siliconindia | | December 20189The idea of a design thinking-led DevOps strategy is to help what the customer would like to build today that it is able to implement on the very same dayHow, one might ask is a design thinking strategy prac-tically fitted to an infrastructure that is, for lack of a better word ­ functional & mechanical in nature. The number of applications in which Design thinking can complement DevOps is only limited to an imagination. It can involve aspects of data analytics, cloud features, micro-servic-es or even blockchain at today's pace. For example, a McDonald's outlet can incorporate real-time data gather-ing into its management process to identify trends, prefer-ences, traffic and even demand & supply. If the outlet is observed to produce 3000 more vegetarian burgers on a festive day like Ganesh Chathurthi, it will automatically alert its neighbouring outlets to produce a similar amount of vegetarian burgers and cast a pre-emptive measure to reduce wastage of food, in this case non-vegetarian items in the menu. And thanks to a robust process of quick logistics of raw material from the kitchen coupled with seamless management at the forefront, the outlet is able to thrive accordingly with the walk-in patterns.In IT parlance, this can be compared to a robust system of developers and operation teams in which they could be timed, allocated certain resources at certain periods of time, or even given information from the internet based on various programming for a faster & richer delivery of prototypes.Some of the benefits of a design-led approach for DevOps are as follows:Current Solution: It helps find solutions to today's problems. Challenges can occur dynamically in an envi-ronment where there are a number of errors that can hap-pen in the course of the day.Aspirational Solution: A developer may be able to produce n number of solutions. They might not be able to think far ahead into the future for problems that might not happen today, but might happen five years down the line. The solution, when created for a future proof date, is scalable and easily adapted.No Limit to Innovative Capacity: The idea of design thinking is to be able to creatively come-up with solu-tions. Developers are able to think-out loud owing if a solution is not given any limitations or criterions. In the case of a DevOps process, the consumer's problems are understood, thereby giving a speedy and seamless canvas for solution-brainstorming. For example, UberEats was able to successfully launch, thanks to their already suc-cessful and thriving cab aggregating service. Their logis-tics was already in place and was thereby able to break-off from their standalone app. The fact that they had a fleet of vehicles and relevant data for demand & supply, they made them capable to stand as competition in the food delivery ecosystem.Feedback Loops: One successful aspect of integrat-ing consumer analytics in DevOps is the use of insight that can build better products. Each iteration through feedback will continually mature the product. The more you improve the design, the lesser the time to production and thereby better feedback loops. An example of this is taking the analogy of a change-log of updates that will inform all parties of the improvements.DevOps as a Service Design: The point of servicing a user is to acclimatize the culture of empathy. The us-ers who utilize the product are ultimately being thought of from the point of view of being able to use the prod-uct with minimum repercussions and maximum creative capacity. When we apply the same principles as Design Thinking, we are able to think and execute from the point of view of the developers and testers. Insight-led innovation is important for enterprise level DevOps. The idea of a design thinking-led DevOps strat-egy is to help what the customer would like to build today that it is able to implement on the very same day. Help-ing a developer overcome their challenges by making the maximum use of their strengths will set the road for a fast and highly innovative environment.For developers and testers, their speed is important in creating the code, and as for operations, their monitor-ing is paramount in ensuring quality for a timely delivery. When we put ourselves in the shoes of the developer and tester, we are able to design an infrastructure that would not only reduce the cost of overheads, but also the cre-ative capacity of the team in its entirety.
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