DevOps and Agile: How They Interrelate?

Devops and agile how they interelate

DevOps and Agile are two widely popular approaches in the software development landscape, known for their iterative and incremental methodologies. These methodologies play a crucial role in enhancing efficiency, driving innovation, and improving collaboration and communication within teams and organizations.

DevOps and Agile serve as powerful tools that enable organizations to streamline processes and adapt to the ever-changing demands of the industry.

In this blog, we will understand both Agile and DevOps methodologies, their benefits, principles, how they interrelate and some common misconceptions surrounding both.

Table of Contents

What is Agile?

Agile is a continuous and iterative development and testing approach followed during the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). It was developed to do away with the inefficiencies of the waterfall model. The approach emphasizes collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement to deliver high-quality software in a rapidly changing environment.

Agile methodologies or agile development originate from the Agile Manifesto, a set of guiding principles for effective software development established by a group of software developers, in 2001.

The life cycle for each agile sprint is 2-4 weeks, where each team / team member works on to complete a set of tasks. Once the sprint is over, the deliverables are reviewed and changes are worked on before moving on to the next sprint.


The 4 values of Agile Manifesto:

The philosophy of agile development is based on the four value of the agile manifesto:

  • Individuals and Interactions over Process and Tools
  • Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation
  • Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation
  • Responding to change over Following A Plan

The 12 Principles of Agile Manifesto

12 Principles of Agile Manifesto - Ellow

Benefits of Agile

We can broadly classify the benefits of agile methodologies under three different headings:

Effective Teamwork: 

Agile promotes effective teamwork through the following aspects:

a) Collaboration

Agile promotes an environment of frequent communication and collaboration among team members by giving them a platform to brainstorm, share ideas, resolve issues, and work towards a common goal at the same time.


b) Self-organization

Agile emphasises on taking ownership and responsibility for work. This leads to self accountability, thereby resulting in higher productivity, engagement and satisfaction.


c) Cross-functional teams

Agile requires members from different teams with varying expertise to work closely with each other. This diversity enables teams to understand and solve problems better. Also, this results in knowledge sharing between the teams.

 

Customer satisfaction: 

Agile promotes customer satisfaction in the following ways:

  • Continuous Customer Collaboration

In Agile, the sprint happens frequently, in every 2-4 weeks. This results in frequent collaboration, product demos, and regular feedback from the clients. Agile ensures that the final product aligns with customer expectations.

  • Faster delivery

Agile emphasises on working in small and regular sprints or iterations. By doing so, it becomes easy to incorporate customer feedback into every stage of the SDLC and ensure a faster delivery of the end product.

  • Flexibility to change

Agile methodologies align closely with the evolving needs of the customers, and changes are incorporated at every stage. This ensures that, even with multiple change requests, the final product aligns closely with customer expectations.

 

Continuous Improvement

One of the major benefits of agile is continuous improvement, it helps in the following benefits:

  1. Faster Feedback Cycles 

Faster feedback is an essential part of the agile process. It helps teams identify and address potential issues early in the development cycle. This reduces the cost of potential errors and customer complaints in the future.

  • Learning & Growth

Agile provides everyone on the team with the perfect environment to grow and learn. The continuous feedback loop and the multiple sprints, along with working with cross-functional teams, provide everyone time to adapt, learn, retrospect, and grow with time.

Considering the number of benefits of the agile process, now the framework is used beyond software development like marketing, product development, and project management, where iterative development, continuous improvement, and adaptive planning is required.

Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming are widely used to implement agile methodologies. 

Companies who have embraced agile have shown better performance, collaboration, engagement, adaption, flexibility to change, and better customer satisfaction. According to Zippa, almost 71% of companies in the US are using agile.

Now let us look at what DevOps is and its importance in the software industry.

What is DevOps?

According to the Google Cloud- State of DevOps 2021 report, 33% of DevOps practitioners work in the technology sector, while 67% work in non-technology sectors such as financial services, education, retail, manufacturing, and more.

The popularity of DevOps across industries lies in its ability to streamline software development processes, improve collaboration & communication, and enhance reliability and efficiency of every software release.

One of the fundamental goals of DevOps is to bridge the gap between development and operation teams, and create a shared responsibility of the entire software development lifecycle.

DevOps, as the name suggests, is a combination of two words ‘Development’ and ‘Operations’. The term was coined in 2009 by Patrick Debois, a pioneer in the field.

Principles of DevOps

There are 7 principles of DevOps which are listed below:

7 principles of DevOps

Benefits of DevOps

Here are some of the benefits of DevOps, which is pushing more and more organizations to adopt the culture and practice.

Improves collaboration and communication 

DevOps enhances overall organizational communication and collaboration. By promoting frequent communication among teams and encouraging cross-functional collaboration, DevOps contributes to improved teamwork and collaboration.

 

Reduces time to market

Standardised pipeline, processes, and frequent iterations in DevOps reduces the time taken for delivery of product to the market.


Better Customer Satisfaction

DevOps is a customer-focused culture; continuous delivery and integration, as well as monitoring, help remove issues early in the development lifecycle. It also allows developers to incorporate changes on the go and create a product closely aligned to customer needs.


Greater efficiency and security

DevOps results in a final version of the product, which is more secure and efficient compared to others who do not follow a DevOps approach.

Check out our blog on Top Benefits & Advantages of DevOps to get an in-depth understanding.

How do Agile and DevOps interrelate?

Agile and DevOps are distinct yet interconnected software development approaches utilized by IT teams worldwide.

Agile focuses on iterative and incremental software development, while DevOps extends beyond that boundary. DevOps builds upon Agile principles, encompassing the entire software development lifecycle of development, operations, and continuous delivery.

The below table highlights how Agile and DevOps are similar in most aspects and how they interrelate:

AgileDevOps
FocusIterative and incremental software developmentEntire software delivery lifecycle including development, operations, and continuous delivery
ValuesCollaboration, customer satisfaction, continuous improvementCollaboration, customer satisfaction, continuous improvement
TeamsCross-functional teams collaborate closelyCross-functional teams collaborate closely
DeliveryFrequent delivery of working software in small incrementsContinuous integration, delivery, and deployment of software
AutomationAutomation of testing and other development processesAutomation of the entire software delivery pipeline
ImprovementContinuous improvement and adaptationContinuous learning and feedback loops for process enhancement
CustomerFrequent customer collaboration and feedbackCustomer-centric focus on delivering value and meeting needs
AlignmentBridging the gap between development and operationsBridging the gap between development and operations

Common Misconceptions of Agile & DevOps

Over the years, Agile and DevOps have created a revolution in the way in which software products are built. They have streamlined overall processes and transformed the software development landscape, enabling organizations to achieve faster delivery, improved collaboration, enhanced quality, and greater customer satisfaction. 

Despite the popularity, there are few common misconceptions which organizations have about DevOps and Agile, we have listed a few:


DevOps and Agile are Tools or Technology

DevOps and Agile are not plug-and-play tools or technologies. They are transformative approaches, processes, and cultural shifts in software development, with a strong customer-centric focus.


Quick Fix and Instant Transformation

Many organizations believe that Agile and DevOps are quick-fix solutions and bring in immediate results and instant transformation overnight. The reality is different, both the methodologies require time, effort, long time commitment and improvement.


Agile and DevOps are same

While the basic philosophy of Agile and DevOps might be the same, they are quite different. Agile is used in the context of software development, DevOps is used in conjunction with the software development lifecycle.


Limited only to software development

The concept of Agile and DevOps doesn’t have its scope limited only to software development. It extends across industries and domains globally.

Final thoughts

Can organizations harness the power of Agile and DevOps simultaneously?

Absolutely!

Many leading companies, such as Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, and Etsy, to name a few, have already embraced both Agile and DevOps methodologies.

By combining these approaches, organizations can streamline their processes, deliver maximum value to customers, develop superior products, and accelerate time to market.

DevOps and Agile complement each other.

While we already mentioned they can be implemented individually, when used together, it is a powerful tool for organizations for software development. DevOps provides the essential foundation and infrastructure that enables Agile practices to thrive.

By adopting both approaches, organizations can foster a highly collaborative environment, maximize people’s potential, and remain continuously aligned with customer requirements in this fast-paced world.

Picture of Abhishek Ghosh

Abhishek Ghosh

Experienced B2B Content Marketer, Writer, Editor, and Strategist. He is from an engineering background who now loves to play around with words. He is an SEO and a social media enthusiast.
Picture of Abhishek Ghosh

Abhishek Ghosh

Experienced B2B Content Marketer, Writer, Editor, and Strategist. He is from an engineering background who now loves to play around with words. He is an SEO and a social media enthusiast.