How Human-In-The-Loop Automation Will Improve DevOps

In most industries, they're collecting more data on products and users than ever before, that has lead to all kinds of improvements in what they offer. In DevOps, it's something we can take advantage of as well. If you use the right kind of automation, it can make all the difference.

Human In The Loop, or HITL automation is a good option for DevOps. It automates parts of the production process, while allowing space for human interaction if and when needed. Here's why it's going to improve DevOps as a whole when used.

Automatic Documentation Helps With Improving Workflow

As a team you'll always be working to improve your product, and HITL automation makes it a whole lot easier. When you're trying to do all the documentation yourself, it's so easy for things to get missed. That's why automation is making this a whole lot easier.

HITL automation will automatically document every action made in the process, either by a human or machine. That way, there's a clean audit trail in place. “Having that audit trail means it's so much easier to trace back a certain action when you need to” says Laura Gale, a tech blogger at Write My X and 1 Day 2 Write. “If you need to trace it back, it only takes a few moments and it helps you make improvements on the fly.”

Pick Up Problems Earlier

No matter how well you put a workflow together, sometimes things are just going to go wrong. It's part and parcel of the process, so you need to be able to step in and put things right again. Of course, the sooner you know about a problem the sooner you'll be able to handle it, and that's why HITL automation comes in.

When the workflow is automated, problems can be picked up and flagged much earlier on. In some cases, there can even be automatic fixes used if there is a problem. For example, a flagged issue could generate a work ticket, start a Slack channel with the right people to fix it, and so on.

Bring Human And Automated Data Together

Having data on how your workflows work is essential to improvements down the line. Something that you'll want data on is how your human staff work to produce work and solve problems. While it's important to have, manually documenting all that data takes a lot of time.

Using HITL automation ensures that collecting that data is a lot easier, as it's all done via the same system. That takes a lot of work off the staff's hands, so they can focus on the issues that are important. When you have the machine and human data together, it also helps you get the full picture of what's happening right now, and what needs to be improved.

It Doesn't Have To Be 'All Or Nothing'

“When companies look into HITL automation, they feel as though they have to totally rework their workflows” says business writer Adrian Smith from Origin Writings and Brit Student. “That isn't the case at all though, you don't have to go all or nothing.”

If you want to start using HITL automation, you can do so by automating one specific process. If that's successful, you can add another one, and keep building on what you have. You don't have to rework everything in one go, as that won't work for you long term.

Bridge The Gaps In Your Development

Every DevOps team will have some gaps that they need to work around. Maybe there's a lack of resources, scripts that aren't on all machines, and so on. If you're trying to work around these issues, that's where HITL automation can help.

When you start putting together automation, keep these gaps in mind. If you start building to bridge these gaps first, you're going to get the most value out of it. There are plenty of off the shelf models that allow you to do just this, while giving you the adaptability to give you what you need.

These are just a few of the benefits that HITL automation can bring to any DevOps group. If you start building your system now, you can start reaping the rewards quite quickly.