You can imagine it like this: A production-critical application for monitoring orders is running in production. Now the production process changes and the software has to be adapted accordingly. A developer could implement all the necessary changes within a few hours. However, the new version can only go live once all tests have been passed and all security and compatibility requirements have been met. The employees from Operations are responsible for the latter. For the most part, they are currently manually ensuring that the application is stable. It can take days for the processes in production to be converted.

The DevOps principle

DevOps has been around for a good decade to prevent such time-consuming processes and continuously improve the coordination of people and processes. There is a lot of confusion surrounding this term, mainly due to the fact that there is no set of rules, no manifesto as we know it from agile methods.

An important step in this direction is the automation of processes. Tests, for example, ensure that changes do not affect the stability of the solution. With the help of automated processes, these tests can be carried out as often as possible, thereby increasing stability. This is the only way for companies to be able to react flexibly to adjustments.

Production also benefits from DevOps

So what does all this have to do with production? In the context of digitalization, the influence of IT will continue to grow rapidly. Whether it's solutions for managing production orders or planning tools, production needs high-quality solutions that don't take months to update. This is because software is often already outdated by then and the competition has moved on. DevOps is also a corporate culture that focuses on the employee. Away from the IT departments, production and intralogistics in particular could work together more efficiently in many cases if the exchange is intensified and the common goal - customer satisfaction - is the focus. One possible positive side effect that the DevOps culture has on a company is growing employee satisfaction. Taking responsibility and being actively involved increases motivation to achieve the best possible end result.

However, DevOps requires a central rethink: an error and feedback culture must be created that enables communication in all directions, not only across hierarchical levels, but also across departmental boundaries.

Continuous improvement

Modern software applications need to be continuously improved and revised. DevOps offers the right environment for this, as automated processes and more efficient collaboration between disciplines result in rapid and continuous improvements. Manufacturing companies can also take this as an example for their products. As a result, they benefit from faster development cycles, higher product quality and more satisfied employees and customers.

How companies can benefit from DevOps

• Faster time-to-market
• More stable applications
• Optimized cross-departmental collaboration and communication
• Transparent working
• Faster problem solving
• Happier, more productive employees and teams

Andreas Müller, Senior DevOps Engineer at Salt Solutions