How can you optimize risk management with DevOps and continuous testing in the face of ever-increasing production and development pace? Today, IT organizations are under constant pressure to meet ever-tighter time-to-market deadlines.
In response, many have adopted Agile and DevOps methods. These methods are bearing fruit, but sometimes to the detriment of security and risk management. Find out more about DevOps in our article.
Indeed, it is absolutely essential to take into account the whole security aspect before launching an application on the market. If end-users encounter problems that cause the application to be temporarily shut down... It may already be too late.
Knowing how to define risk acceptability is a key point for any company that wants to adopt an Agile or DevOps environment, because the development cycle is much shorter. Theoretically, it's simple. In reality, there is often an information asymmetry between the definition of risks by project managers and the actual management of these risks by development teams.
The objective of this article is to highlight the hot spots to watch out for when adopting an Agile and DevOps approach.
Exposing and measuring risk
The Holy Grail of risk management is to successfully define the perfect balance between the speed to market of an application and the quality of the product delivered. To do this, we must define the "acceptable" risk, which raises several points to consider:
- an understanding of how to measure each risk
- Establish baselines and thresholds to define what constitutes an acceptable level of risk
- the implementation of automation to continuously monitor risk management
To define risk and take all these points into account, it is necessary for managers and development teams to be pointed in the same direction. This requires a clear and transparent definition of objectives, easily accessible and automatically measured and managed. In reality, few (not enough?) companies do this.
The very technical nature of the development business means that dev teams do not always have the project managers' issues in mind. Devs often lack the global vision of projects.
In addition, if the work of the development team does not match business expectations, you expose yourself to risks that can affect the productivity of your teams (risk of demoralization, for example).
You'll understand: by closing the gap between business and technical professions, you'll reduce the risks and harmful impacts on application development.
Continuous Testing - The Key to DevOps and Agile Risk Management
Continuous testing is an automated and unobtrusive way to quickly evaluate eligible releases (also known as automated testing and continuous integration). Implementing a continuous testing tool gives dev teams visibility into business expectations and concrete insights into application improvement areas. It's the ideal compromise to optimize end-user UX while ensuring that the project stays on track from a project management perspective.
Today, the popularity of agile and DevOps methods is greater than ever and continuous testing methods are becoming more and more common in the IT sector.
In concrete terms, practicing continuous testing provides 4 major benefits:
- A clear and shared vision of business risks that decompartmentalizes business management and development
- Deploy a safety net allowing devs to develop new features faster.
- Enables project managers to make better decisions with a global view and understanding of projects.
- By generating continuous tests, development teams collect data and metrics throughout the development cycle. This information can help teams optimize processes on an ongoing basis.
Some (often open source) DevOps tools to implement CT (Continuous Testing): Jenkins, Bamboo, Puppet, Docker... Discover our list of the best DevOps tools!
DevOps, risk management and continuous testing: conclusion
Today, the leaders in the various markets distinguish themselves from the competition by offering innovative applications that benefit end users.
These companies know how to continuously re-evaluate the risk of their development project through the implementation of CT methods. The companies that stand out are those that know how to increase the speed and quality of the release of new software versions while taking into account the risks inherent in the development and security of applications.
Our DevOps and Risk Management teams can assist you in the development and implementation of DevOps and Agile methods. Do not hesitate to contact our experts!
Take a look at our 6 tips before setting up continuous testing.
Read our customer testimonial on Blue Soft in Médiamétrie's DevOps department.
