From Agile to DevOps: Smart Skills and Collaborations

Although agile software development approaches have become increasingly prevalent, many organizations, have found they were not able to achieve a more frequent release cadence, largely due to different departmental functions operating in silos. In an effort to remove these silos, companies have moved towards DevOps. As digitalization continues, companies increasingly implement DevOps. We suggest three different stages in the agile to DevOps transition: agile, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. Based on an in-depth case study in an organization with several years’ experience in DevOps, we identify a fundamental disruption in the soft skills that software teams are expected to possess, and in the patterns of collaboration among teams. Arguably, smartness may be characterized as being flexible, teaming up with people who have a different profile, belonging to a different function, and achieving a quicker delivery schedule. In light of this, we argue that DevOps leads to greater smartness for the Information Systems function.