Agile and DevOps are the two most popular software development methodologies that help drive digital transformation. These two methodologies differ from each other but can be applied step-by-step in the software development lifecycle (SDLC). This article explains Agile and DevOps, their benefits, and the five key steps that bring digital transformation.

Let’s Begin! 

What is Agile?

Agile is a software development model that follows the concept of iterative development. It means that the software product is divided into small sprints or iterations with set deliverables. The sprint is released in a specified period of one to two weeks or a month.  Requirement, design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance is the strategy followed in the Agile SDLC. The cycle iterates and repeats the process until the final product is launched to the market. One of the main reasons why Agile is adapted by many software organizations is its ability to respond to the changes occurring in the software quickly and effectively.

What are the benefits of Agile?

• More control: Agile helps the development team have more control of their work by breaking down work into small iterative cycles. The team can work according to the new updates and requirements.
• Reduce risk:  Agile helps in identifying risks and problems occurring in the project. The team can implement effective mitigation plans for reducing risk.
• Improved productivity:  The incremental nature of Agile enables making changes quickly and at any stage during the SDLC, thus increasing productivity.
• Immediate feedback: Using agile, teams can respond to customer feedback immediately.
• Quick-release: The time-to-market software is fast and quick in agile with the help of creating a minimal viable product (MVP). Moreover, it also decreases the development cost.

What is DevOps?

DevOps development is a combination of development (Dev) and operations (Ops) that enhances the speed and efficiency of the software. In this methodology, the development and operation team merges into one team and works together across the entire SDLC- from development and test to deployment and operations. The important fundamentals of DevOps include planning, building, continuous integration & deployment, monitoring, operation, and continuous feedback. The DevOps team seamlessly collaborates and communicates with each other throughout the lifecycle to build a top-notch quality product while maintaining alignment and velocity. DevOps security team implements the security features by adapting the enhanced approach known as DevSecOps. The security layer is applied from the initial phase in DevSecOps.  It ensures that every stage of SDLC is covered with a security layer to build highly secure and scalable products.

What are the benefits of DevOps?

• Speed: DevOps helps developers release software deliverables quickly while maintaining quality and stability.
• Security:  Integrating security in every phase of DevOps by using DevSecOps can help the team deliver secure software.
• Improved collaboration: Smooth collaboration across different teams as they work together from the initial to the final phase of the SDLC.
• Rapid deployment: DevOps teams improve products rapidly by increasing the frequency and velocity of releases. The team can gain a competitive advantage by quickly releasing new features and repairing bugs.

Why choose Agile and DevOps?

Most organizations adopt the agile development approach first then DevOps. These are the two key factors in their digital transformation journey. Agile and DevOps help the team deliver better and scalable products by utilizing modern tools such as Kanban, Scrum, Jira, Bitbucket, Confluence, Adaptive project framework, and extreme project management. Moreover, it enhances the speed, quality, and performance of the software product. You can take a look at the insightful resources on Agile Or Devops on Plutora.

5 key Agile and DevOps Helps to drive digital transformation

Organizations that adopt these two approaches in their SDLC can better cope with the situations and changes occurring in the software development journey. These methodologies are worth investing, resulting in digital transformation success over the longer term. The following are the five ways agile and DevOps help to drive digital transformation.

1. Organize your team

Agile and DevOps product development teams are held responsible for developing, running, and maintaining platforms with state-of-the-art tools and applications. Each team or individual is assigned to work on a sprint that requires an understanding of the product and the process.  The team aims to build, and develop software in accordance with the plan and, then finally, deploy it successfully. That’s the reason why agile development enables organizations to move from project-based teams to product-oriented teams, which have complete control of the products they develop.

2. Provide training

When you build products using Agile and DevOps development methodology, then it’s essential to focus on hiring and retaining competent resources that are as opposed to senior resources, which can lead to building an experience-focused team rather than an expertise-focused team. As a result, it is critical to train resources to boost value-per-person and ensure that they are responsible for each output from beginning to end. This considerable shift in thinking may be difficult to adapt at first, but it provides more collaborative scope and much-needed operational flexibility.

3. Discovering and evaluating challenges individually

There are four categories of challenges faced by an organization: simple, complex, complicated, and chaotic. All of these challenges and issues should be addressed, and the finest techniques and methods should be used to resolve these challenges. However, an ideal solution is an automation. It leads to enhanced efficiency and higher employee satisfaction.

4. Automate processes

Automation is one of the best ways to drive digital transformation as it not only standardizes the output but makes the development process cost-effective. Automation tools can also reduce the time required to launch the product to the market. The SDLC is a critical process but when an organization utilizes the automation techniques, then it can bring a significant benefit to product development. By lowering variability and improving consistency, automation enables product scaling across the organization – with the multiple teams having different skillsets and expertise.

5. Measure initiatives

Instead of simply assessing the volume of work, it’s critical to analyze the business value provided when digitally changing. However, simply having access to the data won’t make a major effect; it’s more vital to use these measurements to improve organizational behavior and mindset. Agile and DevOps approaches to digital transformation can provide a clear picture of an organization’s operations and areas for improvement. Metrics are therefore essential for enhancing operations and expanding efforts by allowing you to see which areas demand the greatest attention.

Final words

We’re now well-familiar with Agile and DevOps software techniques and how they can drive digital transformation. Agile and DevOps both features amazing benefits that can help you improve the way you work throughout the SDLC. Quick response, improved collaboration, secure products, immediate feedback, etc. are all part of the Agile and DevOps SDLC.