DevOps from First Principles (Part 2): Inside the SDLC
Context: This piece explores how DevOps naturally emerges at every stage of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle): from planning and coding to testing, deployment, and operations. Instead of treating DevOps as a separate phase, we’ll see it as a con...
Context:
This piece explores how DevOps naturally emerges at every stage of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle): from planning and coding to testing, deployment, and operations. Instead of treating DevOps as a separate phase, we’ll see it as a continuous feedback system that connects people, processes, and technology.
By the end, you’ll understand:
Why DevOps cannot exist outside SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)
How each SDLC stage shapes DevOps practices?
SLDC :
SLDC is Software Development Life Cycle. It is a standard steps of process that every organization follow while making any feature and product. There are 5 steps in the in SLDC. They are:
Planning: first to make any product first market research is being done. By the research analyst or CTO. That’s the primary step.
Documentation: after finalizing the idea of the product. There is the team who decide the set of functional and non functional requirement and all the details that need to meet after the product is ready.
Design: after the documentation stage there is come the LLD and HLD step. That is we decide all the technical decision. What tech stack we gonna use, Should be choose SQL or No-SQL Database… these choice we make here. As of now We don't have to think about this.
Development: Here we code the “Design” part based on the taken decision here the coding part started. Front-end, Back-end,Database parts are written based on the choice here. That pushed in git→ Github/Gitlab
Testing: After the code is written that go for testing. After multiple testing it goes for the next step.
Deployment: Here the final version of the application is deployed to some cloud private or public. Now that is ready to serve for the client.
Now after that here this cycle is being repeated for the next features or product.
Where DevOps come here in the picture of SDLC?
→ DevOps come in the SDLC to make the system more efficient and increase the productivity in the Development, Testing and Deployment ,,, that’s it. In short it’s the cultural shift that happened by that the software delivery has become more faster.
End Note:
DevOps is not something you add after software is built, nor a phase that begins at the end. It naturally emerges when SDLC demands speed, reliability, and scale. From planning with operability in mind to automated testing, deployment, and monitoring, DevOps quietly shapes every stage.
When treated as a continuous feedback loop, DevOps breaks silos—developers think about production early, testing becomes faster through automation, and operations shift from firefighting to building stable systems. The outcome is predictable, resilient, and repeatable software delivery.
SDLC is the structure; DevOps is the connective tissue. Once you understand SDLC deeply, DevOps no longer feels like a buzzword—it feels inevitable.
👉 Next up: we go one level deeper into infrastructure, starting with Virtual Machines (VMs)—why they exist, how they work, and why they still matter in a cloud-native world.