DesignOps to DevOps and Back Again: Nuts & Bolts

Update: Jan 2020 - In the last year I used many new tools. Most notably Figma for design (still love sketch more) as well as Jira and Confluence for SDLC management. I have a new perspective using any tool in general and a better idea of the landscape of features and functions available outside of the Microsoft ecosystem.   

I was reviewing my current workflow and thought I would expand that to a post on which DesignOps to DevOps tools I have come to use the last few years. Maybe later posts will expand on how I manage but this one is about the tools.

The Machines: MacBookPro with OSX and PC/Laptop with Win10. Anything I can get my hands into really. As a consumer, I have my preferences but as a professional, it would be short-sighted to restrict myself to one platform.

Working cross-platform: I take advantage of Microsoft/Office 365 collaboration tools and services for more than 90% of the artifacts I generate and collaborate on. However, due to the variety of platform-specific tools involved I find myself using Windows RDP for Mac pretty much all day. When needed, I use VNC to connect to my Mac from my PC. VNC can also be used for connecting to Linux machines. SSH and PowerShell are frenemies of mine. Then there are the Azure virtual machines, which can be any configuration of OS, hardware, and distribution imaginable.

I/O: A full-size keyboard, a high-sensitivity mouse, and occasionally a stylus. The only thing I am pretty picky about is my monitors. Whether a designer, developer, manager, or executive, the best kindness you can do for yourself is to use the nicest monitor you can afford in your budget. Hi-definition monitors are relatively inexpensive today. You are staring at it for hours, be kind to your eyes.

Design Ops is a term that is growing on me. Design Ops is an operational model for streamlining the inception-design-development process. DesignOps iterates with the life cycle of the product but has the most weight in the earliest stages of product creation. As a bonus, “design” in the traditional sense is a naturally agile process of iterating creations that are constantly reviewed and improved. So you can speak in terms of agile methodology and Scrum framework with most designers even if they have never been exposed to software development.

DesignOps Tools: Some of these are preferences, some are industry standards, and others are things I just like.

Design: Sketch (Mac only) is hands down my favorite design application available today. It’s not perfect, and newer tools are coming into this family of design programs, but it’s nearly impossible to detach a designer from Sketch once they get their hands on it. Lunacy is a Sketch clone for windows and it can open sketch files on a Windows machine. Lunacy is not quite a replacement for Sketch but it is nice being able to view and modify sketch files on my PC. I use sketch for nearly everything yet diagramming, especially Microsoft solutions, is still a bit easier in Visio.

Prototyping: The big titles such as InVision, Adobe XD, and Figma simply have the most integrations and functionality. There are still some other interesting programs in this space worth looking into. Overflow is excellent for creating and sharing user flows and JustiInMind provides rich requirement management tools with prototyping. There are too many plugins and helper services to mention for all of these programs, but know the UI/UX ecosystem of resources is stronger than ever.

Collaboration: I prefer Microsoft Teams (there’s a free version) over Slack but both work very well for online collaboration.

Versioning of Design Artifacts and Intellectual Property (IP): I use Git. Even for images and graphics. Why not? Relevant documentation and IP, even marketing materials, can be versioned in the same project as the code. There is even a visual versioning tool for Sketch that uses Git - Abstract.

DesignOps to DevOps: If you are bold enough to use Azure DevOps for design operations, there are some real workflow advantages. Design guides, style tiles, experience maps, and any other artifact of Design Ops can follow the product through its life cycle and be a part of the continuous integration and continuous deployment of the product code. While you can accomplish repository management with numerous UIs and Apps, Git has a CLI for the command line junkies.

DevOps is a whole other game with some very complex ecosystems. But it is possible for DesignOps and DevOps to play by the same rules. I try to utilize every feature of Azure DevOps (Team Services): Agile Planning, Kanban, Version Control, CI/CD, Testing; the list of triple-A tools and services included is exhaustive.

Versioning of Code: By now you can probably guess — Git with Azure DevOps.

Logs & Analytics: Learn where the logs are on your machines (Win10, Mac). Build logs and feedback into every part of a solution. For a fun time, host log analysis parties where everyone reads logs in their favorite character voice. Just kidding. I’m seeing if you are still paying attention. Just mentioning logs makes people yawn.

Project Management: Spreadsheets. Is there any other way? :) I like MS Excel because it comes with my Office 365 subscription and has some cool features when hooked to MS Graph API. However, any project management software will work as long as it helps you manage the project and not spend your time managing the management software.

A related note on Design Ops: I started my career creating animations and websites — in Flash. Sorry, not sorry. As wonderful as Flash was to non-coding designers, it was a nightmare for the internet. Long before Steve Jobs publicly murdered Flash it became apparent that it was not going to be a platform forever. Now twenty years into my career, with a dozen languages learned, many infrastructures designed and systems configured, I am finding my way back to my design roots. Thanks in most part to the new explosion of design and project tools and the adoption of Design Thinking throughout most industries.

So that’s that, all the stuff I like to use to manage a product lifecycle. Do you have a holistic approach to product design and development? What are your tools and workflows?

Also posted at https://medium.com/@Infotrix/designops-to-devops-and-back-again-nuts-bolts-827f122b8509