Successful DevOps in the world of hybrid work

Here are three DevOps best practices that can help developers in Singapore, and globally, reap the benefits of working remotely.

1. Automation helps developers work better by eliminating repetitive work
   Distributed teams often struggle with collaboration, employee and project tracking, and team management. One of the best ways to alleviate these challenges is to employ a more streamlined work experience using automated tools. As a developer, you’ve likely done some automated testing and automated builds. A slight improvement in automation and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) can make your work a little easier. Teams that use an automated CI/CD platform witness an estimated 36% increase in the number of merged pull requests and a 33% decrease for the time taken to merge. When automating repetitive tasks like environment setups, data manipulation UIs, or application deployment scripting, teams report performing 27% better in terms of open source and general work improvement. By adopting a good CI/CD platform, teams can also test their code each time they push to the server, preventing potential glitches.
2. Designing and implementing tools to improve flexibility and speed
   Tools and pre-configured environments hosted in the cloud can make it easier to write, test, build, and deploy software, regardless of where you’re working from. In a hybrid environment, developers will benefit significantly from using a cloud-hosted integrated development environment. Since everything is hosted on the cloud, developers can start coding in seconds on any device ranging from an iPad to Chromebook. Developers can also collaborate on multiple development branches, deploy hundreds of changes per day, and spin up development environments for new hires quickly. Embedding cloud-native tools into the development workflow will enable teams to streamline communication, ensure their applications are able to scale, and guarantee projects and organizations can continue to grow with a remote workforce, which is especially important considering the number of remote jobs increased by 12% in 2021 over 2020.
3. Find a common language
   Frontend development can be time-intensive, requiring finesse which can be difficult with distributed teams. YAML, one of the primary languages powering popular declarative automation, can help simplify front-end configuration and automate repetitive tasks. For example, YAML for front matter is a technique used to define and describe pages rendered into HTML by static site generators and is a helpful way to save time. YAML can also be used to build automation workflows that can better equip multiple teams to work concurrently on a test server rather than waiting on their turn. It helps even more if it’s a human-readable language, which means it’s an easy-to-write and easy-to-read language that does away with a lot of the typical brackets, braces, and quotes. That makes it easier for developers to build out automation and CI/CD workflows. It also makes it easier for teams to communicate what each part of a workflow is and does — and that’s a big benefit for hybrid teams. Let’s focus on building great software Software development continues to evolve – that’s what makes it so exciting. As it continues to evolve, so will the best structures and processes. By embracing a DevOps mindset, teams can take advantage of global collaboration, communication, and teamwork, which is crucial for successfully moving your software from development to production. From hiring across different regions and time zones to investing in the developer experience and happiness at work, organizations that embrace these new methodologies can recognize a positive effect on productivity, satisfaction, and retention. Finding the right balance between tools, people and culture is ever-changing, but overall, embedding these practices into your organization’s culture can help foster collaboration and increase innovation, ensuring developers can do their best work, regardless of where they work, and continue to focus on what matters most: building great software.