How can DevOps help in scalability?

It depends on how you or your organization view DevOps.

In my opinion, DevOps is what Agile was from day one. A critical, integrated element of product development and/or software engineering.

Nowadays, DevOps seems to be a standalone component for a lot of people, so it depends on what school of thought you belong to.

Agile software development was always intended to build a ‘walking skeleton’ from day one in the development process. A walking skeleton that integrated DevOps into the software development process and helped teams deliver valuable, working software to customers.

Frequently, consistently, and sustainably.

Nowadays, DevOps is often perceived as a separate part of the development process, but that doesn’t make sense.

If we have software or solutions being developed, that are exclusively internal, it has little to no value, it is simply inventory that builds up and you can’t get it into the hands of a customer.

We can’t validate that it is of any use to the customer or whether it creates value for the customer.

DevOps helps us to understand the delivery pipeline – from the development of the software into the hands of the customer – and whether it contributes value to the customer.

It also allows, beyond understanding process, a shift in our culture and mindset. We see operations and software development as a single, interconnected, and integrated solution.

We don’t lob things over the fence and tell others that we have built the solution, but it is up to them to run that solution or make it work.

In the context of SAFe and an Agile Release Train, we build, maintain, and grow the solution and don’t separate any of those elements. DevOps is an interconnected, integral part of that solution.

The value of integrating DevOps into your style of working, is that you have an immediate feedback loop built into the system. As you are building a solution, you are also seeing the consequences of your actions.

In some organizations, I have witnessed a situation where the development team build the solution, but it is only the 2^nd or 3^rd line of support that witness the consequences of what has been developed.

Because the feedback loop is broken, the development team assume that what they have built is fit for purpose and good engineering, but the Devops teams are seeing the problems ripple through the system.

The delay in that feedback loop means that the software development team keep building features or delivering software that creates problems for other people, in other departments, and negatively impacts the customer experience.

It also erodes trust and confidence in the development team.

Integrating DevOps with software development teams means that you close that loop and receive immediate, valuable feedback about the quality of the solution that is being produced.

It ensures that the Agile Release Train are building valuable, working software and delivering that frequently and consistently to customers.

Integrating DevOps also reinforces that we have a shared responsibility in our product development environment to deliver an integrated solution that works and creates value for customers. A culture that embraces teamwork and excellence.

We also learn to understand the end-to-end value stream or value delivery pipeline much better and are able to continuously improve the environment. We can also use the feedback and measurement to understand whether our hypotheses hold true.

• Are people using the feature or software the way we intended?
• Are customers or end-users deriving value from the new feature(s)?
• Can we learn anything from consumer behaviour that informs what we attempt next?

And so forth.

So, ultimately, including DevOps in the product development environments helps us build better products, more consistently, with improved time to market. It helps scale agility within the environment and nurtures a culture of excellence and great practices.

About Value Glide

Value Glide are a SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) consultancy, coaching practice, and training specialist who work with organizations to align business objectives with customer needs and wants.

As deeply experienced agile coaches and practitioners, our team are invested in continuous learning through each client engagement and use the data and evidence we gather from each implementation to inform our training, coaching, and consulting services.

In a nutshell, empirical process control or empiricism.

If you are thinking of adopting agile within your organization and have identified SAFe as a great agile framework to adopt, implement and improve your business agility, visit our SAFe Quickstart ART Launch program page or view our SAFe Consulting Services page.

If you have identified a need for an agile coach and SAFe coach to help your organization adopt and implement SAFe, visit our SAFe Coaching Services page.

If you want to know more about SAFe and how to lead SAFe, visit our SAFE Training page for a host of options, from Leading SAFe to a SAFe Release Train Engineer course.

#SAFe #scaledagileframework #scalingagile #agile #agileframework #agilecoach

Connect with Value Glide!