Tuesday, March 1, 2016

DevOps: Why People (Not Tools) Are Transforming Software Development

Yu Shi
3/1/2016     
MIS 441
Tech Musing 2

Summary:
DevOps: Why People (Not Tools) Are Transforming Software Development
In this article, author talks about there are more and more tech firms are trying to switch from basic system to DevOps in these days. He stated that, those company may understand the concept and advantages of transforming into DevOps, which is helping company speed up production cycle times. However, author thinks those companies are not fully explored what is behind switching into DevOps. Then, author works with BlazeMeter to explore more about switching to DevOps. BlazeMeter is a tech company provides next generation tool and help company testing before launch, and they also serves as partner to firms who are trying to switch to DevOps culture. CEO of BlazeMeter gives some advices to tech leaders who are thinking about move to DevOps in their organization.

1.     Leaders must take time to think about why they want to move to DevOps, is that really benefit their organization? Or just because everybody else is doing that.
2.     If move to DevOps is truly a culture shift, they need to find talent that understands benefits of DevOps culture.
3.     Carefully select infrastructure that can support this type of work.

Also, author mentions that moving to DevOps is not only a transformation in tech area, but also transformation in organization culture. Transforming your workers behavior is also important. Imagine if a company switch to DevOps, but everyone is still working in the way before; this will not only help company speed up, but also may cause chaos. The author also mentions that, whenever a company is trying to implement a new system, culture change is required.

Relevance
Few weeks ago, we had a guest lecture about DevOps. In that lecture, the guest talked about what is DevOps, what’s the benefit of DevOps, and a lot of other stuff. After that lecture, I am really interested in the magic that DevOps brings to the organization. In this article, the author is focusing on the side effect that DevOps brings to company. From the article, company should take the side effect into their consideration before making any decision.

Importance as an MIS student

Since moving into DevOps is a trend, It is important to be aware the advantages that DevOps brings to company, but also the disadvantages. Moving into DevOps could help company become more efficiency, but also may cause conflict with company culture. As a MIS professional, we may encounter a situation that company is trying to make decision about whether or not moving to DevOps. Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of switching to DevOps may help company to make decision in future.

1 comment:

  1. Not sure it's a trend, any more than Agile was a trend. It just takes time for companies to take it seriously, as you say. Just like not all companies can easily move into Agile, they can't easily move into DevOps.

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