Review, "DevOps Unleashed with Git and GitHub" (Packt, 2024

If you’ve done any coding since roughly 2005, you have probably used Git to manage development and production.? “DevOps Unleashed with Git and GitHub” ( Packt , 2024)? by Yuki Hattori works hard to bring veteran developers up to speed on the new tools.? The book includes extensive coding samples, various development strategies, and thoroughly explores the benefits, challenges, and best practices for each approach.? A quick read: the book is divided into three sections, starting with Git, excellence in practices, and beyond DevOps.? This book is an excellent reference for developers, system administrators, or project managers using GitHub.

The book begins with a fresh introduction to Git from the command-line perspective, exploring structures, commands, and usages. This brings the reader in at a basic level and ensures familiarity with the approach. One interesting term, and a first for me, was InnerSource, development tied to a team rather than OpenSource, where all code becomes widely available. InnerSource pillars are described as openness, transparency, prioritizing mentorship, and voluntary code contribution.

The second section moves from the command line git to the user interface (UI) associated with GitHub.? These reinforce the techniques from the first section with a point-and-click rather than a command-line approach.? One of my favorite parts was the thorough overview of GitHub Issues and Projects.? If you haven’t used these tools, they address a historical weakness in GitHub with being able to create work to be done and track via a Scrum or Kanban board.? The section also covers establishing a GitHub actions pipeline and describes various deployments such as Blue/Green, A/B, canary, feature flags, and others in detail.? Like all other actions, these approaches include benefits, challenges, and best practices to take away.

Finally, the book discusses DevOps metrics with DORA and Space and introduces the concept of AI. GitHub Copilot is an additional coding tool that launched in late 2021 and provides an assistant to writing code. The author references some key aspects when using AI, such as detailed comments, descriptive naming conventions, thorough documentation, and clearly framed problems. While one may prefer using Generative AI, simply telling it to write code to do a thing doesn’t always get the best results.??

My biggest issue was that the DevOps portion fell a little short.? The first chapter extensively covers some of the logic around DevOps, and emphasizes the cultural nature.? I agree that culture is the primary aspect of DevOps, but if culture is the driver, then technology becomes less important.? The book’s DevOps approach feels more like framing to showcase Git and GitHub rather than a full unleashing.? In full DevOps implementation, the tools matter, but people and processes carry equal weight.? Tools also are a needed element but not an exclusive element to reach accelerated delivery.? The DevOps SDLC appears, but the three ways of flow, feedback, continuous improvement, and the CALMS (culture, automation, Lean, Metrics, and Sharing) structures are conspicuously absent.? A good example might be, rather than simply mentioning how Git supports DevOps, to show what a full unleashing looks like to the author.?

Overall, “Devops Unleashed with Git and GitHub” does a much better job in describing the tools than truly unleashing DevOps.? This is an excellent reference for those using Git or GitHub for their current development needs.? If you are working with either of those tools, I recommend this as a reference and a good introduction to some new capabilities.? If you are just starting into coding, this is an excellent place to pick up some core skills.?

Dr. Mark Peters is a Senior Director of Solutions Architecture (Raft), responsible for integrating theoretical and physical options into tailored customer deliveries. Self-styled DevOps junkie, he recently published “Confident DevOps” (2024, Kogan Page. He served 22 years as a US Air Force Intelligence officer on everything from fighters and drones to satellites.? A cybersecurity expert, he holds multiple certifications, a Ph.D. in Information Technology (Capella), and a Strategic Security Doctorate (Henley-Putnam). He authored "Cashing in on Cyberpower" analyzing a decade of cyber-attacks and has a forthcoming book,? “Mastering Enterprise Platform Engineering” (Packt, Sep-2024). ? A frequent reviewer for industry-leading books, he has written 100+ reviews and articles.