Software development project managers in the internet era are constantly battling one big thing: time. With new websites, apps, and operating systems launching every day, there’s a lot of pressure, both competitively and financially, to get products to market faster.

On top of that, your products need to perform well. You need a system in place to ensure that the code you commit doesn’t break the build, and that there’s visibility at each step of the process where things can be approved by the appropriate parties.

But is it truly possible to deliver a high-performing product under a tight deadline, while making sure the right people approve it along the way? Totally.

To try to make that happen, chances are that you apply some version of Agile methodology to your workflow, with an emphasis on short, rapid software development lifecycles. But Agile isn’t perfect. For instance, Agile focuses solely on communication between the client and developers, leaving operations—another key stakeholder—to act as a separate unit.

Since it’s almost perfect, you might be tempted to ignore that gap in Agile methodology, but your product’s quality could suffer as a result. That’s where DevOps comes in.

What is DevOps?

It’s a software development method that focuses on integration, communication, and collaboration among internal team members. It promotes better relations between developers and operations, closing that crucial gap that Agile by itself leaves open.

Beside Agile, there are a few other common practices that DevOps uses to streamline the developmental process. These are continuous integration, continuous delivery, automated and continuous testing, improved communication and collaboration, and proactive monitoring.

In short, continuous integration (CI) requires that each code committed to the main branch undergoes automated testing to ensure that the application isn’t broken. Continuous delivery (CD) allows for changes to that code to be released quickly to the production stage with a single click of a button. With the right collaboration tool, each step of the process can be monitored, with custom roles and responsibilities assigned to each team member.

With Devops you’ll be able to…

• Get projects live faster
• Make customers happier with more reliable and higher quality releases
• Shorten time between fixes
• Recover quickly from bugs and failed tests
• Appeal to clients who want to work with modern partners

Sounds great, right?

Once you’re on board with DevOps, your next challenge will be convincing your team to get on board with it, too. The best way to do that? Showing that moving away from your current methods in favor of DevOps will help your team achieve goals more quickly and easily.

Get organized around common goals

To get started, you’ll need to conduct an internal review with your team to identify your goals. Why do you develop? Is it to achieve customer satisfaction, produce quality code, or simply to create an optimally performing product?

Once you and your team have identified one or more goals, translate each one into something measurable. Setting SMART goals will make it simpler to track progress moving forward.

Identify your DevOps targets

Next, take inventory of your team’s current projects, including those that are backlogged or on hold. Using a visual methodology like Kanban can be a big help at this stage. Identify the projects that don’t fit well with the goals you set as a team (or are otherwise unimportant), and eliminate them. Don’t be shy!

Note the bottlenecks and sticking points within each remaining project that tend to slow or halt your progress. These bottlenecks are what you’ll be automating with DevOps.

Involving your team in the goal-setting and “elimination round” steps will help emphasize that DevOps isn’t just change for the sake of change – it’s something that will benefit everyone on the team by making work more efficient.

Time to talk tools

Once you’re ready to automate, consider hiring a DevOps consultant to prevent you from getting stuck. Not only can they can help you make decisions on which bottlenecks should be automated first, but they can also help assuage any remaining resistance to learning a new development method – learning more about DevOps from an expert outside your organization is a powerful form of social proof.

A consultant can also recommend DevOps tools that suit your team’s needs. But what should you do if you’re looking for DevOps tool recommendations and a consultant isn’t in the budget?

Try Flowt.

Flowt is an opinionated front-end continuous delivery tool that utilizes DevOps best practices. It’s easy to use, with built-in decision-making and routine testing to give your developers more time to focus on writing code. It also features a highly visual pipeline (because not everyone on your team knows code) and offers multiple role options for different members. You can choose which team members can release changes to production and modify tests, and even give certain teammates view-only access.

And to make things even easier, Flowt integrates seamlessly with trusted services, like GitHub, Digital Ocean, Cloudflare, Slack, and Ghost Inspector.

As digital transformation leader Isaac Sacolick says of the most successful development teams, “What stands out with all of them is their willingness to change and improve their own culture.” So if you’re looking for a new way to help your team to maintain its competitive edge, DevOps—with its automated communication, collaboration, and integration—could be just the thing.