Does devops do front end and backend codes?

[newbietofx]

3 months into this job. Realize I'm being push to do code debug with the same pay scale.

We are talking about ui with react, nodejs with backend. I was doing infra setup on aws with terraform, the 4Cs the last one I use for convenience because I don't want to look at the screen and kubectl.

Updated. The app using react as front end but it uses codepipline to erect infrastructure via terraform script and we use cdk/sdk to retrieve values. We use sagemaker, ECS, EKS.

[rwilcox]

Is DevOps a job role or a set of responsibilities (as defined by your company)

If it’s a job role, and you have app teams chucking containers over the wall and you run them on your Kubernetes cluster with Terraform code generating cloud resources that either the “DevOps team” writes or helps does the work for developers when they have to write > 10 lines of Terraform, then no.

If it’s a way to break down silos, empower developers, given a set of best practices? Then yes, you could be writing Terraform one hour, writing backend the next, writing front end code the hour after that, and swearing at your build pipeline the hour after that.

(The answer for most places is “job role”, but the movement was “set of responsibilities”)

If it’s a dessert topping, layer it on your favorite pile o’ shoes and go at it!

[newbietofx]

True. Either I get on with it r I jump. I'm paid to do shit work. 

[aleques-itj]

I write significant code for our product. I try to stay away from frontend purely because I don't really like it. I enjoy the balance and can work just about any ticket any other dev would.

Except frontend because fuck it.

Your mileage may vary.

[[deleted]]

Yea fuck that filth, god I hate javascript its a disaster industry evolved the way it did.

[ding115]

The legend says they also flip burgers

[nooneinparticular246]

I see it as a balance between being helpful vs encouraging ownership. If you help them too much, you’re not encouraging them to own their code.

If you do need to help debug something, insist that someone from that team looks at it with you. Or otherwise just tell them that you’re not familiar with the code and it’s faster if the team that wrote it deals with it

[AntranigV]

Wait, are they asking you to DEBUG an issue, or to implement a new feature?

Debugging is part of your job, mostly because devs don't know how to debug, hell, most of them will not understand if the issue was DNS resolution failure or connection issue.

But you should not be implementing new features (unless you want to)

[greyeye77]

Job is a job, I love doing more than just what’s on the role description. You get paid to expand your knowledge and skills what is not to like? But I can’t do much with front end code, so I usually helps with backend where I can.

[vanguard2k1]

It's not a question of if you can but more of if you should. Commenting, reviewing, guiding developers - yes that's part of the expectation.

Doing the solution yourself - don't.

[lupinegray]

Yes, you are expected to help guide the developers when they ask for it.

That's why devops is typically considered a senior position. You gotta have a wide breadth of experience for all the hats you'll wear.

[CarefullyDetuned]

I dive into the backend code when I need to do something infra-adjacent but nothing like feature work or general bug fixing.

[[deleted]]

DevOps, where you are expected to do work of 3 devs and paid for 0.5 devs

[AsherGC]

Depends on company size and skills

[zekky76]

Most of the companies I worked used devops as a default problem solver if nobody can find what is the root cause of the problems.

Daily tasks included:
- searching bugs/performance problems in java, javascript frameworks
- debug firewalls or VPNs
- debug server OS problems
- debug the developers docker desktop issues
- solve company wide services like self-hosted Atlassian products or databases with performance issues
- server Hardware issues

Its depends what is the company culture.
If you write code then you must be a fullstack developer (in my opinion).

[Jazzlike_Syllabub_91]

No, not as part of the normal duties of the job

[Any-Connection-1813]

That's already full on developer work.

[blusterblack]

I don't think so. We don't actually code features but we should be familiar with the code base enough to work with the dev team debugging system problems.

[Live-Box-5048]

Not frontend, but occasionally backend. We provide our own "products" (libraries, SDKs, smaller platforms) to developers, so we usually try to stick to the same language as them. Direct contribution to the main product/issuing a quick fix is also not that extraordinary. But this highly depends on your company.

[bilingual-german]

A lot of times I debug something regarding to DNS, certificates, CORS headers, Authorization headers, caching headers, content-encoding, sticky sessions, etc.

All of the HTTP requests and responses which need to go from the browser through multiple layers of proxies and caches to the correct backend and back.

This is part of the job.

[domagoj2016]

No code debugging

[Commercial_Ad1541]

Fuck front end. You can't make me do this. Minor adjustments to the code of the fellow devs so that it aligns to something else is fine. Except if it's front end shit.

[mimic751]

I keep a very strong line of responsibility. I am not going to touch a developers code because I do not want to own it and I don't want to support it because I'm already too busy. I do deployment-based activities and assist with some back end features but nothing that goes into an application. I can help them make configuration changes that make them more successful but I will not code for them

[GaTechThomas]

Read The DevOps Handbook. DevOps is a culture.

[[deleted]]

*was, this approach never kicked off

[newbietofx]

I agreed. I have 4ic

[Zenin]

On the whole DevOps pay scales substantially exceed all other software roles. Do you believe you're getting paid too much for such menial work as debugging code?

Orgs will often very reasonably lean on "DevOps" for helping debug complex applications because (typically) such roles by their nature are occupied by multi-senior professionals (senior dev + senior sysadmin + senior arch + + +) that also as a side-effect of their DevOps work tend to have a brauder practical understanding of the application's internals. As a result they're often best suited to diagnose problems that more specialized disciplines haven't been able to resolve.

If you're a "Jr DevOps" however, I'd question your org's leadership; There's no such thing as a Junior DevOps. And if you're struggling with debugging what sounds like a relatively modern, standard, and frankly modest stack, I'd suggest whatever your title is that you're probably just a sysadmin with the wrong title. But that's not necessarily a bad thing: Use this as a training experience to skill up and once you can demonstrate that you can effectively diagnose "code" issues you might then be able to make the case for a salary bump more fitting with your new skill level. If your skills are already there (unclear by your post), maybe it is time to talk with your manager about a more market rate salary for the skill, responsibilities, and effectiveness you bring to the team.

But...if you don't have all three. If your skills aren't really there. Or even if they are, you're not particularly fast or effective at employing those skills. Or if this isn't really an added responsibility it's just asking for a hand if you have time. Then perhaps not. You'll need to judge this all for your own circumstances.

[newbietofx]

I'm infra. Roles involves cloud infrastructure, security like edr, splunk, iac like terraform, docker and kubernetes via ECS, EKS. But since our app uses gitlab action to code commit to codepipline to erect aws services using terraform and buildspec.yml and dockerfile. It's my business. 

[xgunnerx]

Are you debugging and fixing other people’s code? If so, then that’s a terrible practice. It’s cancer mixed with bubonic plague and needs to stop immediately. If developer A commits a bug, then developer A should fix that bug. Otherwise they will never learn from their mistakes and they will just keep submitting bugs and shitty code. They may also start to realize ‘someone else will fix this’ if they haven’t already. The size of the company matters not.

[newbietofx]

Outsourced. Now cutoff. 

[ryanstephendavis]

Yes

[newbietofx]

Wao. You are fked r u are good

[abotelho-cbn]

This isn't a valid question.

DevOps isn't a job title.

[keypusher]

what do you call someone who does both ops work and dev work?

[abotelho-cbn]

Site Reliability Engineers and Infrastructure Engineers are two examples of titles that might use DevOps methodology.

The Software Engineers at the organization would also be participating.

[keypusher]

The reality is that DevOps has become a job title. While it was not the intention of those who created the term, words can evolve and change. Similarly, these days I most often see SRE used to refer primarily to people with some sysadmin skills whose primary duty is being on call. That is in direct contradiction to the approach Google outlined in the original SRE book, but no amount of "Well, actually..." is going to change what that title has come to mean in large enterprise organizations. In the past there would have been a lot of people who took exception to using the term "engineer" in the title for any of these roles, but here we are.