Investing In Improvement: How Agile and DevOps Boost Transformation

Agile methodology has become a cornerstone of businesses across the globe, especially since the onset of the pandemic. Today’s economy ensures that software remains omnipresent – but our new reality has bred a different form of competition. Fast-changing technologies define business as a whole, knowing no limits: from the internal systems a company depends upon to the outside functionalities that define brands, it has become clear that tech must continuously adapt to endure.

The pressure has kept increasing even as the pandemic struggles to slow down in some parts of the world. The line between IT and business has become blurred, along with the distinction between remote and in-person workstations. Flexible jobs need to become the norm as market demands seek faster and faster responses.

An Agile and DevOps hybrid strategy seems to be the perfect solution, in the end. Since the line has become so blurred, this means that these strategies need not only to be implemented within the IT side but across all the internal sectors of each organization. As we have previously cautioned against, however, the business end will not be able to profit from a newer technology unless it adopts a more unique mentality.

Indeed, the insight that Agile and DevOps provide is only profitable if we understand the necessary steps, level of integration, and correct opportunities to take advantage of.

Understanding Agile

Research done by Freeform Dynamics shows that the original principles of Agile remain relevant, if not more. These principles can be bogged down to two core elements:

• Promoting organizational models based on collaboration between various sectors
• Responding effectively to consumer demand

While many companies understand the fast approach that this methodology requires – it’s in the name, after all – a lot of organizations do not understand that responding to consumer demand effectively doesn’t always mean being first. It means correctly assessing the faults in the internal business model and correcting them properly before changing course becomes an impossible task.

While sprint practices realized consistently have been proven to work, there is much more to be done with Agile. It needs to extend beyond the developer realm. The maturing of cloud computing, administration technologies, and IT Ops demand that Agile methods leak into every sector – it’s no longer just about developing a product faster, but ensuring that it reaches the consumer’s hands in a perfect state too.

Bridging The Gap Between Agile & DevOps

DevOps has been seen by many players in the software industry as the next step in ensuring faster releases. This means, however, that a fast adoption will also lead to a large number of enthusiasts who still don’t quite grasp the numerous factors in implementing DevOps. To ensure this, DevOps adoption must transition from basic DevOps practices to harder ones.

To achieve this faster transition towards continuous delivery, executives must employ a series of practices. For example:

1. Increasing automation across the software delivery life-cycle
2. Implementing continuous testing methodologies
3. Making security an integral part of DevOps
4. Greater ways to review customer feedback
5. Integration of analytics and AI

By exploiting the synergies between various sectors, these types of long-term goals can be achieved. Used in everyday business, Agile can be a source of maximum alignment and optimization.

Some scaled Agile frameworks have also been provided and discussed later as well. Some of them include:

• SAFe: a combination of lean, Agile, and DevOps practices to coordinate team efforts.
• Large Scale Scrum (LeSS): Organizing the team behind various product features – assigning one team for voice features and another for security in a SaaS app.
• Disciplined Agile: it focuses on the ins and outs of business functions at scale.

While there are various frameworks to choose from, this is not everything that matters.

It Isn’t Only About The Tech

Looking at the technology, it’s evident that finding talented personnel to tackle such tasks isn’t easy. Operating both in Agile and DevOps environments requires heavier training, but not every organization is equipped to handle that workload. Both training and recruitment options have become a higher priority as the years go by.

We at Teravision have over 17 years of experience tackling similar challenges, assessing companies, and investing in newer technologies to better help you in the long run. Contact us, and let us help you make your vision a reality.