In recent years, many companies have successfully implemented DevOps in their business operations. Effectively, companies can no longer ignore DevOps benefits like faster product deliveries, customer satisfaction, and application quality.
In 2022, the latest DevOps trends like GitOps, AIOps, and DevSecOps can transform the software development industry. Short for Agile Operations, AgileOps is another promising model that combines the best of DevOps practices and Agile management.
So, does the future of application development belong to AgileOps? Let’s discuss this in the following sections.
What is AgileOps?
AgileOps is an operating model that uses Agile methodologies and DevOps techniques to enable organizations to adapt efficiently to constant changes. AgileOps is used to help both software development and operations teams to work closely with business leaders and other stakeholders.
Why is AgileOps important in today’s business environment? In short, it enables:
- Operations and infrastructure personnel to focus on application deployment and support in an environment of continuous development and delivery.
- Organizations to adapt to changing business requirements using digital technology
The key principles of AgileOps include the following:
- Incremental development
- Customer collaboration
- Agility and adaptability
- Continuous improvement
- Fast feedback systems
James Stanger of CompTIA explains that in the AgileOps environment, “non-technical individuals will work more and more with technical individuals, and IT workers will be more strategically placed within an organization.”
To that end, how does AgileOps differ from DevOps? Let’s discuss that in the next section.
Key Differences Between DevOps and AgileOps
For application developers, DevOps and AgileOps share the same objective of delivering products quickly to the end-user. The DevOps framework evolved primarily from Agile principles and methodology. Hence, there are similarities between the two.
For instance, an Agile environment is the “backbone” for DevOps practices. On the other hand, DevOps is the foundation of agility for any software development team. For organizations to adopt the right approach between the two, they should first understand the key differences.
Here are the key differences between DevOps and AgileOps:
Definition
By definition, DevOps is the practice of integrating product development with the operational team. AgileOps is an Agile-based development and project management methodology where products evolve through cross-functional teams.
While AgileOps can manage complex projects, DevOps can manage an end-to-end engineering project.
Project Management
Both AgileOps and DevOps are different in the area of project management. AgileOps uses project management frameworks like Kanban to coordinate the work. Development and operations teams use Kanban boards to prepare the specific steps in any project.
On the other hand, DevOps is more flexible and applies any project management method as long as it is usable in a CI/CD pipeline environment.
Objective
AgileOps and DevOps serve different business objectives in organizations. By combining development with operations, DevOps focuses on the objective of business readiness and flexible operations. It can address the gap between development and testing and operations.
AgileOps focuses entirely on application development and its functional (or non-functional) readiness. AgileOps addresses the gap between customer needs and the development & testing team.
Tools
AgileOps uses a variety of Agile tools like Jira, Kanboard, and Bugzilla. On the other hand, DevOps utilizes tools like Microsoft Azure Cloud, AWS, TeamCity, and OpenStack.
When is the right time for organizations to adopt either DevOps or AgileOps? Let’s discuss that next.
When Should Organizations Use AgileOps?
AgileOps encompasses the best of Agile practices and is used when product companies need to build applications that can be released to the market faster. Additionally, AgileOps-based applications can adapt easily to changing customer requirements and changes in the middle of the project.
With DevOps, organizations can also look to develop and deploy applications quickly while maintaining the balance between development and operations.
With the AgileOps approach, companies can plan and design their application upfront. The app development proceeds incrementally in smaller batches and requires collaborating with multiple stakeholders. AgileOps breaks down the software product into smaller, manageable components, which can be developed quickly and independently. With this approach, application developers can continuously develop and improve their products instead of waiting for feedback at the end of the project.
AgileOps has its share of challenges as well, including the following:
- As compared to DevOps, AgileOps is a new and untested approach to software development.
- It requires continuous testing and monitoring of the work results.
- It involves multiple teams, including development, testing, and operations, each with its set of technology tools and processes.
- It requires constant communication and collaboration among various teams to ensure that every team is working for the same objective.
Conclusion
To summarize, we find a lot of similarities and differences between DevOps and the newer AgileOps approaches. Powered by the successful Agile project management model, AgileOps has enabled many organizations to improve their efficiency and respond faster to market dynamics. However, be it DevOps or AgileOps, organizations can struggle to achieve complete success with their implementation.
This is where zCon can help. With our customized enterprise solutions, we have enabled our customers to achieve market success. Our offered services include enterprise cloud development, automation testing, and product development. Besides, we have technical expertise in providing business solutions on MS Azure.
Want to partner with us on your next Agile or DevOps project? Get in touch today!
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