DevOps and Agile: How They Work Together?

Most people consider DevOps and Agile to be competing methodologies in the world of software development.

But that’s not true.

DevOps and Agile are two sides of the same coin. And, in fact, companies that don't adopt both methodologies miss out on significant benefits.

That’s because when used together, these methodologies can make the software development process more streamlined and efficient.

How?

In this blog, we will discuss in detail how DevOps and Agile can be used together.

But before we begin, let us take a look at what these methodologies mean.

Agile: A Quick Overview

Agile is a project management methodology often used for software development. It focused mainly on flexibility and collaboration. And the main principles of Agile include customer satisfaction, continuous delivery, and collaboration.

The key features of Agile include:

1. Short development cycles

2. Development teams work closely with clients

3. Breaking down the project into small manageable chunks

4. Short interactions followed by testing

DevOps: A Quick Overview

DevOps is a set of software development practices focused on improving the efficiency of software delivery. The main principle of DevOps is the collaboration between development and operations teams. The ultimate goal for this is to reduce the time between writing and deploying the code to production.

It is characterized by:

1. Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD)

2. Automated testing

3. Use of infrastructure as code. 

4. Fewer errors and faster delivery times.

How do DevOps and Agile Work Together?

DevOps and Agile share some key principles. These include collaboration, continuous delivery, and focusing on customers' needs and their feedback.

Thus, here are some of the ways in which these methodologies can work together to yield stunning outcomes:

1. Continuous Integration and Delivery

CI/CD is a key practice in both DevOps and Agile. With that, the software is automatically built, tested, and deployed to production as soon as it is ready.

This allows for faster delivery times. Errors are minimized. And there is more scope to integrate customer feedback. By integrating a CI/CD pipeline which is an important part of DevOps into an Agile project, the development team can ensure that the software is always in a deployable state.

2. Automated Testing

In an Agile project, the development team tests the software at the end of each iteration. In DevOps, this testing is automated. this ensures that the software is tested every time it is built, which speeds up the testing and makes it more efficient. 

Continuous testing, when automated can help ensure that the software meets the customer's needs. And also reduce the risk of errors and bugs.

3. Infrastructure as Code

Infrastructure as code is a practice that involves managing infrastructure using the same version control systems that are used for software code. This allows for more efficient management of infrastructure, with fewer errors and faster deployment times.

In an Agile project, IaC can be used to maintain consistency between the development and testing environments and the production environment.

4. Collaborative Culture

Collaboration is practiced in both Agile and DevOps. When following the Agile methodology, the development team works closely with the customer. With DevOps, the development and operations teams work together. 

All this, when combined, results in software that is high quality, bug-free, and exactly as per client requirements.

5. Focus on Continuous Improvement

Both DevOps and Agile methodologies focus on continuous improvement. In an Agile project, the development team reflects on their work at the end of each iteration. They then make adjustments as needed. With DevOps, the development and operations teams reflect on their work and make improvements to the software delivery process.

When used together, it can help the team track metrics and gather feedback to ensure areas of improvement and make changes as needed.

With that, you now know how DevOps and Agile can together result in an ideal software development process. All you need to do to get such results is find a development partner expert in both DevOps and Agile. 

Once you have the right experts, you can explore the right project management methodologies and gear up for successful software development.