Exploring DevOps practices and habits

Since you are not the first team going on this journey, you can learn from the experiences of those before you. One example is the Microsoft team that built Azure DevOps. Being in the rare position that they can use their own product for developing their product, they have learned a great deal about what makes DevOps successful. From this, they have identified seven key DevOps practices and seven DevOps habits that many successful DevOps teams share:

          
DevOps practices           DevOps habits

          
Configuration management           Team autonomy and enterprise alignment

          
Release management           Rigorous management of technical debt

          
Continuous integration           Focus on flow of customer value

          
Continuous deployment           Hypothesis-driven development

          
Infrastructure as Code           Evidence gathered in production

          
Test automation           Live-site culture

          
Application performance monitoring           Manage infrastructure as a flexible resource

  

Now it is important to realize that just copying the motions described will not guarantee success. Just as with Agile, you will have to spend time to really understand these practices and habits, where they come from, and what they contribute to a continuous flow of value to your end users.

The following sections explore all of these practices and habits in more detail. Keep these in the back of your mind while reading the rest of this book. While the rest of this book will mostly focus on technical means of how to do things, do not forget that these are only means. The real value comes from mindset and creating a culture that is focused on creating a continuous flow of value to your customers.