DevOps is the set of practices that provide the ability to integrate the software development activities with the IT operations. There are a number of development processes and activities that are carried out. The technical side of these processes must be in line with the associated operations. The alignment of the technical goals and processes is done with the operational goals and activities. DevOps provides the mechanism to carry out these processes in the cloud environment and makes sure that the overall quality is maintained and is improved at all times (Airaj, 2016).

There are testing activities and processes that can be conducted for the analytical applications on the real-time basis using the DevOps framework.

Context

The application that is determined is the digital marketing application that aims to provide the customers with the knowledge and information on the products and services that are offered by the organization. There are real-time services and activities that shall be executed as part of the application. For this purpose, it would be necessary that the integrated analysis is carried out. While carrying out the analysis, it would be essential that the simultaneous execution and management of the testing processes is done along with the maintenance of the security aspects of the application (Forsgren and Humble, 2015).

The amalgamation of the technical development, analysis, and testing will be necessary to make sure that the intended application objectives are achieved.

Justification of Analytical Framework

The use of the DevOps framework along with the cloud and testing capabilities shall be used for the application.

DevOps tools and framework will provide the mechanism to carry out the technical analysis along with the determination of the security and quality aspects of the digital marketing application. The digital marketing application would require real-time analytics with no failures and increased deployment frequency to achieve the customer trust and engagement. The fulfilment of all of these goals will be possible with the use of the DevOps approach. The analytical framework will make sure that the streamlined collaboration between the development and the operations team is possible (Freeman, 2019). The deployment of the code to the production environment will be done at a quick pace. The enhancement of the speed will be witnessed so that the real-time digital marketing analysis can be provided to the customers. The organization will succeed in providing effective and efficient services to their customers so that the overall market competitiveness is improved. The alignment between the technical and IT side of the business will be effectively done.

The framework is justified as the standalone execution of the testing and deployment activities will lead to increased time and effort. There will also be increased probability of the errors in the production processes and additional delays will be caused. The framework will comprise of a set of phases as depicted in the diagram below.

DevOps Lifecycle (Gruver, 2016)

There will be continuous planning that will be involved in the analytical framework that will make sure that the lean principles are used and implemented in the application. The determination of the resources will be effectively done along with the understanding of the business vision. The measurement of the progress will be done and the customer requirements will also be continuously determined and incorporated in the plan.

The next will be the collaborative development. This will include the collaboration between the business, development, and testing teams. The collaboration will make sure that all of these activities are conducted efficiently so that the overall purpose of the digital marketing application is fulfilled. The continuous integration will be ensured that will make use of all the internal and external data resources. The determination of the integration issues will be done in the earlier stages of the system lifecycle. It will be possible to resolve the issues and make sure that the integration is effectively done with proper feedback (Kersten, 2018).

The inclusion of continuous testing will be done in the framework as depicted in the diagram above. This will make sure that the costs associated with the testing procedures are brought down and the maintenance of the development activities with the quality of the end-results is done at all times. The use of cloud platforms will be done to have the virtualized test environments so that the sharing and updating can be effectively carried out. The test cycle time will be brought down and the integration will also be effectively done.

The application will also include the continuous release and deployment. The digital marketing application would require the frequent changes. Also, the end-users would wish to have the continuous deliveries of the applications. This will be made possible using the DevOps analytical framework and it will lead to the reduction of the errors and the wait time. The inclusion of the automated services in the release will result in the improvement of the overall quality.

There will also be continuous monitoring that will be carried out. With the aid of continuous monitoring, it will be possible to include the enhanced and effective reporting capabilities so that the availability and the performance can improve. The inclusion of the timely feedback will make it possible to bring down the cost of the errors and will also make sure that the application is deployed as per the defined set of goals (Korotenko and Korotenko, 2018).

The analytical framework will also include the continuous feedback and optimization processes. There will be visual feedback option that will be included in the analysis process. This will be possible for the pre and post production phases. This will make sure that the visibility of the customer issues is effectively done and there will be changes that will be made likewise.

Critical Analysis of the Application

The digital marketing application that will be developed, analysed, and tested using the DevOps analytical framework will include a number of functionalities.

The predictive analysis will be a key aspect of the application. The predictive analysis will be done on the data sets that will be available to make sure that the marketing strategies and target audience is determined accordingly. There will also be predictions that will be based on the competitor activities and the customer actions. The use of the DevOps framework will make sure that the real-time analysis of the framework and the application is effectively carried out (Forsgren and Humble, 2015).

The digital marketing application will also involve the need to maintain the security and privacy at all times. There will be a lot of information that will be associated with the application. It will be essential that the maintenance of the security aspects of the application is done at all times. The inclusion of the DevOps framework will provide the ability to maintain the security of the applications.

The continuous integration and monitoring along with the continuous feedback will also provide the mechanism to improve the quality and satisfaction levels for the customers.

Recommendations and Conclusion

It is recommended that the DevOps tools and frameworks are used along with the development and deployment of the digital marketing application using the agile methodology. With the use of the agile frameworks and the DevOps practices over the cloud platforms, it will be possible to achieve the intended goals and objectives for the application.

The DevOps framework will enable the proper planning, continuous development, deployment, monitoring, and feedback of the application. As a result, the customer experience levels will also improve. It will also lead to the enhancement of the overall quality levels along with the security of the application.

References

Airaj, M. (2016). Enable cloud DevOps approach for industry and higher education. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 29(5), p.e3937.

Forsgren, N. and Humble, J. (2015). DevOps: Profiles in ITSM Performance and Contributing Factors. SSRN Electronic Journal.

Freeman, E. (2019). DevOps. Hoboken, Nj: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Gruver, G. (2016). Starting and scaling DevOps in the enterprise. United States: Gary Gruver.

Kersten, M. (2018). A Cambrian Explosion of DevOps Tools. IEEE Software, 35(2), pp.14–17.

Korotenko, G.M. and Korotenko, L.M. (2018). The innovative role of programming standards in the development of the DevOps methodology. Science and Education a New Dimension, VI(153)(63), pp.32–35.