A DevOps toolchain is a set or combination of tools that aid in the delivery, development, and management of software applications throughout the systems development life cycle, as coordinated by an organization that uses DevOps practices.
Generally, DevOps tools fit into one or more activities, which supports specific DevOps initiatives: Plan, Create, Verify, Package, Release, Configure, Monitor, and Version Control.[1][2]
In software, a toolchain is the set of programming tools that is used to perform a complex software development task or to create a software product, which is typically another computer program or a set of related programs. In general, the tools forming a toolchain are executed consecutively so the output or resulting environment state of each tool becomes the input or starting environment for the next one, but the term is also used when referring to a set of related tools that are not necessarily executed consecutively.[3][4][5]
As DevOps is a set of practices that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information technology (IT) professionals, while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes, its implementation can include the definition of the series of tools used at various stages of the lifecycle; because DevOps is a cultural shift and collaboration between development and operations, there is no one product that can be considered a single DevOps tool. Instead a collection of tools, potentially from a variety of vendors, are used in one or more stages of the lifecycle.[6][7]
Plan consists of two elements: "define" and "plan".[8] This activity refers to the business value and application requirements. Specifically "Plan" activities include:
Create consists of the building, coding, and configuring of the software development process.[8] The specific activities are:
Design of the software and configuration
Coding including code quality and performance
Software build and build performance
Release candidate
Tools and vendors in this category often overlap with other categories. Because DevOps is about breaking down silos, this is reflective in the activities and product solutions.[clarification needed]
Verify
Verify is directly associated with ensuring the quality of the software release; activities designed to ensure code quality is maintained and the highest quality is deployed to production.[8] The main activities in this are:
Solutions for verify-related activities generally fall under four main categories: Test automation, Static analysis, Test Lab, and Security.
Package
Package refers to the activities involved once the release is ready for deployment, often also referred to as staging or Preproduction / "preprod".[8] This often includes tasks and activities such as:
Approval/preapprovals
Package configuration
Triggered releases
Release staging and holding
Release
Release related activities include schedule, orchestration, provisioning and deploying software into production and targeted environment.[9] The specific Release activities include:
Configure activities fall under the operation side of DevOps. Once software is deployed, there may be additional IT infrastructure provisioning and configuration activities required.[8]
Specific activities including:
Infrastructure storage, database and network provisioning and configuring
Monitoring is an important link in a DevOps toolchain. It allows IT organization to identify specific issues of specific releases and to understand the impact on end-users.[8] A summary of Monitor related activities are:
Information from monitoring activities often impacts Plan activities required for changes and for new release cycles.
Version Control
Version Control is an important link in a DevOps toolchain and a component of software configuration management. Version Control is the management of changes to documents, computer programs, large web sites, and other collections of information.[8] A summary of Version Control related activities are:
Non-linear development
Distributed development
Compatibility with existent systems and protocols
Toolkit-based design
Information from Version Control often supports Release activities required for changes and for new release cycles.
↑Imran, Saed; Buchheit, Martin; Hollunder, Bernhard; Schreier, Ulf (2015-10-29). "Tool Chains in Agile ALM Environments: A Short Introduction". On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2015 Workshops. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol.9416. pp.371–380. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-26138-6_40. ISBN978-3-319-26137-9.
↑Garner Market Trends: DevOps – Not a Market, but Tool-Centric Philosophy That supports a Continuous Delivery Value Chain (Report). Gartner. 18 February 2015.
1234567Avoid Failure by Developing a Toolchain that Enables DevOps (Report). Gartner. 16 March 2016.
↑Best Practices in Change, Configuration and Release Management (Report). Gartner. 14 July 2010.
↑Roger S. Pressman (2009). Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach (7th Internationaled.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
