develop, even more opportunities arise for collaboration, innovation, and beyond.
Using a DevOps mindset and automation, you have more control over your direction, speed, and stability. You can take on any terrain with confidence that comes from knowing that your journey is supported by reliable technology solutions.
Stormboard is used by development teams across various industries worldwide from everything from planning through release to maintenance & management and retrospectives.
Get in touch with one of our experts today to learn more about how other development teams are making their processes more efficient and repeatable with a full integrated data-first collaboration workspace.
About the author:
A programmer by trade, Nick Saraev is a freelance writer and entrepreneur with a penchant for helping people excel in their careers. He's been featured on Popular Mechanics & Apple News, and has founded several successful companies in e-commerce, marketing, and artificial intelligence. When he's not working on his latest project, you can find him hiking or painting.
