Alpha Software Blog



DevOps for Mobile App Development - Considering the Human Side

When implementing DevOps for mobile app development, it's important to consider the human side.DevOps is being hailed as the next great wave in mobile app development, and with good reason. It’s a technique that stresses communication and collaboration between development and operations inside organizations, and focuses on quality assurance and delivery. But mobile app development poses a unique set of challenges for DevOps, and so many enterprises have been somewhat slow standardizing on it. Gartner Research Director Jason Wong says that a Gartner survey found that “only 42% of those who have implemented [DevOps] indicated that DevOps is used to support mobile app development."

If you’re looking to use DevOps for your mobile app development, or already use it, we’ve got some great advice for you from Grzegorz Ziemoński in his blog post for DZone, “The Human Side of DevOps.” Ziemoński  notes in the blog that DevOps is based in large part on Agile software development, and a key part of it is automation. But he warns that focusing single-mindedly on automation can leave out what he believes is absolutely vital to any DevOps deployment: the human side of development.

What exactly does that mean? First and foremost, it means true, full collaboration. He warns that automation only pays off after DevOps is fully implemented, and that can take quite a long time. Until then, he says, “You will have a lack of automation, developers who don't know how to use the full potential of available tools, infrastructure problems, legal issues, and much more. At the beginning of the road, you might have nothing, actually.”

He adds, “The world won't wait until your infrastructure is ready. This is the point when the ‘collaboration’ word shines out. You can either join your forces, solve the problems together, and find out the best solutions for all sides, or you can stay in the us and them’ mentality, throw things over the wall, and blame the other side.”

His conclusion is well worth reading in its entirety: “In my humble opinion, if you make it all about automation and forget the people, it will never be true DevOps. It will always be the Dev and the Ops separately. Only the true collaboration of both sides can lead to optimal results, especially when we're at the beginning of the DevOps road.”

If you’re looking for more advice on DevOps and mobile app development, check out my other recent DevOps blogs, “Incorporating DevOps into Mobile App Development," and "DevOps in Mobile App Development - Best Practices." Also, keep in mind that Alpha Anywhere is a great tool for using DevOps development. It lets developers quickly iterate versions, a key element for continuous development and testing.

Prev Post Image
Agricultural Worker Safety - A SaaS App Built with Alpha Anywhere
Next Post Image
Prepare for a Post-Mobile App World

About Author

Amy Groden-Morrison
Amy Groden-Morrison

Amy Groden-Morrison has served more than 15 years in marketing communications leadership roles at companies such as TIBCO Software, RSA Security and Ziff-Davis. Most recently she was responsible for developing marketing programs that helped achieve 30%+ annual growth rate for analytics products at a $1Bil, NASDAQ-listed business integration Software Company. Her past accomplishments include establishing the first co-branded technology program with CNN, launching an events company on the NYSE, rebranding a NASDAQ-listed company amid a crisis, and positioning and marketing a Boston-area startup for successful acquisition. Amy currently serves as a Healthbox Accelerator Program Mentor, Marketing Committee Lead for the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Launch Smart Clinics, and on the organizing team for Boston TechJam. She holds an MBA from Northeastern University.

Related Posts
Top Security Concerns for Low-code and No-code Development
Top Security Concerns for Low-code and No-code Development
What is Supply Chain 4.0, the Digital Supply Chain?
What is Supply Chain 4.0, the Digital Supply Chain?
The Abbreviated Guide to The Digital Data Chain
The Abbreviated Guide to The Digital Data Chain

The Alpha platform is the only unified mobile and web app development and deployment environment with distinct “no-code” and “low-code” components. Using the Alpha TransForm no-code product, business users and developers can take full advantage of all the capabilities of the smartphone to turn any form into a mobile app in minutes, and power users can add advanced app functionality with Alpha TransForm's built-in programming language. IT developers can use the Alpha Anywhere low-code environment to develop complex web or mobile business apps from scratch, integrate data with existing systems of record and workflows (including data collected via Alpha TransForm), and add additional security or authentication requirements to protect corporate data.

Comment