VR uses and develops plenty of different highly specialized softwares in its business. These highly specialized softwares are often outsourced to VR’s partners. In order to enhance software development, VR is bringing new DevOps methods into use. It is a cultural change which direction is easiest to guide by offering an easy way to a method introduction.
To accelerate the software development transition to DevOps culture, VR offers a new platform to their partners in the future, which encourages partners to develop their working methods. At the same time the platform offers the tools to DevOps method implementation in all company projects. The platform consists of both development (Dev) and the operation (Ops) tools, which are centrally offered to all project tasks in the VR organization.
Teams no longer need to maintain their own tools by themselves so teams are able to concentrate to the development of new features. Besides the environment provides information on the quality of the code, runs quality assurance and reduces the time and trouble of tool implementation and unifies operation modes. Then also the co-operation between suppliers is significantly easier.
The environment offers to VR itself the possibility to guide the development of software development methods in their organization. Environment enables better visibility during projects and brings cost savings compared to decentralized tools. As an orderer, VR wants to invest in the visibility and quality of software development. New platform enables this desire throughout the organization and supply chain.
Eficode offers to VR and it’s partners an overall environment service, which includes licences, server capacity, support and maintenance and the implementation itself. Delivery includes software development resource management tool, Deveo, range of Atlassian documentation and task management tools, CI server as well as the artifact management system and log monitoring and analytics systems.
"There were multiple reasons to the platform acquisition but the most important one was to centralize VR software production under own roof from subcontractors and at the same time to enable faster and higher-quality software-based test automation, quality assurance and production through automation. Centralized DevOps environment service also brings cost savings and VR no more needs to worry about the updates and maintenance of servers and softwares."
- MARKUS NISKANEN, VR Development Team, System Architect
Projects of VR will be gradually transferred to use the new system in accordance with the projects’ own schedules. Eficode’s personnel designs and implements the transfer to new platform. Projects often start using platform tools in stages, typically the first implemented platform tools are version control service, continuous integration servers and task management.