DevOps vs. Agile Methodology: Key Differences and Similarities
DevOps enables collaboration between development and operation teams, while the Agile methodology makes developers and development cycles more efficient.
DevOps and Agile are paving the way for advanced software development practices in the modern world. DevOps enables collaboration between development and operation teams, while the Agile methodology makes developers and development cycles more efficient. While there are many notable differences between Agile and DevOps, there also exist similarities that go hand-in-hand with each of them. This article explains the similarities and differences between Agile and DevOps in detail.
Table of Contents
- What Are the DevOps and Agile Methodologies?
- Key Similarities Between DevOps and Agile Methodology
- Key Differences Between DevOps and Agile Methodology
What Are the DevOps and Agile Methodologies?
Both Agile and DevOps have their own strengths and drawbacks. Both are highly reliable in their own ways, which is why it’s best to combine them. The goal is to enhance overall productivity. Hence, teams should be able to take advantage of both approaches to work faster and more efficiently. Let’s understand DevOps and Agile methodologies in detail.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is a software development method that seamlessly aligns development and IT operations in an organization to improve productivity and facilitate better collaboration between teams. DevOps is the integration of people, processes, practices, tools, and technology that enables code deployment in a robust and automated manner.
DevOps Lifecycle
Unlike traditional software development practices, DevOps is an ongoing process of building, testing, deploying, and monitoring. Its main goal is to continuously deliver quality software properly. Incorporating DevOps has several noteworthy benefits, such as faster, reliable, and easily integrated deployments.
The principles of DevOps are based on six main ideologies: continuous integration, continuous delivery, continuous testing, continuous deployment, continuous operations, and continuous collaboration. Combining two distinct departments and processes (development and operations) and bringing them together leads to increased transparency and concentration on automated testing.
Jez Humble, the co-author of ‘The DevOps Handbook’, coined the acronym “CALMS” for the DevOps framework. It stands for culture, automation, lean, measurement, and sharing.
- Culture symbolizes the cultural shift that occurs in an organization when the development and operations teams work together in unison.
- Automation refers to replacing manual tasks with automation, which increases speed and promotes better product quality.
- DevOps takes inspiration from lean principles of continuous improvement and experimenting.
- Measuring is the process of gauging results to improve quality.
- Sharing refers to distributing responsibility amongst the development and operation teams to troubleshoot problems and find solutions efficiently.
Also Read: What Is DevOps? Definition, Goals, Methodology, and Best Practices
What is Agile?
The Agile methodology is a software development method that aligns itself with the principles of the Agile Manifesto. It is an iterative approach to software development and project management that focuses on collaboration between cross-functional teams to find solutions, feedback from customers to improve quality, and quick releases to meet deadlines.
Agile development breaks down processes into smaller units called ‘sprints’ that typically last from two weeks to a month. The Agile methodology focuses on incremental deployments of each sprint and integrating them for final testing. It can be implemented using tools such as Kanban board, Scrum, XP, Active Collab, etc.
Agile Methodology
The four core values central to the Agile software development process are explained below.
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
The Agile Manifesto states the importance of valuing people over processes. It has been a common practice among many software organizations to pay more attention to acquiring the best possible tools to build their software. However, even the greatest tools would fall flat in the hands of the wrong team. The key to success here is having the right team of individuals and encouraging them to communicate and collaborate to cultivate a healthy work environment and tackle problems as and when they arise.
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
While documentation is important, it should not take center stage. In the past, it was a common practice among many software teams to spend hours documenting processes. The Agile Manifesto states that the highest priority should be given to delivering software to consumers rather than putting too much effort into documentation instead of writing code and actually building the software.
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Previously, contracts were a big deal, and a lot of consideration and effort was put toward writing them and negotiating the various terms and conditions. More often than not, this led to miscommunication, as the contract stated one thing, the product turned out to be another, and the customer’s requirement was something else altogether. The Agile Manifesto states that continuous development and continuous collaboration with customers is the best way to ensure a project’s success.
4. Responding to change over following a plan
We all live in a dynamic world where customers’ priorities, needs, and preferences shift rapidly over a period of time. Hence, now, more than ever, it’s crucial for software teams to have a flexible and adaptable approach. The Agile Manifesto is all about embracing and accepting mid-project changes for the betterment of the overall project. Agile teams have the superlative ability to change course midway instead of blindly following a rigid plan.
Also Read: Why Managed Kubernetes as a Service Should Be a Part of Your DevOps Strategy
Key Similarities Between DevOps and Agile Methodology
The fast pace of technological advancements and ever-growing customer demands require organizations to continuously find newer approaches and solutions to problems. That being said, it becomes vital for progressive fields such as IT software development to adapt to changes and new situations.
Agile was conceived out of the shortcomings of the waterfall method that couldn’t meet the demands of the modern world. Similarly, DevOps completes a missing piece of the Agile methodology and takes it a step ahead by deploying the software securely once it has been developed, something that Agile practices don’t look after. This makes it safe to say that there are significant similarities between the Agile methodology and DevOps, as one is a thoughtful progression of the other.
Key Similarities Between DevOps and Agile
1. Emphasis on testing & automation
DevOps and Agile are both focused on achieving stability. They do so by actively operating in a fast, secure, and quality-assessed environment. Both methodologies accomplish this through the integration of a great deal of testing on a routine basis. They are similar in their beliefs of relying on automation to bring more flexibility and security in the execution process.
2. An inclination toward business productivity
Both DevOps and Agile work in tandem toward achieving one common goal for businesses — maximizing productivity. DevOps and Agile share a similar business-inclined approach. Implementing the Agile methodology in the software development process gives teams the time to concentrate on a single target, leaving room for them to save time and be more productive. On the other hand, incorporating the DevOps culture leads to quicker releases and delivery without hampering business processes.
3. Paves the path for powerful partnerships
Even though DevOps and Agile may have a myriad of differences, both of them lay a huge amount of significance on building a collaborative workplace, where team members stay connected to share information, quickly detect issues, and troubleshoot problems easily and conveniently. There is a huge emphasis on interactions amongst team members and individuals to become more productive, efficient, and responsive to change.
4. Draws inspiration from lean philosophies
DevOps and Agile share a common ground in terms of deriving their approaches from the Lean philosophy. The Lean philosophy helps both DevOps and Agile standardize their communication process and facilitate smooth interactions amongst team members to create a healthy and productive work environment.
Also Read: What Is DevOps Lifecycle? Definition, Key Components, and Management Best Practices
Key Differences Between DevOps and Agile Methodology
As highlighted above, there are a few similarities between DevOps and the Agile methodology, but there are crucial differences between the two. Let’s understand these differences in detail.
Differences Between DevOps and Agile
| Parameter | DevOps | Agile Methodology |
|---|---|---|
| Guiding Philosophy | DevOps is a culture where the development and operations teams perform as a single unit and integrate their work to cultivate productivity and establish collaboration. | The Agile methodology is a practice that looks after continuously managing and delivering small, incremental changes of a project through iterative development and ongoing testing. |
| Focal Point & Purpose | DevOps emphasizes continuous testing and rapid deliveries made every few hours or even on an everyday basis. DevOps’ central purpose is to manage end-to-end engineering and business solutions and focus on fast delivery. | The Agile methodology primarily focuses on constant changes and incremental deployments after each sprint. Agile is utilized in managing complicated projects and making room for mid-project changes. |
| Delivery & Deployment | Unlike Agile, DevOps uses pre-built software that is available and ready to release and looks after deploying it securely. | On the other hand, Agile builds and creates software and looks after launching it but plays no role in deploying the software. |
| Team Size & Skills | DevOps functions on the integration of different teams and hence comprises a larger group of people. DevOps requires people of different specializations and functional skill-sets to divide responsibility to achieve better results and success. | Agile focuses on working with a smaller team for faster execution and reduction of risk. Each team member working with the Agile methodology becomes highly skilled to perform any task and, in turn, becomes an all-round developer. |
| Documentation | Documentation is essential to DevOps. Documenting processes, updates, information, and communication in detail is crucial for assuring smooth team collaboration. | One of Agile’s core values highlights the importance of well-working software over comprehensive documentation. Keeping this in mind, documenting is kept light to encourage convenience and freedom in the overall development process. |
| Source of Feedback | DevOps bridges the gaps and addresses concerns between a developer and IT operations. As such, feedback to improve speed and quality is received internally. | Agile bridges the gap and addresses concerns between a customer and the development & testing teams. As such, feedback is received from the customer, and adjustments are thereby made accordingly. |
| Means of Communication & Interaction | Communication in DevOps is carried out via specs and design documents. | The Scrum framework is widely used in the Agile methodology. Communication is organized to discuss briefs and the status of various tasks in the form of daily scrum meetings, communication. |
Also Read: How To Build and Design a Cloud-Native Software From Scratch
Takeaway
Although there are many evident differences between DevOps and the Agile methodology, their overall goal of increasing speed and delivering quality software is similar in nature. The great thing about DevOps and Agile practices is that they can both coexist in the same universe. It is safe to say that one is incomplete without the other, and it makes no sense to separate them completely. DevOps and Agile can work together to produce great products and improve the software development life cycle (SDLC).
We’re all a part of a fast-moving modern world, where a product needs to thrive and survive despite any new trends and situations that arise. For this, organizations should welcome practices such as DevOps and Agile and adapt to newer practices in the future. DevOps and Agile are means to truly empower teams, enhance software development processes, and ultimately provide value to the end user.
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