Over the last 15 years, DevOps has developed from an initial idea to an entire movement. It works to break down the siloes between operations and development and results in faster, more efficient software delivery.
Because of the nature of DevOps, applications are completed quicker and often with improved reliability. This methodology is now used across thousands of organisations and so is becoming more commonplace every single day.
Despite its popularity, DevOps is not without its drawbacks, and a recent survey has revealed that the biggest obstacles for DevOps are organisational as opposed to technology-related.
What Are The Biggest Obstacles For DevOps?
Test automation platform provider, Mabl recently surveyed 600 IT professionals to understand the barriers to adopting DevOps practices. Those surveyed were quality assurance and software development professionals from all across the globe. Because of their in-depth knowledge and experience with DevOps, they were the best audience to provide crucial insights into the practices. Results from the survey revealed that non-technological issues were the key inhibitor for DevOps. 82% agreed that the main obstacles for DevOps practices are organisational as opposed to technological. Not only that, but just 11% of those that completed the survey stated their company has fully implemented DevOps. 24% said that they were working towards achieving fully implemented DevOps practices and were most of the way there already. It is interesting to see that the reasons behind this slow adoption of DevOps is mainly because of organisational constraints. Slow processes and speed of adaption was the main barrier for 29% of respondents, while budget and funding were chosen by 21%. Just 18% of those who completed the survey said that technology limitations were an issue for implementing DevOps practices.The Reality Of DevOps Practices
The survey unveiled that almost half of people (46%) are able to implement continuous integration. 36% said they have implemented continuous delivery. When it comes to continuous deployment, more than a quarter of people (27%) said they had achieved this. Despite this, just one-third of those surveyed revealed that they deploy new codes at least once a week, and almost half deploy these less than once a month. 15% of development teams deploy new codes once a day or more. A similar number (16%) deploy codes once a quarter. When it comes to software testing, 42% of people automated their user interface (UI) and functional testing. Because of this, these are the most commonly automated types of testing. Regression testing came in next, with 41% choosing to automate this process, followed by 35% automating integration testing.The Most Popular DevOps Tools
When asked about testing tools, Selenium was the most widely used as 41% chose this option. Cypress was in a very distant second place at 14%. Testing application programming interfaces or APIs were also included in the survey. The most popular was Postman, compared with SoapUI, which was chosen by 21% of people. Homegrown tools made up 17% of APIs used. GitHub is the most commonly chosen DevOps tool because 34% opted for it. Jenkins was a close second at 33%, and then GitLab at 21%. The least commonplace but still popular tools were Azure Pipelines with 20% and Bitbucket with 19%.What These Results Mean For DevOps In The Future
It is clear to see from these results that a lot of companies are very resistant to change. Some teams have been developing software in the same way for many years, and so change is a real challenge. Not only do business leaders and IT professionals require some convincing of the need for change, but this needs to run down to operational teams and individual developers. The co-founder of Mabl, Dan Belcher, has said it is obvious that many businesses have a long way to go in order to completely embrace the best practices of DevOps. It has become a question of to what degree will they adopt these practices as opposed to if they ever will. All kinds of organisations across all industries are dependent on applications and software. Because this is the backbone of almost all business processes these days, the focus on timely delivery and quality products will only increase. Belcher noted that the stakes in the delivery of software have never been higher, so now is the time to get it right. Adopting DevOps is likely to come down to competitive pressure forcing the issue on hesitant businesses. Any companies which don’t act fast to keep up with demands will start seeing their rivals pull ahead. The teams which adopt DevOps practices are likely to deliver better experiences with their software, which will create a business advantage. Now is the time for companies to adapt to DevOps or risk becoming irrelevant compared to the competition. In order to properly adopt DevOps and use it effectively within an organisation, your entire team needs to have a solid understanding of the practice. At TSG Training, we offer a range of DevOps training courses so your team can get up to speed with processes and ideas. Some of our most popular online DevOps training courses include:- SAFe DevOps Certification: This two-day course offers a deep dive into the world of DevOps and its competencies. After completing this course, you will have a good understanding of DevOps and how to improve your time to market.
- DevOps Foundation Certification Training: For DevOps beginners, this course is the perfect option. It is a complete introduction to the world of DevOps and brings it right back to basics. Learners will see an emphasis on collaboration, communication, integration and automation.
