DevOps Stages and Lifecycle

DevOps has become a standard practice across multiple development firms. It has brought speed, efficiency, and stability to the development and deployment process. DevOps is a continuous chain of processes consisting of various stages. To make good use of this process, it is essential to properly understand the DevOps Stages.  

According to Global Market Insights, the DevOps market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 20percent from 2023 to 2032.  Explore the essential stages of DevOps, including planning, development, continuous integration (CI), continuous deployment (CD), monitoring, and feedback in this blog.

Table of contents 

1) What is DevOps?    

2) Importance of DevOps

3) What are the stages involved in DevOps?    

4) DevOps Lifecycle: Key components

5)Tools used in DevOps

6) Conclusion 

What is DevOps?  

DevOps was coined from the fusion of two words, Development and Operations.  DevOps consists of multiple phases, each playing a core part in delivering the final product in the highest possible quality.  The DevOps lifecycle includes a series of processes that follow the concept of trial, error, and feedback until the right outcome is achieved. DevOps practices, as evident from its name, are followed by both the Development and Operations teams. DevOps created a seamless collaboration between the two teams, creating an effective and efficient procedure.   

DevOps has allowed two teams to merge into one and develop skills beyond their specific tasks. Additionally, it has also automated many manual works which would take a lot of time to complete.  Thus, it increased productivity and helped employees to manage their time and utilise their time efficiently.
 

Importance of DevOps

DevOps is important because of the following reasons:

a) With its various DevOps services It accelerates the development and deployment process, thus making it possible for organisations to deliver their services on time.

b) It creates seamless collaboration between the development, operations, employees and stakeholders.

c) There are certain DevOps practices like Continuous Integration (CI) and automated testing, which reduce bugs, errors and facilitate better software quality.

d) DevOps improves the system’s reliability and stability, thereby reducing downtime and improving User Experience (UX).

e) It allows applications and infrastructure to scale efficiently so that they can handle workloads efficiently.

f) It incorporates good security measures in the lifecycle of the SDLC, development cycle, thus reducing vulnerabilities.

g) DevOps automates a lot of manual work thus saving both time and expense to the business.

What are the stages involved in DevOps?
 

DevOps Pipeline is divided into two core parts: Development Stages and Operation Stages. Both these parts of the DevOps pipeline have four segments each, making a total of eight stages. Le's discuss them more in details:

Development stages in DevOps   

The development phase of DevOps consists of implementing a plan, coding, testing code for errors, and fixing those errors. This includes creating new features based on previous feedback, updating them in the product, and fixing any errors that may have slipped through. The Development stage has four stages in DevOps, which are as follows. 

1) Plan: The planning phase in DevOps consists of all actions taken before a team commits to a project. This may include gathering requirements from customers and stakeholders, deciding on the required technologies, and planning a DevOps roadmap for a project. A project or Product Manager plays a vital role in this phase, as they can efficiently list the demands and expectations of the development team.

Before any actual code is created, a team is briefed about the necessities and requirements of the project. This allows the development team to visualise the product and implement code based on that logic. The development team is aided using a roadmap that will enable them to divide their work based on priorities.

The planning phase often utilises tools like Jira and Azure DevOps, which allow for reporting and maintaining the goals and development progress. This allows the development team to divide the roadmap into categories, such as user stories, features, and epics. Think of this phase as a strategy before you approach the mission of creating a product for your client. 

2) Code: The coding phase is the part where developers start writing codes for a product based on the previous roadmaps and plans. This phase includes adherence to good coding practices and the use of automation tools to increase the delivery speed of the product. Good coding practice plays a significant role in this stage, removing the potential for future errors.

The coding phase tends to be lengthy, focusing a lot on consistent style followed by all members. Different blocks of code are often meant to end up in a shared repository; a consistent manner helps to reduce the potential for integration failure. The coding stage ensures that the necessary development tools are provided to all the team members, as per their needs. 

3) Build: Since multiple blocks of code are created individually, they are submitted for integration once they are finished. This integration includes checking a small block of code for any errors, and if it meets the standard, it is merged into the base repository of the product. Each addition brings the base code closer to being the final product.

A tester checks the addition of a new block of code to ensure the code works correctly. In case of failure, the development team is addressed, allowing them to fix the code. This process allows the development team to reduce the chances of error in the base code itself, thus reducing the risk of code break. Tools like Jenkins will enable you to automate such testing processes, making them even faster. 

4) Test: The testing stage in DevOps is dedicated to rooting out any potential errors and failures within the product. It often includes the use of an external environment which constitutes a series of manual and automated tests. These tests are used to both check for any bugs within the product, as well as check for customer satisfaction.

Standard testing methods include white box testing, done by the part of the development team, and black box testing, done by an external party. The testing stage varies from organisation to organisation based on the product. Specific organisations and groups may include User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) testing in this phase, while others may not. 

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Operational stages in DevOps   

The operational stage in DevOps focuses on the maintenance of the product that has been created in previous stages. This includes receiving reviews from customers, checking if the product is working as intended, and more. Similar to the development phase, the operational phase also consists of four stages, which are as follows.   

1) Release: The release stage is considered a milestone in DevOps, as any product that reaches this phase has survived numerous tests. It is one of the first operational stages in DevOps, where a team determines if a product is ready for release. This makes the release stage the last line of defence against potential bugs or errors in the process.

The release stage frequently uses feature flags, which allow new features to be turned off until developers are ready to showcase them. This enables Developers to hold multiple new releases and release them all at once. Although the release stage is used to determine how a product should be released, the specifics of this stage vary with the maturity of DevOps in different organisations. In some organisations, a product that reaches the release stage may automatically proceed to the next step. 

2) Deploy: The deployment stage allows the team to move the product to a state that is accessible to users. The release stage in DevOps can be automated with the help of various tools, simplifying the process. The deploy phase heavily relies on the previous steps to ensure that deployment occurs without any possible errors.

Deployment often requires a production environment, similar to the previous testing environment. The code infrastructure from the last testing environment can be used to build a production environment. 

3) Operate: The operation stage is where customers actively access the product. The operation team plays a significant role in this stage. The goal of this stage is to ensure that the product is working without any issues and make changes based on its state. The production environment can scale automatically for a large part of this phase, allowing it to adjust to the number of users for the service.

Feedback is a crucial part of the operation phase of DevOps as it allows the operation team to identify potential product improvements. This serves as essential information for the production and development teams, and any feedback received is integrated into future development as improvements.   

4) Monitor: Monitoring is the last phase of the DevOps. It focuses on analysing the feedback received from users during the operational phase. This phase allows the development team to gather information on how customers feel about the product, any errors encountered, and how the product is functioning. The monitor phase doesn't stop at the product but extends to the entire DevOps pipeline.

The DevOps pipeline may have inefficiencies that previously hindered productivity. These hindrances are reported to the Product Manager, who takes active measures to address these problems. While you might assume that this marks the end of the DevOps process, it’s not quite the case.

DevOps is a loop, and as a result, while it has a final phase, it’s not the end of the process. The data gathered from each loop is fed into the planning phase, allowing the team to reflect on their mistakes and make improvements in the next cycle.

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DevOps Lifecycle: Key components

The DevOps Lifecycle is a framework designed to help optimise the development process of any project from its start to end. It helps the organisation in its Continuous Development process, thereby resulting in quicker and shorter delivery times. The DevOps Lifecycle comprises seven key components:

1) Continuous Development 

The first stage of Continuous Development encompasses the process where developers plan and code the software for the project. At this stage, the development process is segregated into various small-sized development cycles. Such a practice makes it convenient for the DevOps team to accelerate the development process of the whole software. 

Moreover, this stage is vital to the mapping of the development cycle’s vision, thereby enabling developers to properly comprehend the project’s business outcomes. This has an instrumental effect on the team’s ability to better visualise the project’s end goal. Now it is very important for developers to be aware that there are no DevOps tools necessary for the project planning process.

However there do exist a good variety of version control tools that can be utilised to maintain the project code. Now this process of maintaining the code is referred to as source code maintenance. Moreover, there are well-known tools in the market used to maintain the source code, like JIRA, Mercurial, Git, and SVN. Additionally, there are various tools for packing the project codes into executable files, like Gradle, Ant and Maven. Such executable files are then sent ahead to the next component of the DevOps Lifecycle.

2) Continuous Integration 

Continuous Integration (CI) encompasses various steps in the test execution process, as well as incorporating client-provided information for new feature development. This stage primarily involves modifications to the source code and serves as a central point for addressing these regular updates, whether they occur daily or monthly. 

Moreover, the process of building code includes a blend of unit and integration testing, code reviews, and packaging. The frequent updates by developers allow for early detection and resolution of potential issues.

In this phase, there's a constant merging of newly developed code functionalities with the pre-existing code base. This ongoing development ensures that newly added code is smoothly integrated into the overall system. Among the tools used for Continuous Integration, Jenkins stands out. It plays a crucial role in retrieving the latest code and generating an executable build. This system not only streamlines the integration process but also enhances the efficiency of developing and maintaining software.

3) Continuous testing 

Following the development phase in the DevOps cycle, the testing stage is initiated. This stage involves a thorough examination of the code for any defects or errors. Quality Analysis (QA) is pivotal at this stage, scrutinising the software's functionality to ensure it aligns with the client's requirements. The QA process's successful execution is critical in verifying the software's adherence to these specifications.

Moreover, to facilitate continuous testing, automation tools like JUnit, Selenium, and TestNG are employed. These tools allow the QA team to concurrently assess various code segments, ensuring the software's functionality is flawless.

Additionally, Docker containers are utilised in continuous testing to replicate the complete testing environment. Docker containers are self-contained and efficient, packing everything necessary for running an application, including system tools, libraries, runtime, code, and settings.

The testing phase often involves using automation tools such as Selenium for testing, followed by generating reports through another tool, like TestNG. Jenkins, a Continuous Integration tool, is instrumental in automating the entire testing phase. This automation is crucial in reducing time, labour, and effort in the testing process.

4) Continuous Deployment 

Continuous Deployment (CD) streamlines the process of deploying products smoothly without impacting the application's functionality. During this phase, it's crucial to deploy the code accurately across all servers. This approach bypasses the need for planned releases and enhances the feedback loop, enabling developers to swiftly and precisely resolve issues.

Containerisation tools are instrumental in achieving CD via configuration management. Tools like Vagrant ensure uniformity across various environments such as testing, development, staging, and production. Containerisation focuses on applying virtualisation at the Operating System level.

Successful implementation of CD is likely when a robust automated testing environment is established. Configuration management plays a significant role in this phase, ensuring and maintaining the application's functional requirements consistently. Widely used DevOps tools for configuration management, such as Ansible, Puppet, and Chef, facilitate rapid deployment of updates and new code.

5) Continuous monitoring 

It's critical to monitor the performance of a software product to gauge its overall effectiveness. This phase involves gathering key insights about the developed application. Through ongoing monitoring, developers can spot common trends and areas in the app that require additional attention.

Now continuous monitoring serves as an operational stage aimed at boosting the software application's overall performance and efficiency. It also keeps track of the app's performance, making it a vital part of the DevOps lifecycle. In this phase, various system errors such as 'server not reachable' and 'low memory' are addressed. It ensures the availability and security of the services and automatically rectifies network issues and other problems as soon as they are detected.

Tools like Nagios, Splunk, Sensu, ELK Stack, and NewRelic are utilised by operations teams to oversee user activities and identify any improper behaviour. Hence, during continuous monitoring, developers can proactively assess the system's health.

More importantly, this proactive approach enhances the system's reliability and efficiency while cutting down maintenance costs. Additionally, significant issues are promptly communicated to the development team for early resolution, leading to quicker problem-solving.

6) Continuous feedback 

Continuous feedback plays a vital role in understanding and evaluating the final performance of an application. It lays the foundation for enhancing the existing version and developing a new release based on feedback from stakeholders.

Additionally, the enhancement of the app development process is contingent on examining the insights gained from software operations. Feedback constitutes the information received from clients, which is crucial as it encompasses all details regarding the software's performance and any associated issues. It also includes recommendations provided by the end-users of the software.

7) Continuous operations 

This final stage of the DevOps lifecycle is a brief and straightforward component to understand. Central to all DevOps practices is the principle of continuity, which automates release processes, enables rapid issue detection by developers, and facilitates the creation of improved software versions. Continuity is crucial in removing unnecessary diversions and steps that slow down development.

When it pertains to continuous operations, development cycles are more concise, empowering organisations to engage in ongoing promotion and speeding up the product's time to market. DevOps significantly enhances the quality and efficiency of software products, making them more appealing and drawing in new customers.

Tools used in DevOps

DevOps became prominent thanks to the availability of tools that came with the growth of technology. Software such as Jenkins made processes like testing and deployment significantly easier by automating them. Similarly, other tools such as AWS CodeStar, Docker, and Podman have made coding and deployment much simpler.  

The development process heavily relies on a shared repository, especially during the Coding and Deployment phase. A shared repository allows a team to create different blocks of code and merge them into the base code. GitHub is one of the most popular code repositories for this purpose. Features like GitHub Actions play an important role in the DevOps lifecycle. 

Conclusion 

Understanding DevOps Stages is important in order to integrate it into the development process. Hopefully, this blog has provided you with a better understanding of the development and operational stages of DevOps. The role and necessity of each stage in DevOps should be much clearer than before. Thank you for reading. 

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