DevOps, a portmanteau of ‘development’ and ‘operations’, is used to describe an agile relationship between software developers and other IT workers.
Typically used as an enterprise software development phrase, DevOps aims to create a culture and environment where building, testing and releasing software can happen quickly through improved communication and collaboration between Development and Operations.
There is no single DevOps tool, but rather a toolchain – this is because DevOps is a cultural shift and collaboration between development, operations and testing.
What are the eight categories of DevOps tools?
Generally, DevOps tools fit into one of the following eight categories: code, build, test, package, release, configure and monitor.
Some people confuse Agile and DevOps – Agile relates to agile software development and defines a change in thinking, whereas DevOps implements the cultural change. The goals of DevOps are broad, spanning faster time to market to shortened lead time between fixes.
Ultimately, DevOps seeks to impact the entire delivery pipeline, maximising the predictability, efficiency, security and maintainability of operations. Usually automation supports this objective.
