Transforming the software development environment through DevOps: a case of a software development house in the Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

DevOps presents itself as a new concept in ICT that experts are hailing as a viable approach for bridging the gap between operations and development in many software development houses today. Although DevOps is a new movement, little authoritative research has been conducted on the subject. However, in real-world situations, factors influencing firms to adopt and transform to DevOps and the expected outcomes have received little attention. This work presents an empirical study of Transforming the software development environment through DevOps: Case of a Software Development House in the Western Cape, South Africa. Furthermore, it offers the results of the findings of a selected case study on DevOps transformation in a software development house based in South Africa's Western Cape Province. Research instruments used were a questionnaire and informal follow-up interviews to clarify some issues. It was hosted on Google Forms and was sent to participants in the primary roles responsible for DevOps transformation regarding ways of working; those included were the CEO, scrum master, developer, tester, product owner, and architect. Informal discussion to clarify and understand the concerns as they arose was also held as a follow-up to the questionnaire. The application of DevOps methods in this case study resulted in numerous advantages, including increased collaboration between operations and development teams, improved quality control, reduced waste in the delivery pipeline, a greater number of high-quality deployments and customer satisfaction. In addition, the researcher found out that this case study used Agile DevOps Transformational Model. Upon close interrogation of this model, the researcher discovered that it aligns well with the Kurt-Lewin model, which was used as a model in this study, especially phases of unfreezing, change and freeze. The study delivered interesting results justifying the use of transformational models in the software development industry to move to DevOps maturity status. The Kurt-Lewin transformational model was the underlying model used by the company in the case study. The transformational model used Agile DevOps Transformational Model in the case study was consistent with the Kurt-Lewin model. Practical lessons from empirical data and findings unveiled in the agile transformational model will help current agile practitioners adopt DevOps and add value to the DevOps community and body of knowledge.