4 Tips to Maximize DevOps Success While Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

by | Sep 5, 2018

Embarking on a DevOps journey and maintaining compliance can seem like a difficult undertaking, but in reality it’s just the opposite. When implemented effectively, DevOps can actually make help ease and simplify regulatory hurdles.

Atlassian explored this topic in a blog, outlining four steps organizations can take to make compliance a pillar of their DevOps journey. We have summarized their thoughts here for you:

1.     Know Your Rules

Although this seems simple, it’s often one of the steps most easily overlooked. By identifying and documenting rules early on in your journey, teams will be able to refer back to them when they need clarity.

Atlassian’s pro tip: keep track of everything on wiki pages. This will enable you to quickly embed links in the most important spots (dashboards, portals, etc.) and make certain people “watchers” for individual pages so they will be notified when updates are made.

2.     Initiate Automation

Once your teams understand what matters, you can begin setting up automation to simplify compliance even further. Atlassian recommends converting repetitive tasks first. Early targets might include:

  • Pull requests
  • Code coverage
  • Connecting the dots
  • Permissions
  • Audit trails
  • Failover and recovery

Keep in mind that automation doesn’t need to be an all-or-nothing activity. Pull requests, for example, should always be carefully reviewed by human eyes, but there are aspects that can be automated like ensuring two or more reviewers approved it and that no failing build or run tests are associated with it.

3.     Transform the Culture

Truly transitioning to a DevOps model is about more than just processes; it’s also about culture.

Atlassian’s pro tip: the Team Playbook is designed to equip your organization with the tools and tactics it needs to make DevOps a success. It all starts with a Health Monitor check to determine the areas in which you need to (or want to) become stronger. Once you know that, you can consult the plays and game plans to see concrete steps you can take in order to progress your DevOps journey.

4.     Keep the Momentum Going

Now that the change is underway, your focus needs to be on maintaining it. That doesn’t mean you have to make huge changes right away. Often, it means starting small and making steady, consistent improvements.

Atlassian’s pro tip: this is a good time to take advantage of applications like Bitbucket that support workflow enforcement, granular permissions capabilities, and project-level administrative controls. This is also a stage where effective rule keeping can come in handy. Having guidelines readily accessible ensures critical information surrounding compliance always stays front and centre.

Always remember that DevOps is a marathon, not a sprint. By combining the three essential elements—tools, culture, and practice—you can empower your teams to make the most of the advantages DevOps brings without compromising compliance.

Get Expert Support to Unlock the Potential of Your Atlassian Tools

To make your DevOps transition a successful one, work with Elasity’s experts to:

  • Optimize and customize your Atlassian applications, configuring them to suit your requirements.
  • Integrate applications and add-ons securely and seamlessly.
  • Take advantage of administrative, functional, and consulting support to help users stay on top of best practices and get the most out of their tools.

We will help you onboard your teams and accelerate the process—enabling you to exploit the full value of Atlassian’s suite of tools.

Before you start, reach out to Elasity for assistance in configuring the Atlassian Suite. As an Atlassian Solutions Partner, we offer Atlassian Administration & Functional Support (AFS), to help best configure and implement the Atlassian suite with best-practices.  Contact us to get started today!

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Andy Mao
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