In today’s digitally competitive tech environment, launching any new app or service-based product is just the beginning of a never-ending journey of writing and deploying code. Modern tech users are impatient and easily influenced to try something new—if an app or SaaS product doesn’t work as expected. They would switch to a competitor in a fraction of a second just as easily. This is why development teams around the world continually roll out updates, patches, bug fixes, and new features to keep their users engaged and their expectations satisfied. While operations teams have their hands full making sure that new code works properly before deploying updates to the product for the end user, the process needs to be managed efficiently, to eliminate bugs and even downtime, the two very things the users hate!

With the evolving technology, most tech companies would be familiar with DevOps—a term created from combining “development” and “operations”. However, many assume that DevOps is an expensive journey that requires costly tools and infrastructure. But you will be surprised to know that you can build professional-grade pipelines using efficient resources and deliver reliable, high-quality applications at speed. This article explores what a DevOps pipeline is and how to build one effectively!

What is a DevOps Pipeline?

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A DevOps pipeline is built by the software engineering team with the help of a set of tools and automated processes to deliver quality code more quickly. They compile, build, and deploy code, building an effective DevOps pipeline and enabling companies to develop, test, and deploy new code and modify and upgrade existing ones consistently. The major requirements of a DevOps pipeline are to eliminate manual intervention by automating the end-to-end software delivery process. Being time-consuming and risking the potential for human error, manual processes often delay deployments. The transition from manual to automated processes not only eliminates the chances of errors but also allows developers to roll out higher-quality code faster than ever before!

Components of a DevOps Pipeline

There are numerous elements and tools that organizations can use to create a customized DevOps pipeline that is tailored to their requirements. Common pipeline components facilitate continuous delivery, ensuring code develops seamlessly from different stages and automates the entire process to minimize manual work.

• Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD): CI/CD helps organizations to improve their software quality and eliminate repetitive tasks by automating procedures such as tests, security scans, and deployments. CI allows integration of small portions of new code from multiple developers into a unified repository after testing the code for errors to identify bugs in the early stages, making it easier to fix them. CD incorporates code changes after receiving feedback to ensure the code is tested and ready for deployment in the production environment, reducing the overall time and cost of a project.
• Continuous Testing (CT): CT allows developers to automate tests at every stage of the development process. A good quality CT strategy allows quick evaluations of risk related to any piece of code to be verified as production-ready at any stage of the pipeline. Tests begin to run automatically once code is integrated and produce more reliable results at speed.
• Continuous Monitoring: As the name suggests, continuous monitoring tracks application performance, detects issues in real time, and helps achieve faster releases. Far from traditional approaches, it provides continuous information that allows teams to minimize downtime and maintain a seamless user experience.
• Continuous Feedback: Once code is successfully deployed, continuous feedback indicates the reactions and impact the release had on end users. By automating feedback, the company gains valuable insights into how users react to the new release. If critical issues are discovered, a continuous feedback cycle allows for quick fixes by the development teams.
• Continuous Operations: The goal of continuous operations is to eliminate the need for planned downtime, minimizing interruption to the end users. Continuous operations might be a costly endeavor, but it may be worthwhile, considering its advantages and its impact on user experience.

How to Build a DevOps Pipeline From Scratch?

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Implementing a streamlined DevOps pipeline that functions seamlessly is a crucial factor that facilitates rapid deployments and quality applications. Common steps to achieve a strong DevOps pipeline are establishing a CI/CD tool, creating a control environment, setting up a build server, automating testing, and deploying the code to production.

Step 1: Establish CI/CD Tool

For companies just getting started on building a DevOps pipeline, the most important step of the pipeline is to pick a CI/CD tool to get the process up and running. With the needs and requirements varying for each company, the choice of tools will depend on the objectives set by the organization, so not every tool will be right for every situation. While there might be many CI/CD tools available, such as Jenkins, GitLab, CircleCI, Spinnaker, Argo CD, etc. Jenkins is one of the most commonly used. Featuring numerous plugins and tools, it can easily be customized to work for many different applications.

Step 2: Source a Control Environment

Organizations working with large development teams need a control simulation to store, share, and test their code. This helps prevent merge conflicts with the main codebase and allows the creation of different versions of code for the app or software. Git is commonly used for this purpose, along with other tools like GitLab and BitBucket. Source control management tools allow effective collaboration with team members from around the world, storing code from each developer in a separate shared repository.

Step 3. Set up a Build Server

The next crucial step in building an efficient DevOps pipeline is setting up a build server. It acts as a stable and centralized environment for distributed software development projects. Build servers not only retrieve and roll back integrated code from source code repositories, but they also provide a clean environment to test the code and ensure it works. Companies can choose from various build servers such as Jenkins, TeamCity, Travis-CI, and go.cd.

Step 4. Build Automation Tools for Testing

Once the code is configured on the build server, it’s time to test it! There are different strategies that the companies would adopt, but they all focus on three things: Continuous Testing, Test Automation, and Continuous Monitoring. In the testing phase, developers run automated tests to ensure error-free code continues to the deployment stage. Several automated tests are performed at the testing stage, from unit and functional to integration and regression tests, and are run one after the other. TestComplete might be a good option, as it has a Jenkins plugin that enables developers to run tests, store test history, and allows you to see the results directly from Jenkins.

Step 5. Deploy to Production

This is the final stage of your pipeline – the deployment stage. This is where your software is ready to roll out for production after being tested for efficiency. Azure DevOps might be your best option as it works with the cloud and offers a centralized system to build and test the code, integrate with different repository tools, customize the code environment, and deploy the code. Companies can link this to their test builds, so that the code only runs if it has been passed and is error-free.

Ready to Create a DevOps Pipeline?

We’ve covered the key elements and tools for building an effective DevOps pipeline that automates, streamlines, and accelerates every phase of development. It is a strategic investment that can transform how you develop, test, and deploy apps or software. Achieve faster releases, better collaboration, and high-quality software that meets user expectations by adopting a well-structured DevOps pipeline!

Obtaining SAFe® Certification comes with numerous advantages. It provides you with expertise in the Scaled Agile Framework, making you a valuable asset to companies that follow agile principles. This certification also enhances your career opportunities by enabling you to drive business growth and lead agile transformations while adhering to industry standards.

Why SAFe® Certification?

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Here we are discussing why SAFe Certification is important. The following are the major advantages of holding a SAFe® certification.

• Accepted Worldwide

SAFe Agilist, or Leading SAFe, is one of the most famous credentials worldwide. Anyone anywhere in the world can obtain the SAFe® Agilist certification. The Scaled Agile Framework is accepted in many industries across the globe, and possessing the Leading SAFe Certification certifies your expertise in it and shows your dedication to the project.

• High Paying Position

Earning a SAFe Certificate through the Leading SAFe Training Program has many benefits, including a competitive compensation plan. Certain companies may offer a higher salary to individuals who hold a certification as a SAFe Agilist. Professionals certified as SAFe Agilists often make between USD 80,000 and USD 135,000 annually.

• Expand Your Audience And Support Market Expansion

There are not many SAFe professionals, and SAFe Agilist certification experts have a year to access the SAFe community forum and the general public. Anybody who has completed the SAFe Training Program can share their SAFe practices, expertise, and tricks here. This action will broaden your audience, advance your business, and raise your profile in the international marketplace.

• SAFe Adapts Better To The Changing Requirements

These days, a business’s needs vary depending on the customer. Companies want to implement a strategy that would satisfy their clientele’s demands. You will gain excellent proficiency in implementing Agile at scale across all departments and domains of the company to attain remarkable business agility by completing the SAFe Professional Training and SAFe® Certification Levels.

• Ongoing Development

Customers with large, established teams can receive continuous delivery through DevOps, and individuals can learn how to deploy and integrate with it using SAFe® Agile Certification and training. By obtaining continuous delivery, which enables frequent releases, professionals can manage the increasing workloads by collaborating with the DevOps team. It is made possible through the Leading SAFe course.

• Boost The Quality Of Corporate Decision-Making

Individuals and corporate teams generally apply lean finance and portfolio management through SAFe training, facilitating installation and maintenance and improving economic and estimation-based decision-making.

• Contributes To Increasing Rapid Release Value

At the sprint’s end, a product may upgrade to an Agile Release Train with support from the SAFe Principles. The value of this added product is substantial. To put it briefly, SAFe® Certification and SAFeTraining facilitate the timely release of products that offer value to customers.

• SAFe Certification Adapts to The Complexity Of Projects

Large, complicated projects operate using the SAFe technique. Multiple Scrum teams can collaborate to produce a complex product thanks to SAFe. Based on several concepts, the SAFe approach is transparent, easy to understand, and straightforward. It also contributes to the creation of excellent solutions.

• Lean-Agile Methodology Implemented Through Safe Certification

Lean Agile grounds on the Agile Manifesto, a collection of guidelines, concepts, and practical methods. SAFe® Certification facilitates the application of this methodology in challenging projects.

• Enhance Your Career And CV with Value

Your career will undoubtedly improve with the SAFe® Certification, which gives your resume a lot of value and weight.

How To Choose The Right SAFe Certification?

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Choosing the proper SAFe® certification is very important for career growth; here are some factors you need to be aware of:

1. Know Your Current Role and Analyze Career Goals

Making a detailed self-evaluation of your current employment function and career goals is the first step toward selecting the appropriate SAFe® certification. Are you an executive in charge of the overarching strategy of a business, a manager supervising several Agile teams, a team member working on Agile projects, or a Scrum Master leading your team through the Agile process? Which qualification best fits your career path will depend on your role.

Selecting the appropriate SAFe® certification requires careful consideration of many variables, such as your current role and responsibilities, career goals, organizational needs, experience and prerequisites, training and SAFe® Certification exam procedures, and a dedication to lifelong learning.

2. Explore the SAFe Certification:

Before choosing which SAFe Certification is best for your career, explore all of the SAFe Certifications and understand the purpose of that certification for your work culture. For Example, individuals who aspire to hold the position of Product Owner or Manager have to contemplate obtaining the SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) certification. The main points of emphasis are on the functions and duties of product management in a safe setting, such as managing the backlog, interacting with stakeholders, and producing value via efficient program increment planning.

SAFe® Program Consultant (SPC) certification is a vital qualification for consultants and trainers if you want to work as a SAFe consultant or trainer. With this certification, you’ll be ready to coach other SAFe roles, guide a company through a SAFe transformation, and drive change to successfully deploy and maintain Agile principles on a large scale.

3. Organizations Requirements

Identifying the positions that are in high demand can be a crucial step in making a certification decision, especially if your company is implementing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). By carefully assessing your organization’s needs, you can confidently select a certification that aligns perfectly with the implementation of the SAFe framework in your company.

4. Experience Level And Eligibility

Certain certifications, such as the SPC, have specific requirements, such as having previously worked with Agile, Lean, SAFe, or other applicable certifications. Make sure you fulfill these prerequisites before attempting to obtain a specific certification.

Evaluate how well your present experience matches the certification. SAFe certifications cater to different experience levels. For beginners, starting with foundational certifications is recommended, while more experienced professionals may opt for advanced certifications.

5. Certification Training Course

Evaluate your preferred learning style. SAFe certifications often require formal training, and there are various reputed training providers. Choose a training format (in-person, virtual, self-paced) that suits your learning preferences and availability.

6. Dedicated To Ongoing Education

New versions of SAFe are frequently released as it continues to evolve. It’s crucial to keep up with the most recent advancements, SAFe, and Agile best practices, regardless of the certification you select. Also, To keep your certification current, you may need to obtain Professional Development Units (PDUs) or Scrum Education Units (SEUs), depending on the certificate. It promotes ongoing education and career advancement.

7. Networking Opportunities:

Some SAFe certifications may provide opportunities for networking with other professionals in the SAFe community. Consider this aspect if you value networking and collaboration with peers.

8. Continuous Learning Path:

SAFe certifications are often structured as a learning path with foundational and advanced levels. Plan your certification journey with an understanding of the progression from one certification to another.

Conclusion

A critical step in your agile career, the SAFe® Certification Training from top training institutes will help you advance your SAFe journey. In a four-day immersion event, you will learn how to create everlasting delivery pipelines, coach programs, and manage organizational changes. Develop your knowledge of Lean portfolio endowment, DevOps culture, and Agile release trains. Gain various SAFe certifications to strengthen your career and demonstrate your progress in the agile space. Develop your strategic leadership abilities and ignite organizational excellence with us. Enroll now to start your journey towards elegant mastery by earning the SAFe® certification, an unmatched investment.

In the exponentially developing IT industry, keeping pace with the rapidly transforming consumer behavior and ever-changing trends has been a big challenge for IT companies worldwide.

Being in line with changing trends, IT firms require improved organizational capabilities for faster product delivery, high-paced software development, and ongoing upgrade of the system. Indeed, timely delivery of products and services with all the specifications to match the market standards has been the need of the hour for every organization to gain a competitive edge in the business world. Hence, seeing the current market scenario, it is indispensable for enterprises to embrace a revolutionary modus-operandi to stay ahead of the competition. And DevOps services emerge as a one-stop fix for all the challenges mentioned here.

Why Do Organizations Need DevOps Services?

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Implementing DevOps methodology for enterprises helps transform the software development process, resulting in improved business performance and higher value for customers. With the help of DevOps methodology, organizations can easily streamline the coordination between the development and operation teams, enabling them to perform better and faster for enhanced productivity.

DevOps Market Statistics

Here are a few DevOps adoption statistics that prove how DevOps services can be beneficial for enterprises:

• In the US, the management DevOps solutions segment held over 65% of the DevOps market share in 2021 and is projected to exhibit steady growth through 2028.
• In 2021, 83% of enterprises reported DevOps implementation to unlock higher business value.
• In 2019, the DevOps market size exceeded $4 billion, and it is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 20% from 2020 to 2026.
• 61% of organizations say implementing DevOps methodology assisted businesses in producing higher-quality deliverables in 2020.
• 99% of IT decision-makers have reported that DevOps has had an immense impact on their organization’s growth in 2020.
• 49% of businesses said DevOps helped reduce time-to-market software and services in 2020.

Best DevOps Implementation Strategies for Business Success

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Implementation of DevOps is a complex process. However, by counting on the best DevOps services and leveraging the trending technologies empowered by AI, ML, and automation, adoption of this emerging trend will not be a hassle for enterprises. Here’s a look into several steps of successful DevOps implementation:

1. Know Your Business

Before you go ahead with the implementation of the DevOps methodology, you should first contemplate your business requirements. You shouldn’t implement DevOps just because renowned enterprises are doing it. There are possibilities that you don’t even need its implementation.

Many businesses fail to adopt DevOps successfully because they don’t figure out their requirements before beginning it. What if your business is not IT based or you don’t have a massive collection of data that DevOps require to streamline the complex work for your company? In such scenarios, hiring DevOps services would be just a wasted spend, and all your effort will go in vain.

2. Build a Unit for DevOps Implementation

To ensure the successful implementation and operation of DevOps, you should first establish a centralized unit to make, monitor, and measure the performance. This unit will be accountable for building operational methods and other strategies to optimize workflows.

3. Evaluate Your Processes

Everyone in the unit needs to comprehend what DevOps can do to your business and what types of problems it can solve. Evaluate your development cycle from start to end. It will help you find different bottlenecks and inefficiencies that go into the other processes of development. By figuring out the areas that call for improvement, you will be able to address your organization’s pain points when implementing DevOps.

4. Set Realistic Goals

DevOps implementation is not just about evaluating the processes and upgrading the tools. You need to contemplate your business operation and set realistic goals accordingly for successful DevOps implementation.

When companies hire DevOps services, they often have some unrealistic or unachievable expectations in mind. They should understand DevOps isn’t magic; it’s a transformation that can’t happen overnight. Trust the process and specialists! DevOps implementation takes months. You can’t see desirable outcomes in just a day. You may notice some growth in the initial months, but usually, it takes years to show results. In fact, DevOps is an eternal process of continual improvement.

5. Define Key Metrics

Set the metrics for your business growth from the day you adopt the DevOps process. Without setting the metrics, you will not be able to measure the transition you made with the DevOps methodology. And if you don’t count the success rate, you will not be able to trace the issues that are slowing down your employees’ working process and productivity level.

While setting the metrics, consider your customers because, eventually, a business grows when its customers are satisfied. For instance, chew over the ideas like “What can I do to improve my customer experience?”, “How will it help my customers?” And other such things.

6. Consider the Collaboration Tools

While adopting DevOps, collaboration and communication should be highly promoted. You can get all the best practices of DevOps, but if your team is not ready to work together, you can’t leverage the full potential of the methodology. Therefore, to achieve the full benefits of DevOps implementation, you should first instill a strong sense of collaboration among teams.

In addition, you need to upgrade your team’s efficiency by providing them with the best collaboration and communication tools to carry out activities seamlessly. Effective collaboration and communication help development, operations, and other teams align more closely with the software development process.

7. Start with CI/CD Practices

Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) practices help you develop flawless products faster by detecting bugs and errors at the early development stage and fixing them efficiently. Furthermore, it helps bridge the gap between developers and the operational team while streamlining the task for real-time resolution.

8. Automate Test Process

Test automation is another crucial step of DevOps implementation. It helps your workforce avoid doing the same task over and above again. The more efficiently you automate the test process, the fewer errors your software will exhibit during the testing process. It simply means the development and deployment of your product will be better and faster.

9. Keep the Teams Informed

From time to time, you need to hold meetings with the team concerned with software development and explain all operational guidelines. You need to inform everyone on the team promptly about any ongoing changes and keep the process transparent. This step is the main idea of DevOps implementation and software development.

10. Document Everything

Start documenting all your work, which you have targeted across the process, especially the reports. Documents will help you go back and check if the challenges you tackled can be automated in the next cycle without interrupting your current production process.

11. Automate Dashboards

Dashboards gather detailed data about the several processes within your organization, which further helps you track product development progress. You should automate dashboards so that everyone involved in the DevOps implementation can instantly access any data and make a move accordingly.

12. Invest in the Right Tools

Inefficient or old-practiced tools can be the reason why DevOps is not working for your organization. Many businesses get accustomed to the existing tools that they don’t want to replace them. But DevOps needs high-functioning tools to deliver the desired benefits. Accordingly, it will increase the productivity of the employees and improve overall functioning.

13. Keep Track of Performance

One of the most essential and never-ending steps of DevOps implementation is monitoring your workforce’s performance. However, this step is done after successfully implementing all the necessary tools and practices. Still, we can’t overlook it as it is something that determines the success of DevOps methodology within your organization.

Conclusion

The business world is growing at an exponential rate, and to sustain at this competitive age, enterprises must use revolutionary tools such as DevOps. If you don’t, you’ll be deprived of some of the significant benefits your business rivals would already be exploiting.

Unsurprisingly, DevOps is a way to develop products quickly and efficiently. In addition, businesses improve the customer experience,  increase profits, and reduce errors in development. Thus, it is no wonder why many enterprises are actively adopting this methodology.

With that said, you can’t overlook DevOps implementation if you genuinely wish to excel in today’s competitive business environment. Here it is imperative to implement it the right way; else, it will be of no use.

If you are not sure how to do it right, don’t miss out on hiring the best DevOps services from a reliable software development company that is known to deploy quality agile applications and create high business value.

Successful implementation of DevOps methodology will give immense advantages to your business.