The DevOps lifecycle is the backbone of modern software delivery. It’s not just a process—it’s a culture of collaboration, a mindset of continuous improvement, and a commitment to automation from code to production.
If you’re serious about implementing DevOps or just trying to understand how the best tech teams in the world operate, understanding each stage of this lifecycle is essential.
What is the DevOps Lifecycle?
The DevOps lifecycle is a continuous loop that integrates software development and IT operations through a series of eight interconnected phases. It’s built to deliver better software, faster and more reliably, by automating repetitive work, breaking silos, and encouraging real-time feedback.
Here are the 8 core stages of the DevOps lifecycle:
Plan → Develop → Build → Test → Release → Deploy → Operate → Monitor
Each stage plays a critical role, and they all reinforce one another. Let’s go through them—not just what happens, but why it matters, what tools teams use, and how it looks in the real world.
1. Plan
Goal: Define the scope of what needs to be built and how it will be delivered.
What Happens:
- Stakeholders, product managers, developers, QA, and ops meet to align goals.
- Requirements are gathered and converted into user stories or tasks.
- Teams estimate timelines and prioritize features.
Tools:
- Jira (widely used for Agile boards)
- Trello (simple drag-and-drop planning)
- Azure DevOps Boards
- Notion or Confluence for documentation
Real Example:
At Spotify, squads plan autonomously using Agile sprints. They track dependencies with visual boards and break work into stories that align with customer impact—not just technical goals.
Key Takeaway:
Good planning prevents rework. DevOps teams plan with delivery in mind from day one—not just what to build, but how it will ship and be supported.
2. Develop
Goal: Write clean, testable code in a collaborative, version-controlled environment.
What Happens:
- Developers work in branches, push code to repositories (like GitHub), and review each other’s work.
- Pair programming and peer review help maintain quality.
- Infrastructure code (like Terraform, Ansible) is developed alongside application code.
Tools:
- Git (via GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
- IDEs like VS Code or JetBrains
- Code review tools (Crucible, GitHub Pull Requests)
Real Example:
Google engineers use internal Git-based tooling to submit changelists with automated lint checks and peer review gates. Every commit includes a reviewer and often a rollback plan.
Key Takeaway:
DevOps treats code as a team asset, not an individual effort. Every line of code is reviewed, tracked, and versioned.
3. Build
Goal: Transform raw code into deployable artifacts—packages, containers, or binaries.
What Happens:
- A Continuous Integration (CI) system compiles the code.
- Builds are tested automatically.
- Docker containers or artifacts (like
.jaror.zipfiles) are created and stored in a registry.
Tools:
- Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI
- Docker, Maven, Gradle, npm
- Nexus or Artifactory (artifact repositories)
Real Example:
Facebook’s internal CI platform runs thousands of builds per day with dependency caching, static checks, and parallel test execution. A broken build blocks all downstream deployments.
Key Takeaway:
Automation in the build stage ensures repeatability and consistency. A reliable build system is the foundation of any DevOps practice.
4. Test
Goal: Automatically validate that your code works and doesn’t break existing features.
What Happens:
- Automated tests are executed for every change.
- Testing includes unit, integration, UI, performance, and even security scans.
- Failed tests halt the pipeline—nothing moves forward unless it’s green.
Tools:
- JUnit, Mocha, PyTest (unit testing)
- Selenium, Cypress (UI testing)
- Postman, Newman (API testing)
- SonarQube (code quality)
- Snyk, OWASP ZAP (security testing)
Real Example:
LinkedIn’s CI system runs over 60,000 automated tests per day to validate pull requests. Developers see failures immediately, with logs and screenshots for debugging.
Key Takeaway:
You don’t “add testing to DevOps”—testing is DevOps. Automation here improves confidence, reduces bugs, and speeds up feedback loops.
5. Release
Goal: Package tested artifacts and prepare them for deployment.
What Happens:
- Final builds are tagged and promoted to staging or production.
- Release notes are generated.
- In regulated environments, approvals are required before deploying.
Tools:
- Helm (for Kubernetes releases)
- Git tags + semantic versioning
- ArgoCD, Octopus Deploy, Spinnaker
Real Example:
Capital One, a financial institution, built “release gates” into their pipelines—automated policy checks ensure compliance before any production push.
Key Takeaway:
Release isn’t just a button—it’s a checkpoint. DevOps ensures reliable, auditable, and repeatable releases, even in high-stakes industries.
6. Deploy
Goal: Push your code into live environments with minimal risk.
What Happens:
- The deployment system promotes the release to production or staging.
- Canary or blue/green strategies may be used.
- Rollbacks are pre-configured in case of failure.
Tools:
- Kubernetes + Helm/ArgoCD
- Spinnaker, GitOps tools (Flux, Argo)
- Terraform or Ansible (infra provisioning)
Real Example:
Netflix deploys code thousands of times per day across hundreds of services using Spinnaker and custom deployment logic that supports rolling updates and real-time rollback.
Key Takeaway:
Fast doesn’t mean reckless. The best DevOps teams deploy constantly—but with guardrails that protect users and uptime.
7. Operate
Goal: Manage infrastructure, environments, and uptime for the deployed application.
What Happens:
- Systems are monitored for health and performance.
- Auto-scaling and failover mechanisms ensure availability.
- Infrastructure changes are made using IaC and version control.
Tools:
- Terraform, CloudFormation (IaC)
- Kubernetes (for scaling, scheduling)
- AWS/GCP/Azure consoles and APIs
- HashiCorp Vault (secrets management)
Real Example:
Slack’s SRE team uses Terraform to manage everything from DNS to Kubernetes clusters. They track infra changes like code—complete with PRs, comments, and rollbacks.
Key Takeaway:
Operating software is part of building it. DevOps shifts operations left, so developers help support what they ship.
8. Monitor
Goal: Gain visibility into system behavior and user experience—and close the feedback loop.
What Happens:
- Logs, metrics, and traces are collected in real-time.
- Alerts are triggered for errors, anomalies, or latency spikes.
- Dashboards provide insight for developers, QA, and ops.
Tools:
- Prometheus + Grafana (metrics)
- ELK Stack or Loki (logs)
- Datadog, New Relic, Sentry, OpenTelemetry
Real Example:
Uber uses observability tooling to monitor latency at microservice granularity. They’ve built internal platforms that help trace customer issues back to specific services instantly.
Key Takeaway:
You can’t fix what you can’t see. Monitoring turns DevOps from reactive to proactive—catching issues before users do.
DevOps Lifecycle is a Loop, Not a Line
This isn’t a start-to-finish path—it’s an endless cycle of improvement:
- Monitoring feeds back into planning.
- Incident postmortems influence testing.
- Performance data shapes infrastructure.
This is what makes DevOps powerful: it’s not just about moving fast—it’s about learning fast and improving constantly.
Final Thoughts
The DevOps lifecycle transforms software delivery into a continuous, intelligent, and collaborative process. Each phase—when executed well—leads to:
- Shorter release cycles
- Fewer production issues
- Happier developers
- More resilient systems
But remember: tools matter, yet culture matters more. Start with understanding the why behind each phase, and build your pipeline gradually. DevOps isn’t a product to install—it’s a way of working that changes everything.
FAQs About the DevOps Lifecycle
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