Agile Vs DevOps

Despite the fact that both DevOps and agile result in software development, they take different methodologies, include different groups and departments, and structure production differently. This article compares the two popular software approaches Agile vs DevOps. We drew on the knowledge of industry experts to define and distinguish the two approaches, as well as to describe their benefits. Have a look!

Agile vs DevOps is the process of incorporating the culture and set of practices to achieve faster delivery, quicker automation, agility, improve security, and service better. It collaborates a smooth flow between the IT operations team and the development team to deploy code quicker, automate the test and deliver results which is a continuous process.

By adopting DevOps organizations progress through faster delivery, reaching more customers, gain a better understanding of the complexity of an application, get quicker feedbacks which helps them to stand firm in the market. 

DevOps is more of a culture. Through DevOps there is scope for continuous improvement, handling the issues when the software development team and operations team are in isolation. DevOps improves efficiency, uniting agility, and helps to boost productivity to help deliver faster both for the business and the end-users.

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Some of the benefits of DevOps include flexibility, accuracy, and fast delivery of software releases, the higher scope of automation, higher trust, handling complex situations, and coming up with ideal solutions.   

Agile Vs DevOps: Which is better Agile or Devops?

What is Devops?

DevOps is a widely accepted IT practices across organizations and development and IT operation professionals. DevOps stresses the concept of improved communication among the teams and departments for better collaboration.  

The concept of DevOps was known in 2008 when there existed utter chaos between the development and the IT operations team. DevOps evolved to provide an adequate solution to the traditional software development process.

When the teams were in isolation, they faced issues that could not help achieve the desired results gaining unhappy customers and incomplete releases.  

Advantages of DevOps

Organizations are embracing the change to incorporate DevOps as a part of their work culture to improve collaboration, streamline, and improve efficiency by simplifying their work. DevOps works on a cross-functioning method that ensures that it delivers in the quickest frame of time, enhances flexibility and security.

Let’s see some of the technical advantages of DevOps over Agile:

  • Lean culture, continuous delivery Infrastructure as a code.
  • Improved project visibility.
  • Ability to manage the changing priorities 
  • Higher security and flexibility
  • Improved customer satisfaction
  • Faster deployment and quick delivery to markets.
  • A stable environment with clear goals.
  • Seamless operations
  • Improved communication and productivity. 
  • Less risk 
  • On-time release
  • Easy identification of bottlenecks.
  • Higher market speed
  • Increased number of conversions
  • Increased Customer satisfaction
  • Environment stability and better working environment
  • Time availability
  • Steady software delivery
Advantages of DevOps over Agile

DevOps creates an environment that has more scope for testing, continuous developing, deploying, and delivering or releasing software at a rapid rate. In DevOps, the IT operations team has complete tracking of the developer's progress. In DevOps, there is less risk of project failure as there is disaster recovery and there are transparent inputs from the developers. 
 
The development and the Operations team interact on a regular basis to monitor the progress that caters to the customer and business needs. DevOps uses tools such as Application Performance Monitoring tools to proactively know if there are any chances of a project to fail.  

----   For More Info: Learn Devops Tutorial   ----

Agile Vs DevOps: How DevOps is different from Agile Methodology 

What is Agile Methodology?

Agile methodology practices simultaneous iterations of testing and development activities of an SDLC. 

The Agile SDLC focuses on its core values such as: 

  • Individual and management interactions of the task assigned and achieved. 
  • Agile focuses much on the process rather than the comprehensive documentation
  • Involves the client at all stages of product development. 
  • Responds to change.

----   Related Article: Best Agile Reporting Metrics    ----

Key takeaways from Agile methodology

  • Agile methodology has the iterative approach to build a software product. 
  • The entire agile divides the work into manageable chunks of achievable tasks. 
  • The client is often involved as a part of product development. It helps the teamwork in the right direction. 
  • For smaller projects implementing agile and estimating results are accurate. While in the case of big projects we cannot exactly convey the time for development. 
  • There is scope to identify the errors at any stage of the project. 
  • There is a short release every 2-4 weeks called sprints. 
  • Agile does not give much importance to documentation. 
  • At the end of every iteration, testing is conducted to ensure quality.  Regression testing is done to ensure the stability of the application. 
  • The prioritized product backlog tasks are divided based on priorities. At the end of each iteration, the release is deployed to the production environment. 
  • At the end of each sprint, User acceptance (UAT) is done. 
  • Since Agile is based on team involvement, there is more scope for regular interactions between testing and development. 
  • A burndown chart is prepared.  

Agile is the most implemented and widely adopted SDLC for any product development. It’s one of the most efficient software development approaches to achieve quality software. Agile has proved successful by improving user experience and reaching goals by quickly delivering through its iteration process. 

But DevOps has become more popular due to continuous testing, integration, development, and deployment practices. While agile and DevOps both have their strengths and complement each other, DevOps is kind of an extension to Agile.

DevOps implements principles and practices of Agile to stand successfully. Agile is successful without DevOps but can bridge the gap when accompanied by DevOps practices. While Agile is simply understood as scrum and continuous testing and deployment as DevOps which is not necessarily true. Let’s discuss the relationship between Agile and DevOps. 

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Some main reasons why organizations are adopting DevOps

  • It drives productivity
  • Flexible to accommodate change
  • Accelerating product development
  • Agile is in the middle of Lean Startup and DevOps.

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Agile Vs DevOps: Difference between Agile and DevOps

Difference between Agile and DevOps

While Agile is the process of software development, while DevOps, on the other hand, is about continuous software deployment and its related activities. 

----    Related Article: Frequently Asked DevOps Interview Questions    ----

So let’s have a look at some of the practices. 

Agile Vs DevOps #1. Planning for the Unplanned work

In the DevOps team, individuals following Agile admit that agile is used to monitor the progress of the work. Tasks such as what has been assigned and what’s the release update etc can be planned. However activities such as security, performance can be unexpected events that need immediate attention.

Since Agile is based on the sprint and product backlog concept teams cannot wait for the next iteration hence organizations are keen on adopting DevOps as it's an infinite loop which makes tracking easy.  Some of these lightweight scrum practices make a huge impact. 

Agile Vs DevOps #2. Speed vs Risk

Teams that implement Agile no matter with or without DevOps need to remember that the basis for the change has to be strong.  The team has to have sound knowledge and a clear understanding of the framework and has to be incorporated as a part of their software development. 

Talking from the DevOps perspective, the team has to ensure that the newly incorporated changes must not let any risk creep in. Also, there must not exist any unseen or changes that are not transparent, as DevOps is a continuous process and there is scope for several changes on board.

Hence when implementing DevOps the team must have a fair idea of the risk that exists with every change being implemented. 

Agile Vs DevOps #3. Agile vs Quality

The agenda for implementing both Agile and DevOps is to help improve the efficiency in work, deliver improved applications that are free of risk. Here quality is an important attribute that is often looked over. Several IT companies believe in the fail-fast concept, as it’s easier to fix the damage and costs less. 

But neither of them concentrates on the quality of the product. Adhering to this principle helps only in faster deployment to production rather than maintaining the quality of the work. 

Agile produces applications that fit better with the desired requirements and can adapt quickly to respond to the requirement changes

Agile creates a workflow that can be adopted as per the changing needs of the project. DevOps can help to detect early bugs and fix it for having improved quality software. Developers have to implement the coding best practices to achieve the desired quality 

Agile and DevOps have the need to extend their boundaries to bridge the gaps and to prove efficient.

To achieve this they must adopt the practices and principles of implementing Agile and DevOps practices, for faster development and deliver improved quality software with minimal risks. 

----    Related Article: Frequently Asked Agile Interview Questions    ----

Conclusion 

DevOps vs Agile complements each other. DevOps does not try to remove or replace Agile, however, they complement each other very well. It does this by removing the excess wastage of time, and streamlining the process so that an application moves faster from deployment to the production area quicker.  Organizations following Agile, follow the process of automated testing and delivering by only extending their boundaries till the staging area. Hence Agile and DevOps both don’t extend their boundaries, thus remaining in their territory. 

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Last updated: 04 Apr 2023
About Author

Ravindra Savaram is a Technical Lead at Mindmajix.com. His passion lies in writing articles on the most popular IT platforms including Machine learning, DevOps, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, RPA, Deep Learning, and so on. You can stay up to date on all these technologies by following him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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