FINAL WORD
Jeff Keyes , VP of Product at Plutora
5 . Number of tests conducted
Looking deeper than the overall commit count , the number of tests completed on a single commit is also vital . If you ’ re having to do more than one test on a single possible change , there could be a problem with the process . Conducting tests manually is a common cause . While thorough , relying on a human tester creates opportunities for mistakes when running manual experiments on your commits and builds before deployments .
Alternatively , using automated tests spread across as many containers as possible in production environments lessens the amount of time you ’ ll have to wait for a session . It also increases the number of concurrent tests done ( which count as one rather than multiple ).
6 . Rate of deployment
A deployment is when a new version of your application is created , and the speed these are produced is an overall indication of your team ’ s productivity . However , increasing successful deployments relies on a good system managing every step prior to deployments . You could have a thousand commits awaiting tests , but if you ’ re not using the best testing methods then you can still have the best developers but deploy very little .
While a company the size of Amazon will have DevOps teams working to make improvements around the clock , most smaller enterprises don ’ t deploy as frequently . But the deployments that they do , when done daily , reflect the work going on behind closed doors . For management , dips in this metric are clues for the ops side of DevOps to improve processes that lead to deployments .
7 . Speed of deployment
Speed of deployment measures the time it takes to complete a single deployment . Each application ’ s deployment time will vary based on the final size of the file . The more lines of code , assets and dependencies , the longer an app will typically take to deploy .
One thing to consider is whether it would be better to commit once per day and build just as much , or whether it would make more sense to apply multiple tiny changes over the course of the day ? The latter option allows quicker deployments , saves the compute resources required at any given time ( i . e . costs ) and does so safely enough that if required you can return to the last state where changes were made correctly .
8 . Deployment rollbacks and fails frequency
Deployments are sometimes undone via rollbacks , for reasons including missing the scope of an app ’ s requirements , executive directions and bugs that could have escaped testing . All continuous integration / continuous deployment ( CI / CD ) tools log successfully completed deployments as well as those that hit a problem and stop before completion . You want as few rollbacks as possible , so if lots are happening you ’ ll benefit from more manual checks before builds .
A well-defined feedback process leads to better coding and commits , which then leads to fewer rollbacks after deployment .
9 . Version lead time
Version lead time measures the time it takes from a ticket being received and being resolved . Perhaps one of the most accurate depictions of your DevOps processes ’ productivity ; version lead time takes a step back to watch everything in action . Project managers typically use this metric to estimate task deadlines when apportioning resources to projects .
It ’ s important here to consider how tasks vary in difficulty . It helps to include the relative weight of a change in the reports gathered to present lead times , as well as how many developers were involved in the change . Logically , the more hands you put to work on a change , the less time it should take .
10 . Rate of response to tickets
When optimising for speed , you get lots of insight by monitoring the rate of response to tickets . The previous nine metrics gain momentum from the results you get from this step . Regardless of how difficult a change suggested by a ticket seems , the ticketing process ensures enough workers are assigned to it . This immediately cuts the expected lead time and increases the number of commits possible .
One way to build a great response rate to tickets lies in having a value stream management ( VSM ) tool . These connect information across all your applications in the departments along your pipeline , increasing visibility . The background information your developers have when creating and mending features is increased , and ticket issues reach the deploy stage quicker and with fewer chances of being rolled back .
These 10 metrics give you a foundation to measure DevOps that will help your business to flourish . p
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