DevOps For Frontend Developers

DevOps is on both the Frontend and backend software development. We all know that it’s common on the backend. And in fact, it’s always part of the job description for backend engineers. However, there’s DevOps on the front-end too.

DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and information-technology operations (Ops) which aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality.

Frontend Developers always like to work on the visible part of design/development only. The introduction of software/tech operations seems tedious to them. DevOps involves a lot of configurations and can be hectic if you don’t really understand. It’s actually simple.

DevOps activities on the front-end include:

• Configuration of module bundler tools such as Webpack, parcel, etc
• CI/CD setup and configurations
• Packaging the app for staging or production
• Application versioning and release
• Infrastructure configuration and management
• Application performance monitoring

The backend of the Front-end

Some developers consider this DevOps part as the backend but still on the frontend side. This is because it doesn’t involve “fun” visual development(Coding). It kind of seem backend as it involves a lot of decision-making and logic in the tools and operations to be done. Of course, the “real” Frontend still involves making decisions too, but that’s during the development/designing phase.

Can you work without DevOps for Front-end?

Ofcoz not, that would be like writing a program with no idea of the problem you solve, only to fix a random problem at the end. It might work and it might not also work. It’s important to determine the bundling tools, set up CI/CD, and configure the infrastructure during the initial stages of app development.

Although if you working with a DevOps specialist in your team, then you can concentrate on the development part.

DevOps Tips for Frontend Developers

• Understand how bundling tools work
• Understand how to set up and configure CI/CD tools
• You should, of course, know how to version your app
• Understand the different infrastructure platforms and configurations