DevOps: The key factor for high customer satisfaction

Understanding DevOps

This method is mainly based on 3 practices: collaborative work, agility and automation.

Firstly, DevOps takes into consideration the constraints linked to IT development and the deployment of the solutions developed. Secondly, agile methods aim to perform project management. As a result, applying agile methods to the entire DevOps chain can only be beneficial when it is well mastered.

Lastly, the implementation of a continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipeline aims to automate the solution's lifecycle, final tests and production.

To go further in the CI/CD approach

To begin with, the pipeline represents an automated process chain, i.e. it is designed to minimise human intervention throughout the solution's lifecycle, from development to delivery.

The lifecycle, on the other hand, represents all the phases through which the solution passes before it is delivered to a customer. Here we mean development, integration into the external environment (automatic compilation and testing), automated deployment (staging, production, etc.). The initials "CI/CD" stand for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment.

The advantages of DevOps for a technological project

DevOps ensures companies save time and money through controlled and automated expertise of the solution lifecycle. As a large part of the project phases become automated, the DevOps methodology ensures faster production and delivery than traditionally.

As a result, the customer experience and satisfaction are improved by greater availability of the teams, focusing on tasks with higher added value. This approach makes it possible to raise possible bugs and correct them quickly thanks to the simplified collaboration of the IT teams.

Finally, DevOps breaks down the barriers between the different IT teams in a company because they work closely together. With the application of agile methodologies, collaboration is organised, controlled and productivity is maximised.

DevOps at Technology Partner

Since 2020, Technology Partner has been a Microsoft Silver Partner and this certification allows :  

To become a Cloud Service Provider (CSP)  

Thanks to this partnership with Microsoft, Technology Partner has the opportunity to become a Cloud Solution Provider. The particularity of being a CSP allows the certified company to provide and maintain the customer's environment on the Azure Cloud, and within the framework of DevOps, also to automatically deploy the developed solutions there.

Teams have access to all DevOps tools  

In this wide range of services, the IT teams mainly use the Microsoft service, which integrates the main solutions required for DevOps: The Microsoft Azure DevOps platform. This packaging of solutions covers all CI/CD pipelines and other tools such as Azure Repos or Azure Test Plans for example.

The advantage is that there is no/very little need to use other external solutions for the development of a project. The tools are grouped and interconnected, thus saving time for the IT teams.

Testimonials from Technology Partner's software developers

"DevOps allows me to forget a little bit about the build and deployment side (as it is automatic) and allows me to concentrate more on the development of the project."

"DevOps, when it is well executed allows you to deploy on an environment very easy whether it is for staging or for production."

 "Once set up, DevOps saves a lot of time, which allows me to focus on the development itself."

To conclude

To implement DevOps in a company, a DevOps engineer must oversee project management in order to respond to the demands of the IT teams when a problem arises. So, DevOps reduces the barriers between IT teams, which will increase customer satisfaction through a closer and more personalized collaboration with the customer.

Lastly, being a partner of a company such as Microsoft also makes it possible to host and monitor the progress of a project during all these phases via the Cloud and to deliver a turnkey solution to the customer that will further enhance customer satisfaction.

DevOps then enables companies to adapt to a market and customer needs that are constantly evolving.

Written by Charline Pennisi & Patrick Jominet