While it may be difficult to believe, we are constantly bringing on new talent who surprise themselves. It is a requirement of each new hire to contribute code to production environments for the teams they work on within a week of getting started. It may sound like a daunting task, but we have the infrastructure and systems to support it.
This can cause anxiety for some - but the fact is that it works, and our engineers think it’s great. In previous employments many are used to building software without ever seeing the results of their work. With us – if you build it, you run it.
Rely on it!
DevOps is not an easy operating model. It requires commitment to stringent methods and collaboration across teams. It requires an organization to be structured to support these practices. However, once the systems, processes and people are in place, the benefits are truly transformational. In order to get started, there are a few realities you should be aware of:
You should deploy for production often. This mantra sits at the very core of DevOps and continuous deployment. If you only release every six months, it’s practically impossible for the members of your team to identify their individual contributions and ensure that deadlines are being maintained.
You should automate all testing. This is the key to quality assurance, not just of new employees’ codes, but for the entire development lifecycle. You cannot automate too much. We have automated everything from unit tests to integration tests, UI tests and performance tests. And deployment is also, of course, fully automated.
You need to have a toolbox with the dedicated tools that are necessary for completing tasks. The toolbox must be easy to use and should be used by everyone. It should ensure that the developer is able to focus on what is the highest value add – codifying business logic.
