Introduction#
RDCT Good DevOps Practice
Research Data and Communication Technologies’ secure software development and IT operations discipline enables research at scale.
Collaborate with colleagues, customers, and communities. Focus on consistent, incremental results. Plan ahead, but be responsive to change.
Track changes to software products and system definitions.
Shift left by automating software verification, system validation, and product packaging.
Shift right with rolling releases that deploy (or update) accredited, validated capability at the speed of need.
Conventions#
Guidance
Interpret the key words MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL as described in RFC 2119.
Authoritative guidance using these key words appear in admonitions titled “Guidance”, like above. An explanation of the rationale for the rule plus supporting material appears after in separate paragraphs, like this. Usually, each rule falls under its own subheading, which facilitates cross-referencing. Top-level headings provide a content summary or a quick reference.
Scope#
This document governs the life cycle of the RDCT Engineering team’s products or services. It incorporates material from several sources, including the following:
Audience#
Members of the RDCT Engineering team follow these standards and practices as they develop and operate accredited, validated systems for government, for research and education, and for commerce. This is not limited to pure software development activites and can include, for example, documentation or system integrations. This also includes company (internal) projects, which act as both on-the-job DevOps training activities and process quality controls.
Structure#
This document contains three major sections. The frontmatter introduces the RDCT Engineering team’s DevOps strategy. The main body of the work provides instructions covering project management, version control, continuous integration, and continuous delivery as well as supplementary—but still authoritative—guidance for specific tool chains or techniques. Appendices organize key reference materials.