Excel at Devops

The most critical role that DevOps engineers play is to bridge the gap between software development and operations teams to increase the rate of software delivery. Even though the role of DevOps engineer varies across organizations, there are two common aspects: automation and continuous integration.

In DevOps, the combination of hard and soft skills is important us well as mandatory which are listed below.

SysAdmin Expertise

A DevOps engineer should be proficient at Windows/Linux administration. The reason for having such an experience is that a DevOps engineer has to build as well as administer servers. There is also a huge need for automating server deployments as it has always been a problem with most IT shops. Administrator experience would especially matter a lot during difficult scenarios and system breakdowns.

Experience in virtualization

A DevOps engineer should be experienced when it comes to virtualization techniques and using related tools such as VMware, KVM and Hyper-V. One must doubt that why this experience of virtualization is necessary because such tools are never used in day-to-day support! The reason is that most public clouds run on different or various flavours of virtualization and this is why having a virtualization experience is necessary.

Having a sound as well as a varied technical background – The previous skill regarding virtualization is not enough, you must also know networking and storage.

Good with the scripts

A DevOps engineer should be able to write scripts. It could be Bash, Powershell, Python, JavaScript, or anything else. It is needed because this is how one can automate repeatable processes. Also, a DevOps engineer should be able to code when it comes to RESTFUL APIs. For example, replacing basic manual processes like assigning IP addresses or DNS reservation will only be automated by writing code.

Security Training

You must be able to write secure code which would further protect the applications from attack. It will also help to defend against  vulnerabilities. It is not expected from a DevOps engineer to be an expert at security, but by just scripting securely, a developer would prove to be of great help!

Experience in automation tools – Automation tools like Chef, Puppet, Ansible, Fabric, etc all play a vital role when it comes to automation. The knowledge of these tools is actually a plus point!

Testing

A DevOps engineer must possess good testing skills to find loopholes. Coming up with numerous test cases and implementing them is important. So knowing and being assured that whatever function has been coded is perfectly doing its job is important. If the testing is not carried out perfectly, the effect of it will be directly on the end-users. So better be good at testing!

Team-first mindset

A DevOps engineer should practice team-first mindset because DevOps combines development as well as operations. It is important to adopt a team-first mindset by a DevOps engineer. The old strategy was to pass on things to the next operations team but it is not the case anymore. Nowadays, an application is simply a team effort. So it certainly needs a lot of empathy from everyone. Whenever conflict happen, they should simply be dealt with maturity and calmness. Then and only then, the team shall be able to deliver a service or product of great value to the customer.

Good Communication

There are times when conflicts happen, but a transparent and a progressive communication would help in solving it. Good communication would not just help in solving issues, but will also help in testing. Verbal messages are something that can easily be modified or misconstrued in the times of stress. Now stress is the most common thing that the team will come across. During such difficult times, communicating in such a way that leads to minimum misinterpretation is important. It also needs a lot of self-introspection. So, communicating in a precise, short, and sweet way is a must!

DevOps Requires a Cultural Change

DevOps is not a tool nor a technique. It’s a cultural change. Change is feared throughout most organizations of any type, so the adoption of new methodologies can quite challenging. Therefore, it is vital first to define the business need that brought on the discussion on the potential change as well as the accompanying challenges. Nowadays, businesses are expected to quickly deliver flawless applications that focus on user experience, but without the right tools, applications, and behavior, this seemingly simple task can turn into a complicated mess. Ultimately, faulty delivery translates into missed business opportunities.

DevOps culture can live only in environments where everyone is on board with the philosophy. It takes the right technology, situational assessment, and attitude to pull off successful software development and delivery. If everyone in an IT organization is on the same page and understands the power of clear and consistent communication as well as the underlying business goals, then the sky’s the limit. Of course, having a wide skill set is beneficial to every aspect of the process, as long as those fortunate individuals are willing to be team players.

DevOps Needs Unified, Multi-Skilled Teams

As mentioned above, collaboration, communication, and integration are the key elements of incorporating DevOps into any development and delivery setting. Building multi-skilled teams that are made up of individual talents (e.g., developers, sysadmins, and testers) can add great benefit, but without the right teamwork and attitude, the talent is virtually useless. When people know they can rely on everyone else, the group as a whole also moves much more quickly and efficiently, ultimately leading to happier customers.

The first step in a DevOps approach involves recognizing how software development, IT operations, and QA are mutually dependent on each other. As mentioned above, DevOps relies on cross-departmental collaboration and open communication between the key players in the software delivery pipeline in order to boost operational efficiency, predictability, and maintainability. Integrating and automating these elements early in the process enables teams to stream software delivery.