Hi there! After over a decade helping large enterprises adopt DevOps, I‘ve seen firsthand the transformative impact it can have when implemented correctly.
But DevOps is about more than just automation. To release high-quality updates quickly, you need to connect people, processes and technology across the entire delivery lifecycle.
This comprehensive guide explores the different phases of the DevOps lifecycle and discusses key concepts like:
- The 7 Cs of DevOps
- DevOps vs DevSecOps
- Best practices for DevOps success
- Integrating security into your lifecycle
- Common implementation challenges
I‘ll explain what exactly the DevOps lifecycle entails, share insightful statistics, and provide expert advice to help you on your journey.
Let‘s get started!
What Exactly is the DevOps Lifecycle?
The DevOps lifecycle is the end-to-end sequence of connected steps that take a software application from idea to production and beyond.
It provides structure for teams to deliver updates frequently and reliably by bringing together software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops).
Unlike cumbersome waterfall development methods, the DevOps lifecycle is:
✅ Continuous: Teams constantly iterate and improve via feedback loops
✅ Automated: Manual tasks shift left into code for efficiency
✅ Fast: Small changes deploy often to get rapid validation
✅ Consistent: Infrastructure as code enables reproducibility
✅ Observable: Monitoring provides system insight to prevent issues
These core DevOps attributes require evolving both mindsets and processes across the delivery pipeline.
Mapping Out the DevOps Lifecycle
The high-level DevOps lifecycle consists of eight key phases that form a continuous loop:
I‘ll explore what each phase entails later on. First, let‘s look at why adopting a DevOps model has become so critical.
Why You Need a DevOps Lifecycle
Utilizing a connected DevOps workflow offers major advantages over siloed ways of working:
Faster time-to-market
- Teams release updates in hours rather than months
- 75% less time spent on unplanned work/issues [State of DevOps Report]
Improved productivity
- 20x more frequent code deployments [Puppet DevOps Report]
- 22% faster recovery from incidents [Google DevOps Research]
Enhanced software quality
- 7x lower change failure rate [Puppet DevOps Report]
- 16x faster mean time to recover [Accenture DevOps Study]
Reduced business risk
- 440x faster Lead Time from Commit to Deploy [DORA Accelerate State of DevOps 2021]
- 49x lower Change Failure Rate [DORA Accelerate State of DevOps 2021]
Beyond impressive metrics like these, DevOps ultimately helps you:
- Bring innovative offerings to market faster
- Delight customers with higher quality experiences
- Unlock new upsell and revenue opportunities
Now let‘s explore what exactly teams need to execute in order to realize these DevOps benefits.
Key Phases of the DevOps Lifecycle
Walking through the phases of the DevOps lifecycle helps map all required capabilities:
1. Plan
The planning phase sets direction by bringing stakeholders together to:
- Outline the overall vision
- Review capabilities and constraints
- Define features and set priorities
- Map out tasks, owners and timelines
- Identify tools and architectures
Effective planning provides focus for smooth execution later on.
It also crucially sets expectations around deliverables and responsibilities across the business.
Be sure to factor in security considerations like compliance requirements, regulations and threat modeling during the planning process too.
2. Code
Next, developers start writing application code and components guided by specifications defined during planning.
Modern development teams utilize practices like:
- Version control (e.g Git): Enables transparency, collaboration and reversibility of code changes
- Code reviews: Peers review code pre-merge to share knowledge and prevent defects
- Coding standards: Drive efficiency, consistency and readability across engineers
- Trunk-based development: Developers collaborate on code in a single branch to enable rapid integration
These coding best practices lead to higher quality, more maintainable software.
3. Build
The build stage takes source code and dependencies then compiles, packages and tests them ready for release.
Core build phase DevOps practices include:
- Automated build tools (e.g Maven, Gradle): Standardize and configure build pipelines as code
- CI/CD platforms (e.g Jenkins, CircleCI): Enable reproducible, automated application build and test workflows
- Artifact repository (e.g Artifactory, Nexus): Promote build outputs to central storage for easy access across teams
- Containerization (e.g Docker): Package apps and configs into lightweight, portable containers
Together these accelerate the generation of deployment-ready infrastructure and applications.
4. Test
Rigorous testing in staging environments ensures code works as expected before release:
- Unit testing validates individual components function properly
- Integration testing verifies modules and services interact correctly
- UI testing checks UIs appear and function as intended
- Load testing determines system performance thresholds
- Vulnerability scanning identifies potential security weaknesses
Test automation shifts this effort earlier to deliver feedback faster. For example, test-driven development merges testing into coding while code quality checks provide instant feedback on commits.
5. Release
Releasing code to production involves final checks before go-live:
- Security vetting: Tools like SAST, SCA, DAST scan artifacts for vulnerabilities
- Compliance validation: Verify regulatory and internal policies are met
- Business approval: Confirm stakeholders aligned on release timing
Fulfilling all release pipeline quality gates minimizes chances of issues post-deployment.
6. Deploy
Next, validated code components deploy onto production infrastructure:
- Infrastructure provisioning: Tools like Terraform and CloudFormation script secure, scalable cloud environments
- Configuration management: Ansible, Chef and Puppet define and enforce server state
- Orchestration: Kubernetes distributes containers across clusters, balancing workloads
Zero-downtime techniques like canary releases reduce go-live risk. This is where you roll out changes to a subset of infrastructure alongside the existing stack. If all appears fine, you gradually shift more traffic before retiring old components.
7. Operate
In production, operations teams manage availability, performance, capacity and business continuity.
Observability tools provide crucial insights via:
- Logging: Application and infrastructure logs record all events
- Metrics: KPI dashboards reveal overall product health
- Tracing: Map how requests flow across services
- Alerting: Get notified when metrics breach defined thresholds
Quick feedback loops to development continually improve stability.
8. Monitor
Finally, closing the loop involves feeding back all manner of telemetry to shape priorities:
- User research: Survey and interview users to guide requirements
- Usage metrics: Analyze feature adoption plus which paths customers actually take
- Bug reports: Fix platform weaknesses impacting customers
- Incident reviews: Prevent recurrence of production issues
This outside-in context ensures you build what users want most.
Now that you‘re oriented on DevOps lifecycle basics, let‘s explore proven ways to optimize workflows.
DevOps Best Practices
Drawing on over a decade helping manage large scale delivery programs, here are my top tips for DevOps lifecycle success:
Automate testing early – Shift test automation left to enable rapid feedback. Utilize frameworks like Selenium and run on CI tools like Jenkins.
Improve visibility – Implement logs, metrics and tracing standards like OpenTelemetry to keep teams aligned.
Version everything – Application code as well as infrastructure-as-code and pipeline definitions should utilize version control for transparency.
Shift security left – Embed automated security checks into code commits, builds and testing to reduce release pipeline bottlenecks later on.
Promote ownership – Give developers increased responsibility across the lifecycle to instill accountability for outcomes.
Obsess over customers – Continually engage with users, seek feedback and analyze usage data to build features they truly want.
Keep improving – Have a mindset and processes centered around continual incremental optimization across people, tools and workflows.
Now let‘s explore how security fits into the big picture.
Integrating Security: DevSecOps
With breaches growing ever more frequent and severe, DevSecOps inserts security practices deep into the lifecycle:
Here‘s how security maps to each phase:
Plan – Define compliance needs, conduct threat modeling to uncover risk areas for protection
Code – Utilize linters and peer reviews to avoid introducing vulnerabilities while writing code
Build – Embed SAST, SCA and container scanning to catch issues in dependencies and application code before release
Test – Perform dynamic scans, fuzzing and penetration testing to validate defenses
Release – Final manual or automated approval checks for any policy violations across people, process and technology
Deploy – Verify production configuration meets security baselines through compliance as code checks
Operate – Monitor systems for suspicious user activity, signs of intrusion and anomaly detection
Monitor – Continually tune practices based on security telemetry and intelligence to thwart emerging threats
This consistent focus on security from initial planning through to operations keeps customers‘ data safe while enabling more experiments.
But simply bolt-on scanning tools alone won‘t cut it. You need visibility, shared responsibility and automation woven across every step.
Overcoming Common DevOps Lifecycle Challenges
While a streamlined, collaborative DevOps workflow promises faster innovation, adapting people and processes to this new model can prove challenging:
Resistance to change – Teach personnel new skills and highlight efficiency gains to each role to overcome reluctance.
Too many tools – Standardize on a cloud-native toolchain, limit tool types per stage, deeply integrate, and cross-skill staff to prevent inefficiencies.
Unclear metrics – Workshops with all stakeholders help devise meaningful metrics and key performance indicators tailored to your environment. These provide carrot not stick, giving teams focus.
Compliance friction – Embed automated policy as code checks into code commits and pipelines to shift verification left and enable rapid feedback on meeting requirements.
Access to test environments – Utilize cloud infrastructure to provision production-like environments on-demand. This eliminates waiting times even with minimal dedicated resources.
Tackling these trouble areas head-on accelerates your path to streamlined enterprise-scale DevOps.
Key Takeaways
Here are the core learnings to help you on your DevOps journey:
🌟 The DevOps lifecycle delivers speed and stability through connected automation
🌟 Utilize 7 critical phases: Plan, Code, Build, Test, Release, Deploy, Operate and Monitor
🌟 Integrate security everywhere via a DevSecOps model
🌟 Obsess over customers, promote ownership and continually improve
Let‘s quickly recap the key 12 points:
DevOps Lifecycle 101
- Brings Dev and Ops together across delivery lifecycle
- Continuous integration and automation
- Faster delivery of higher quality updates
- Eight phases form a continuous loop
Outcomes
- 20x more frequent code deployments
- 7x lower change failure rates
- 49x lower change failure rates
- 75% less unplanned work
Best Practices
- Embed security deeply
- Promote shared responsibility
- Obsess over customer needs
- Continually optimize
So there you have an expert-level overview to successfully leverage the full DevOps lifecycle!
Hopefully the detailed coverage gives you the context to tailor phases and security checks to your environment.
Let me know if you have any other questions as you being your adoption journey!
