​Incorporating Automation Software Development and DevOps Strategies

The mainstay of B&R's software development is AUTOMATION Studio. With the help of this integrated development environment, all B&R hardware is coded. The methods for building installation packages, compiling software, and deploying it can all be used outside of Automation Studio, i.e., via the command line. Additionally, the Automation Studio project's source files are kept in plain text. This facilitates simple integration with DevOps techniques.

Here we answer the most common questions around reducing the barrier to entry of incorporating practices into daily work.

Q: Can you define DevOps for industrial automation?

DevOps, in general, refers to a collection of procedures that allow for the continuous, trustworthy, and quick supply of software to clients. Increased task and metric visibility, organizing work into manageable pieces, team and project architecture optimization, automated testing, automated reporting, and other processes are all part of it.

When it comes to industrial automation, the hardware components that come to mind first are frequently PLCs, drives, motors, input/output (I/O), transport systems, and so forth. But just as significant is the application software that supports and eventually manages this hardware. Our customers are increasingly differentiating themselves from rivals by using the machine control software. So, it makes sense to apply contemporary DevOps principles, which are often seen in pure software organizations, to the industrial automation field as well.

Q: What does DevOps offer in terms of value?

A: DevOps has several advantages. Delivering goods to the final consumer consistently, dependably, and speedily is the main objective and advantage. More specifically, it gives you the ability to speed up bug fixes, improve code quality, boost deployment frequency, and increase productivity, among other things.

Q: Everything there sounds pretty positive. Why hasn't DevOps been adopted by everyone working in industrial automation?

A: DevOps is more than just a program that you download and install. The change in how we carry out our daily work is more of a mindset and cultural one. The tactics are supported by tools, of course, but how those tools are used can differ greatly. As a result, figuring out how precisely to alter existing processes to embrace DevOps takes some time and effort on the part of project managers and software engineers.

Q: What steps is B&R taking to promote the use of these techniques?

A: At B&R, we are aware that changing your workflows initially is a barrier to entry for DevOps. As a result, we developed what we call the DevOps package. The materials in this package cover a wide range of DevOps topics. Each topic includes a description, a justification for its significance, instructions on how to complete the task using a particular tool, and, if applicable, template files. In other words, using the lens of software development at B&R, we precisely defined DevOps tactics after sifting through the large quantity of general information available. Therefore, by briefly and precisely describing how to implement the methods with Automation Studio project development, we greatly lower the barrier to entry for incorporating these practices into your regular work.

Q: What particular subjects are covered by this DevOps package?

A: At the present, we offer resources for build and automation servers, testing, version control, project management, and testing. We go over subjects for project management like project planning, Jira issue tracking, and Confluence information storage. The section on version control is filled with details on Git, Sourcetree, suggestions for branching and committing, how to handle merge conflicts, and tactics for code reviews. The testing section addresses the idea of test-driven development and goes into great detail on how to create a test strategy. We also offer an Excel template that can be used to keep track of all of your manual and automated tests, as well as a step-by-step guidance on how to deploy B&R unit testing. The automation and build server section concludes by describing in detail how to use Jenkins to automatically create your project, run the unit tests, and notify any interested parties of the results.

Q: What is the DevOps package's current state?

A: We are completing the first iteration of our DevOps package contents as of Q2 2023. In order to further improve the materials and make them as understandable and beneficial as possible, we are trying to implement a pilot with a customer.

Q: How soon do you anticipate having an implementable version?

A: A finalized version of the package should be finished by the end of the year, according to our expectations. For additional details and up to date information, please get in touch with your salesman. Of course, we'd be pleased to share the materials and solicit feedback from anyone who was interested in viewing them sooner.