"DevOps"-Super simplified with my "Dosa"Ops story

Medium version in 2022

In the current technology space, I think the most abstract, often confusing, and misunderstood term is "DevOps". I say confusing because, unlike several significant technologies, DevOps is a generalized technical name given for a specific set of activities & processes performed by disparate teams, using specific set of technologies and tools. Therefore, the term "DevOps" doesn't seem to give a straight forward meaning of what other technologies implicitly give.

Barring the individuals who deal/dealt with DevOps regularly, directly or indirectly, I hear different versions and definitions around it, especially from who never used or dealt with it. Therefore, some might say "DevOps is a tool to perform deployments automatically", some say " DevOps is new technology introduced to reduce team size in middleware/deployments", few others say in a bookish slang that "Its a collaborative effort between developers and operations teams" , few might even try to answer as "Very demanding job skill in the market!!". And finally, if you'd asked me couple years back I would have said in a more shocking manner "Its a mix of people(Who?), process(What?) and technologies(Which?) to achieve desired results(What?)" . No meaningful answers for the italicized questions though!!.

Well, some of the answers might reflect the truth about it partly but not completely. Therefore, I am going to give an attempt to clarify it in a very very general way and in a different manner. No theory on the technical terms used, no long definitions. I will start with a personal story here, again.

One fine evening, my wife was making Dosas(Dosa is Indian Pancake, or you can assume it to be Paratas or Naans or Tortillas or Pan Cakes, whichever that consumers expect right from the hot pan). She was fully busy with preparing all the requisites for Dosas, such as chutney and sambar as dips, and with wrapping Dosas with cut onions and green peppers only for me, tomato sauce only for younger one, and masala powder only for elder one. Knowing that she is a great cook and that it gets "delayed" to prepare all Dosas, pack them with customized ingredients listed above and serve, my sons were chattering over dining table and I was immersed in to my laptop. Randomly, kids kept on checking by saying "Are they ready yet?". My wife was bit tensed because of the fear that kids might eat other snacks before dosas are ready and I was tensed too because they wouldn't let me focus and instead order me to get something else quickly!!.

Finally, after an hour she brought everything, Dosas well wrapped with customized ingredients, Sambar and Chutney as sides in different dishes. "WoW" kids jumped to grab them and I put aside my laptop immediately (that's my wow gesture!!). To our surprise, kids just ate very little and wouldn't like to eat further despite our requests!!. Elder one said "Mom, Dosas are NOT crunchy as I expect, they are so soft and aren't hot!!" as a reason for his dislike. Younger one , no feedback. Just as an other reflection of his elder brother's feedback, but in other demanding language which myself and my wife knows, started crying with a resounding demand "I WANT PIZZAAAAAAAA". While consoling my younger one, I completed my portion, with a smiley gesture to my wife that meant "They are great". I just didn't wanted to upset her further nor undermine her great efforts(which involved numerous synchronous steps), which were wasted just due to the time factor (delay) which is out of her control. However, my wife caught my inner pulse and we discussed what to do for the next time. As a result, here comes the New Recruit, for a specialized job!!.

(Same scene after few days, mom busy in preparing Dosas, kids chattering over dining table. But dad ain't there with his laptop. Where is he???. He is just standing beside mom in that tiny kitchen and waiting for shipments from the hot pan, and in parallel mincing onions)

As soon as my wife prepared the first dosa, I quickly put some tomato sauce inside, included sides and served to younger one first (as he wouldn't let elder to go first). Next dosa for the elder one, therefore I sprinkled masala powder, put the sides and served. . Vice versa, until they are full. We figured that kids liked them by hearing their acknowledgements "One more dosa" repetitively and younger one forgot about Pizza that day. We were so happy that kids happily ate them all, beyond our expectations!!. Plan worked and End of Story!!

Now, if you relate Kids as End Users/Customers, Mom as Great Developer, Dad as a DevOps tool (say, Azure Devops or Jenkins) and application dependencies/customized configurations as cut onions/tomato sauce/green peppers/masala powder

In the first instance, the end-users(Kids) were NOT happy because they got the product they wanted (Dosas) not at the time they wanted but with lot of delay. Despite the product having all needed dependencies, libraries, features packed (sides for dipping), customized user configurations (Cut Onions/peppers, sauce, masala powder wrapped within). No incremental product releases while users were eagerly WAITING for the product to be ready minimally to satisfy the immediate needs (i.e a dosa at a time right from pan, to stop kids complaining while they were hungry ). All due to lack of DevOps(Dad), which would have helped with quick delivery. Hence, all products/features piled up and delivered at once with huge delay(Hence, they were soft, and not tastier). As a result the demanding end users tried to look for alternate solutions(Pizza by younger one) or remain as not-satisfied(elder one). This obviously impacted the business value and user satisfaction!!

In the second instance, the end-users were very happy because they got the product they wanted with all needed dependencies, libraries, features well packed with customized configurations. Incremental product releases were done leveraging DevOps, to meet the minimal needs of the business/end users, quickly and without any delay when they were ACTUALLY needing it. As a result, end users didn't look for alternate solutions or companies, with improved time to market and great business value delivered!!.

That is the power of DevOps!!

In the interest of time to read and length, I didn't go in to specifics of how DevOps helps with each software life cycle phase, with various developmental and release aspects, tools involved in each phase etc. I meant to give a very clear picture of what DevOps does as a whole( including its tools, features, steps in various phases of product life cycle, teams involved)!!.