Highlights –

  • Traceability in DevOps is all about ensuring clarity, accountability, and the best possible end product for the consumer.
  • It is observed that well-maintained code can help developers make changes in the code written by the other team members, reuse other people’s code, and decrease technical debt.

A DevOps strategy includes several aspects like developing a vision, setting a goal, and finding ways to measure success, among others. But what’s central to devising a DevOps strategy is traceability. Generally, the term means keeping track of any product at each production stage. The records of the full manufacturing and distribution stage are kept so that the source of any problem can be dealt with efficiently later.

Traceability also offers added transparency that helps keep consumer confidence intact. With consumers becoming aware of the source of products and their manufacturing process, it is now becoming all the more important.

To cite an example, a user can know the whereabouts of his product and even track its movements until delivery.

Traceability in DevOps is all about ensuring clarity, accountability, and the best possible end product for the consumer. But it’s more important in DevOps because speed is of the essence. There’s constant pressure to get apps developed into the hands of users and then incorporate feedback as soon as possible. Needless to say, this can lead to oversights and slip-ups that might otherwise be avoided.

It is here that DevOps traceability comes in. It allows members to trace the development throughout the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) cycle. Moreover, it also offers consistency, which helps reduce the potential for code changes to impact production.

There are multiple benefits of traceability. In this blog, we will discuss some of the main reasons why it should be a priority in DevOps:

Reduces software defects

Statistically, there’s a connection between the wholeness of the captured information and the defect rate in the developed source code.

The defect rate automatically goes down with complete traceability. For example, if we trace a bug in an app’s finger printer sensor, it can be corrected promptly. So, the customers will have the best experience in no time, and they won’t face any bugs while opening the app. The impact of traceability on the defect rate tells that traceability is of high value for any software development project, even if a standard or regulation does not mandate it.

Ensures compliance

The most important reason to implement traceability is the existence of various regulations. It’s even more relevant for companies that deal in financial services, healthcare, and government sectors. Tracing a code is a crucial requirement criterion among popular compliance frameworks. For instance, it is impossible to fulfill the SOC2 process integrity requirement without a complete chain of evidence for each code modification made to the application source code.

Increases speed and code maintainability

It has been observed that well-maintained code can help developers make changes in the code written by the other team members, reuse other people’s code, and decrease technical debt as well. To make sure that a big focus is on the delivery of the value, we need to have traceability of efficient and effective measures.

Note that requirement-to-code traceability could be mandatory from a compliance point of view, but it’s always better to practice it. Traceability also positively affects efficiency levels, frees up resources that help developers take on important tasks, sharpens processes, benefits clients and customers, and delivers real gains.

In Conclusion

Regardless of your position in DevOps – from release manager, test engineer, DevOps Cloud Engineer, or architect – one must understand why traceability is integral to bringing forth great products with automation capabilities. A project should be based on open and effective communication and intelligent systems. However, with the help of modern requirements, traceability should be at the core of every business. Using simple tools like spreadsheets or paper, one can create a requirement traceability matrix. To avoid multiple spreadsheets, opting for a more digital method that helps you trace efficiently is best.

By now, you must have understood why traceability should be essential to DevOps and software releases. The key to traceability should rely on integrating existing tools to understand the process and automate checks as part of the current workflow. So, make sure you always have a code to trace all your DevOps activity!