Positive Impact of DevOps/Agile Adoption and its Metrics
What is the positive impact of DevOps and Agile adoption on your project? What are those metrics?
Suppose we were to use a sports inference to describe DevOps and Agile. In that case, they are a duo like Jordan and Pippen, Clements and Jeter, or in soccer terms, Messi and Suarez, (or Julian Alvarez), i.e., there is no loss when they are together.
DevOps makes a difference when the two primary columns of an enterprise ecosystem, development and operations, work together in an integrated way.
Why do we say this?
Because DevOps cannot be efficient without an Agile setup.
There is no point in accelerating delivery and automating code deployment and infrastructure if the development team only releases builds at huge intervals.
Nor does it make any sense to perform development optimization and accelerate build processes if new code reaches users in the next release.
So what is Agile’s role in all this?
Agile will facilitate continuous and on-time delivery while you are implementing DevOps. That’s why these two work so well together. It’s kind of like Pippen making the pass to Jordan for the basket =P
Now, are there any metrics to measure the effectiveness of this duo?
The answer is Yes.
Not only because it is functional to see what will be good to improve but because it is a necessary, almost fundamental requirement.
Why?
Because more and more companies provide DevOps services from Latin America. The competition is greater, and the customer’s chances of changing service providers are increasing.
We say this by taking as an example the statistics of Fortune. Where they indicate that the LATAM countries where there has been the most significant growth of these companies are:
– Brazil
– Mexico
– Argentina/ Colombia
– Chile
– Peru
Therefore, it is increasingly more accessible for a customer to make a change if they feel that the experience, the speed of response, and the cost, are not aligned with their expectations or business paradigms.
So, back to the previous question:
How can you measure the effectiveness of DevOps and Agile?
We will tell you about some of the most commonly used metrics in DevOps + Agile:
Quality across multiple tests
This is not just a metric for DevOps and Agile but arguably for everything in life.
Taking it to this level is vital because it is a great differentiator and may even be the philosopher’s stone of Harry Potter.
The simple reason is that if you do not offer quality in the automation, if it is not properly managed, you can make a big mistake and jeopardize the entire project and its security.
Hence the importance of measuring quality throughout the development-deployment tests.
Note that a recent survey conducted by Forrest indicates that:
72% of companies say software testing is critical to the DevOps + Agile lifecycle and continuous delivery. We agree.
These companies focus on developing their skills while budgeting and testing enough to implement Agile and DevOps practices across the organization.
For example, we recommend doing all of these:
– Perform continuous testing implementation in response to the demand for much faster releases.
– Automate end-to-end functional testing.
– Make testers part of the delivery team.
– Start testing early in the development lifecycle (shift testing).
However, not all companies do it completely but alternate between these tests.
But what if we look at them individually?
For example:
Imagine that you can make a midfield play to win the game, but you didn’t do the proper testing in the training and don’t know the minimum needs to score without a problem.
Unit tests seem to be a waste of time.
However, they can be critical as the code base evolves. Because it gives information to developers and testers and, if prioritized, can lower the risk levels.
In the case of integration and API testing is increasingly relevant because there are so many things that can happen beyond the user interface that quality and risk levels can get out of hand.
Finally, end-to-end regression testing is essential.
Companies that have been doing this for a while suggest performing these tests at the process or transaction level. However, we know this task can be challenging, as speed is very important.
However, maintaining high levels of automation is a priority; this will only be achieved as more tests are automated.
All this is without leaving aside the speed of delivery and costs. That is when Agile-DevOps make you fall in love and work its magic.
Lead time of execution of the changes
This is vital because we know that speed of delivery can lead to penalties, to put it in a sporting way.
This metric helps us know how long a commitment takes to reach production.
Here we will see the efficiency of the development process, the team’s capacity, and the code’s complexity. This metric is ideal for delivering the software quickly.
Automation
End-to-end automation is a business differentiator.
Companies that rely on manual testing tend to view testing as a bottleneck as opposed to those that automate.
Automating software quality control streamlines what can be very slow manual processes.
In addition, most companies that follow Agile+DevOps best practices consider the automation of their QA processes to be a key differentiator.
Risk measurement
We have been talking about the importance of automating to improve the speed and frequency of releases significantly.
However, accurately measuring and tracking quality throughout the software development lifecycle is vital.
Why?
Automating the delivery process could increase the risk of delivering defects in production.
So, if organizations cannot accurately measure business risk, automating development and testing practices can seriously harm the enterprise.
In that sense, companies that have been the longest in the market and have been working for them say is:
Quality and speed are on different scales than risk: most companies still need to establish the connection between speed, quality, and risk.
In general, the importance of risk in software lags behind the established development goals of quality, on time, and on-budget.
Because of this, it is important to measure business risk accurately, and we know this is not a “blow and make a bottle.”
We now know the importance of having good quality control and testing processes.
And this has led us to realize that connecting risk, quality, and speed is complex.
Workflow Efficiency
This metric will measure the ratio between the time the team contributes and when it does not add value while the software is being done.
It will provide the number of active times (when the team is actively working to reach the objective) and waiting times (when the team has had to: prioritize other things, has excess work, etc.) within the total time spent to finish each process.
For this to be measurable, it is important to place tools that clearly define the active and waiting times.
These are some of the metrics we use with DevOps and Agile that have been working for our clients.
If you need help implementing or carrying out these or any of these metrics, write to us now.
Finally, we invite you to look at Forrester’s in-depth survey of companies worldwide using DevOps and Agile.