3. DevOps SDLC.

DevOps SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) is a continuous, collaborative, and automated process of building software where entire teams work together from the very beginning of the project till the end.

It includes a continuous cycle of Planning → Coding → Building → Testing → Releasing → Deploying → Operating → Feedback, which helps deliver software faster, safer, and more reliable.

In DevOps SDLC Key Highlights: –

• Connected Phases: – Every phase is linked; there are no gaps.
• Automation Everywhere: – We automate repetitive tasks to save time.
• No Silos: – Teams break down walls and collaborate efficiently.
• Small & Frequent Releases: – We release small updates often instead of one big release.
• Continuous Monitoring: – We constantly check the system and improve it based on feedback.

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1. Plan phase – Planning & Requirement analysis

This is the first and most important stage.

What happens here?

• All stakeholders (Business, Dev, QA, Ops, Cloud team) discuss project needs.
• Understand customer requirements.
• Create user stories (Agile). Define roadmap, timelines, and acceptance criteria.
• Decide technologies, programming languages, tools, cloud services.

DevOps view: –

• Planning becomes collaborative; no silos.
• Everyone gives inputs from Day 1.
• Tools: Kanban board, Jira, Confluence, Trello, Azure DevOps Boards.

Clear plan of what to build and how to build.

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2. Code phase – Design & Development

This is the phase where developers start actual coding.

What happens here?

• System architecture is designed (microservices, monolithic, serverless etc.).
• Database design, API design, UI/UX design.
• Developers write code in small pieces.
• Follow coding standards, best practices.
• Peer code reviews are done.
• Code is stored in version control (Git).

DevOps view: –

• Code is always committed in small chunks to Git repo.
• Uses Git flow process.
• Code automatically triggers build CI pipelines.

High-quality code ready for building/testing.

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3. Build phase – Continuous Integration / CI

CI means merging code frequently and verifying it automatically.

What happens here?

• Code is compiled.
• Dependencies/libraries installed.
• Automated build is triggered.
• Code quality checks run (linting, static analysis).
• Build artifacts (packages, containers, binaries) are created.

DevOps view:

• Every commit trigger CI pipeline.
• Tools: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure CI.
• CI catches issues early → saves cost & time.

A working tested build for further testing.

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4. Test phase – Continuous testing

Testing in DevOps is automated, fast, continuous.

What happens here?

• Automated unit tests check small code modules.
• Integration tests test combined modules.
• Functional tests validate features.
• Performance, load, and stress tests ensure stability.
• API testing, security testing, and regression testing also run.
• Testing is done in CI pipeline itself.

DevOps view: –

• Testers and developers work together.
• Testing is not at the end; it happens throughout.
• Faster feedback loop.

Verified, stable build ready for release.

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5. Release phase – Continuous Delivery(Approval required to deploy in prod)

This phase prepares the application for deployment.

What happens here?

• Build is versioned properly (v1.0, v1.1 etc.).
• Artifacts stored in repositories (Nexus, JFrog Artifactory, Docker Registry).
• Staging environment is prepared.
• Release notes and documentation are created.
• Manual approval gates added (if needed).

DevOps view: –

• Release is automated till staging.
• Human approval may be required for production.
• Ensures safe and predictable releases.

Application is ready to be deployed anytime.

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6. Deploy phase – Continuous Deployment

This phase deploys the application into servers/environments.

What happens here?

• Deployment happens to: – Dev → QA → Staging → Production environment.
• Automated scripts deploy code.
• Infrastructure automation (IaC) is used for infrastructure setup.
• Containers and Kubernetes are often used run containerised application.

Popular deployment strategies: –

• Blue-Green Deployment
• Canary Deployment
• Rolling Updates
• Recreate strategy

DevOps view: –

• Zero downtime deployments.
• Reusable deployment pipelines.
• Tools: Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, Ansible, Terraform, AWS CodeDeploy.

Application becomes available to end users.

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7. Operate phase – Operations, Monitoring & Logging

After deployment, the app must run smoothly.

What happens here?

• System performance monitoring.
• Server/container health monitoring.
• Log collection and analysis.
• Error detection and alerting.
• Infrastructure monitoring.

DevOps view: –

• Use monitoring tools: – Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/EFK Stack, CloudWatch / Azure Monitor
• Ops team ensures uptime, performance, and reliability.

Healthy and stable application in production.

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8. Feedback phase – Continuous Feedback & Improvement

This is the last stage, but it connects back to the first stage.

What happens here?

• Collect feedback from end-users.
• Analyse logs, incidents, performance data.
• Find improvement areas.
• Add improvements back to the planning phase.

DevOps view: –

• Continuous improvement mindset.
• Data-driven decision-making.
• Product becomes better with each cycle.

Product improves with every release.