DevOps is a culture and we are very much aware of that fact. However, before implementing automation, putting processes in place and evolving culture, we need to understand the existing status of the organization's culture and whether we need to introduce new processes or automation tools.
We need to be very clear that we need to make the existing culture more efficient rather than importing culture. To accommodate an assessment framework is difficult, but we will try to provide some questions and hints based on which it will be easier to create an assessment framework.
Create categories for which we want to ask questions and get responses for specific applications.
The following are a few sample questions:
- Do you follow agile principles?
- Are you using any source code repository?
- Are you using any tools for static code analysis?
- Are you using any build automation tools?
- Are you using on-premise infrastructure or cloud-based infrastructure?
- Are you using any configuration management tools or scripts for installing application packages or a runtime environment?
- Are you using any automated scripts to deploy applications in prod and nonprod environments?
- Are you using any orchestration tools or scripts for application life cycle management?
- Are you using automation tools for functional testing, load testing, security testing, and mobile testing?
- Are you using any tools for application and infrastructure monitoring?
Once the questions are ready, prepare responses and, based on those responses, decide a rating for each response given for the preceding questions.
Make a framework flexible so, even if we change a question in any category, it will be managed automatically.
Once the rating is given, capture responses and calculate overall ratings by introducing different conditions and intelligence into the framework.
Create categorywise final ratings and create different kinds of charts from the final rating to improve the reading value of it. The important thing to note here is the significance of organizations' expertise in each area of application life cycle management. It will give the assessment framework a new dimension to add intelligence and make it more effective.