The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has shattered the global order. There are changes that have taken the front seat and remote work is one prominent practice that is benefitting almost all working sectors. The option for work from home has been implemented by many organizations, thereby, posing difficulties in certain industries.
Although the lockdown restrictions have started to ease up, several companies have maintained their policy of work from home on both full- time and part-time basis. For instance, you can easily check out big companies like Amazon and Facebook which have clearly announced that their employees won’t be resuming offices by the end of 2020.
There are even cases where certain enterprises are even discussing permanent guidelines associated with work from home. Twitter is a fine example, as the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, released an extraordinary statement addressing his employees to maintain the process of working from home “forever.”
This permanent remote-work policy deployed by the Twitter CEO was an eye-opener for many giant firms that surely made them rethink about their employee safety measures during the ongoing COVID-19 scare.
Technology has proven effective in permitting remote work to operate in a smooth and productive manner. Maintenance of a collaborative environment even from home is all thanks to technology but we cannot ignore the impact it has caused to the software testing & QA sector. DevOps and the functions of development teams have been facing new challenges related to working processes and deliveries. This write-up is aimed at elaborating on the impact of remote work on DevOps services and development activities.
Scope of DevOps during Remote Work
Considering the primary challenges posed on DevOps, the related teams have to look for solutions to maintain a mutual work order that streamlines interactions between DevOps service providers and clients.
With virtual engagement gaining prominence during this pandemic, the customers are eventually going to request for more services and features. This will directly provide an opportunity for developers to launch new software at a faster rate. Furthermore, with improvements in the development cycles, there would be increased traction to spot security vulnerabilities as part of the production process.
It is believed that as remote work extends in the coming months, organizations will need to clinch onto DevSecOps tools merged with agile techniques to upkeep the pace of software development.
DevOps & Cloud-Native Operations
Over the years, many software testing companies have already understood the potential of DevOps with a view to extracting high-performance benefits. For the ones trying to make a mark with DevOps initiatives, there is the latest trend that has emerged due to the popularity of remote work.
You can call it an upgrade to the DevOps initiatives that companies are now focusing more on cloud-native programs permanently. This is all part of the shifting work culture that even established software development organizations have to remodel their DevOps goals.
For companies that had already become cloud-native a few years back, it is the perfect time for them to start adapting to the new version of cloud-native DevOps. It is vital to specify that the availability of cloud and SaaS operations are marked as a remedy for employees to maintain normal work activities from home. On a broader front, any organization can redefine and redevelop its DevOps & Development strategies with cloud-native facilitating business activities.
Impact on Firmware
Talking about new influences in the DevOps arena, there has been a serious change in firmware as well. There have been specified challenges with firmware during this ongoing pandemic since both hardware and software are involved. With remote work policy, the act of processing DevOps along with continuous integration (CI)/continuous delivery (CD) for a particular firmware developer has majorly transformed.
Typically, the firmware is all about associating an integration environment onto hardware components. This operation is carried out in the presence of the whole team where the devices are passed on and the developer can incorporate the firmware onto the device. However, in these challenging circumstances, the firmware developer now takes the device home.
DevOps processes have been hampered during remote work. For instance, the act of automating the whole process of fixing the firmware onto a hardware device requires an upgraded approach. QA experts and beta testers are now required to carry out operations with updated firmware, which is already equipped with the latest features and bug fixes.
Presently, the extent of the COVID-19 scare is unknown which is why software testing organizations need to level up their DevOps offerings. As per in-depth observation, it is not only DevOps but other software testing segments like test automation and security testing service have also experienced changes in the last few months. This year, remote work has become the base to testing activities, thereby, bringing in significant improvisations as to how DevOps & Development tasks are carried out.
