Most Common DevOps Trends in 2020

For almost decades now, DevOps has remained the silver bullet for modern businesses in their journey toward digitalization. As the digital front becomes a mandate for all organizations to achieve a sustainable place in the marketplace, DevOps is also transforming itself in order to provide improved technique and flow of software development for small, medium, as well as large businesses. Here are some of the trends that DevOps is bringing into the digital arena:

More organizations will prioritize DevOps training and upskilling

According to a recent report by The DevOps Institute, almost 55 percent of recruiters tend to hire internally for their DevOps teams. While this may seem a plausible decision for a few businesses, for most firms the challenge lies in budget and the required skills. To elaborate, entrepreneurs are faced with the lack of DevOps knowledge among the existing employees, while the process of hiring new experts often incur high charges. Therefore, industry leaders are leaning toward the idea of training their existing employees about the DevOps best practices.

A staggering status of the tool fatigue, only to improve later

There is no denying the fact that the number of DevOps frameworks and tools is exhausting. The hectic process of understanding, integrating and deploying these tools is likely to remain the same, if not worsen in the current year. In an ambitious bid to eliminate these strenuous tasks, companies are considering the implementation of full-blown automation for the routine tasks, whereas human effort can be deployed in sections of the workflow that need innovation and improvisation.

Stronger collaboration between DevOps and Agile teams

With both DevOps and Agile on the verge of getting outside the technological realm and moving into a more innovative field, companies across industries are increasingly emphasizing mature teams that can provide quick resolutions. However, with the competitive pressure on businesses for reaching the “digital” status, industry leaders are marrying Agile and DevOps with the other technological advancements. 2020 will see some of the major collaborations between these two popular methodologies and other technologies.

Absorption of AI and ML into DevOps

As mentioned, entrepreneurs are looking to amalgamate the best of both DevOps as well as other technological wonders. In a similar vein, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will bring a slew of innovative concepts to the DevOps table. For instance, both these technologies will empower DevOps teams with the liberty and ability to perform data analysis at an increased scale, thereby helping them automate the aggregation of heavy volumes of data and analyze them for better decision-making. Also widely known as AIOps, this teaming up of DevOps and AI is likely to revolutionize the way business is currently being done.

Better management of process through smart metrics

For some years now, smart metrics have been helping teams to plan the software development process in a better manner. On similar lines, more organizations are likely to adopt these metric systems. Business leaders searching for most authentic metric regulations can find the best at DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA). DORA has elaborated information on the five regulations related to Software Delivery and Operational and Performance (SDOP). These regulations indicate successful proceedings for DevOps teams. With the aid of these indicators, users can convert data into actionable insights and bring more value to the companies’ DevOps journey.

Reunion of DevOps and service management

With the introduction of Information Technology Infrastructure Library version 4 (ITILv4), it has become an advantageous situation for organizations that are steadily adopting DevOps practices as well as service management models and frameworks. Aiming to develop mature software and increasing the ability to add value and reduce waste simultaneously. At the core, service management and DevOps together can help in aligning teams as per the task requirements, while achieving demands placed by stakeholders. After all, digital transformation is an ongoing process where the adoption of best-suited methodologies to constantly learn, evolve, and confront challenges successfully.

Introducing T-shaped professionalism through constant up- and cross-skilling

Both organizations, as well as individual professionals, are slowly realizing the strain in the human capital market, which is further resulting in constantly upskilling themselves in order to stay future-ready. This trend is, therefore, empowering them to increase their depth and breadth of knowledge in the relevant areas of technology, giving rise to the T-Shaped professional. Besides, leaders will also focus majorly on soft skills, comprising customer experience, empathy, and collaboration.

Affinity towards a value-oriented goal

As customer satisfaction becomes the sole objective behind all tasks, developers will slowly understand the difference between “job is done” to “job done successfully.” Modern entrepreneurs are deploying value stream mapping methods to track and change team behavior and direct them toward a more sustainable and customer-oriented goal. This process will ensure enhanced transparency at all levels, as developers will now focus more on the end-to-end software lifecycle. Companies, are, therefore, adopting Value Stream Management to automate their outputs from this value stream mapping techniques to facilitate continuous monitoring of progress. DevOps teams are now more capable of connecting all the complex toolchains with the system-derived data based on the timeline of the cycle.

Heightened job satisfaction, more money for DevOps teams

A new addition to the DevOps knick-knacks, automation will be leveraged on a greater scale for the execution of more mundane tasks. This will pose an advantage for DevOps, who can walk that extra mile to ponder on tasks that require innovation and human effort. Besides, DevOps experts are now entitled to greater job satisfaction and alleviated stress. Beyond the conventional role of a developer, individuals will be able to explore the depths of better software delivery by collaborating with other teams, positively impacting the quality of code, which in turn, improves the payroll of developers.

Rise of new-age IT experts

In the current day and age, where IT is experiencing a paradigm shift in its methodologies and frameworks, professionals are gradually approaching toward a new wave of digitalization. Reduced silos and seamless connectivity will become more frequent, accelerating development, testing and delivery of software within the stipulated time. In the wake of this scenario, the overall infrastructure and operational efficiencies will eventually improve, paving the way for reduced workloads and better productivity.