Research Report

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
THROUGH DEVOPS
Improving Speed, Quality, and
Efficiency in the Digital World

Sponsored by
SPONSOR PERSPECTIVE

The business benefits of DevOps • Be an open-source player. Leveraging open-source tools

are clear. In this survey, Harvard and engaging in the community will help you stay abreast
Business Review Analytic Services of the best solutions and practices and attract the best
found that roughly two-thirds of talent. According to a recent DORA study, 58%
respondents use DevOps, and of businesses made extensive use of open source.
they see benefits that impact their
bottom line, including increased • Build a culture that supports DevOps. I emphasize this
MELODY MECKFESSEL speed to market (identified by 70% because the rest is worthless without it. When people feel
VICE PRESIDENT OF of the respondents), productivity they have each other’s backs, they’re more likely to take
ENGINEERING
(67%), customer relevance (67%), smart risks, more likely to create, and more likely to move
GOOGLE CLOUD
innovation (66%), and product/ faster. Trust boils down to these principles:
service quality (64%). • Data-driven decisions: Look at data from code, logs,
We’ve also seen benefits at Google, where DevOps helped us and traces, and use that data to arrive at decisions.
build secure products used and loved by billions of people • Transparency: We choose sharing over secrecy and
around the world. However, as head of DevOps practices at siloing. Everyone sees the same data.
Google, I know firsthand how daunting implementing a new • Shared goals: We constantly collaborate so developers
model can be, even if it’s worthwhile. Customers constantly and operators are consistently working toward a
ask me, “How can I make DevOps a reality?” common goal.
Implementing DevOps can be really hard. Getting people • No-blame policy: By running blameless postmortem
to work differently doesn’t happen overnight. Throughout meetings in a safe environment built on trust, we learn
our own journey toward embracing what’s now known as from our mistakes. Because—let’s face it—defects and
DevOps practices, we learned critical lessons that we want coding errors happen when building software.
to share with you: • Education: Google, as with three-quarters of the top-
• Pilot a small project. This provides a low-stakes performing DevOps teams in this survey, provides
opportunity to master key DevOps capabilities, such as immersive, hands-on DevOps coaching and training,
building small, diverse teams with shared goals. such as code labs and startup projects.

• Implement end-to-end automation. Not only does These examples—internally, with our customers, and in this
automation enable higher productivity, but it also frees up study—all show that DevOps is worth the investment. There’s
organizations to focus on what really matters— something magical about understanding what makes people
driving performance. productive, collaborating with them, and then empowering
them to deliver value. We hope you get as much out of this
• Use SRE best practices. Start with site reliability transformation as we did.
Engineering (SRE) principles, because they help build
collaboration, reduce waste, and increase efficiency.

• Embed security within the software development

process. Over half of participants in this survey look for
holistic approaches to improve security while automating
the DevOps toolchain.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
THROUGH DEVOPS
Improving Speed, Quality, and
Efficiency in the Digital World

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HIGHLIGHTS

As the digital landscape rapidly evolves, companies that can respond quickly to
customer needs have an advantage—and according to a recent survey, many are
using DevOps to create this advantage.
A vast majority (86%) of the 654 respondents to a recent survey from Harvard
86%
OF RESPONDENTS SAY THAT IT IS
Business Review Analytic Services say that it is important to their company to IMPORTANT TO THEIR COMPANY TO
DEVELOP AND PUT NEW SOFTWARE
develop and put new software into production quickly. FIGURE 1 Indeed, principles INTO PRODUCTION QUICKLY.
and frameworks like agile, scrum, and DevOps—long part of the software developer
lexicon—are making their way into the corner office.
Yet most companies have a long way to go to become leaders in this space. Only
10% of survey respondents say their company is very successful at rapid software
10%
OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY THEIR
development and deployment—these are the “leaders”—and many of those come COMPANY IS VERY SUCCESSFUL AT
from the technology industry itself. FIGURE 2 Sixty-one percent are “followers” that RAPID SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
AND DEPLOYMENT.
are only somewhat successful at rapid development and deployment, and 27%
are unsuccessful “laggards.” Leaders are nearly twice as likely as the average
(53% versus 28%) to say they take a DevOps approach whenever possible. Another
32% do so for select projects.
DevOps is an approach to develop and run IT services faster and with higher
quality through the adoption of agile and lean practices as well as automation.
It started by combining the work of IT development and operations teams, but
some companies have since expanded it to include anyone involved in taking an
IT capability from idea to delivery of business value—including people from the
lines of business. This contrasts with traditional sequential “waterfall” approaches
to development. “It is trying to break down some of the silos and then looking at
things from an end-to-end, lifecycle perspective,” says Melissa Swift, leader for
digital advisory at Korn Ferry.
DevOps affects the makeup of teams and how they work, communicate, and
make decisions. It requires that teams be empowered to act with a high degree of
autonomy. It works only when communication is open (within and between teams)
and team members have a strong enough sense of psychological safety to take risks
and make mistakes. For established companies, this often requires changing the
fundamental culture of the organization. In this report, we explore what it takes to
become a leader in rapid software delivery.

Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps Harvard Business Review Analytic Services 1
FIGURE 1
Matching Speed with Quality
FAST SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT/DEPLOYMENT IS IMPORTANT Among respondents who say rapid
software delivery is important, 65%
Importance of developing and deploying new software/applications quickly
say changing customer expectations
Very important for digital capabilities is the top reason,
63% far outpacing any other issue. They
also named a general increase in the
Somewhat important pace of business change (42%) and
24% competitive pressures from both
traditional and new competitors (32%
Neutral and 31%, respectively).
8%
Nearly half of all respondents (49%)
Unimportant say their organization releases software
5% for customer- and employee-facing
applications faster than in the past,
Don’t know with leaders increasing their speed at
1% a more rapid pace than others. Despite
these increases, respondents still aren’t
SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018 satisfied with the pace of delivery.
Close to two-thirds of organizations
(61%) want to achieve a release cycle of
under three months, but only 27% are
FIGURE 2 currently hitting this target. FIGURE 3
ONLY A TENTH CLAIM MASTERY Leaders outperform by a factor of
two, with 51% claiming release cycles
How successful organizations are at developing and putting new software/applications into
production quickly of under three months. But even the
leaders seek more speed, with 27%
aiming for two weeks or less.
Don’t know LEADERS But velocity alone is not enough. Half
Very successful quick development
2% of all survey respondents and nearly
and implementation
SCORED 5
three-quarters of leaders say their
LAGGARDS organizations increasingly compete on
Unsuccessful quick
10% the quality of their software—requiring
development and FOLLOWERS software development models that
implementation 27% Neutral/somewhat increase speed while also maintaining
SCORED 1-2 successful quick quality. FIGURE 4
development and
implementation That’s why DevOps is gaining such
SCORED 3-4 a large following, with close to two-
61% thirds (61%) of respondents using it to
some extent. By engaging the people
who will use and maintain applications
early and often while also involving
developers in the operational aspects of
running their systems, DevOps not only
SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018
increases the likelihood that software
will meet users’ needs, but it ensures
that quality is built in from the start,
too. How this plays out varies from
organization to organization.

THAT’S WHY DEVOPS IS GAINING SUCH A LARGE FOLLOWING, WITH CLOSE TO TWO-
THIRDS (61%) OF RESPONDENTS USING IT TO SOME EXTENT.
2 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps
At one large software-as-a-service FIGURE 3
(SaaS) company, DevOps teams include
a product owner, a technical architect
RELEASE CYCLES FALL SHORT OF TARGETS
Respondents stating their current release cycle versus target
who understands the full end-to-end
application, a software developer,
an information architect, and an
• CURRENT RELEASE CYCLE
• TARGET RELEASE CYCLE

infrastructure architect, according to a 2 weeks or less

program executive based in France. 3%
13%
At an enterprise software company
2 weeks to 1 month
that develops products for software
7%
developers and project managers, 21%
among others, “developers have to talk
to operations to make changes work
1-3 months
17%
more fluidly,” according to a senior 27%
program manager in Australia. “We
use quads and triads—people who 3-6 months
get together to make work happen.” 19%
20%
In her case, that process includes
a product manager, a design lead, 6-12 months
and the head of the scrum team. 21%
7%
“We make the decisions about the
direction we’re headed in. It’s basically 12 months or more
a functional group to get the work 19%
done.” This approach is replicated 0%
across other groups.
SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018
Meanwhile, development teams at
a mobile communications company
work closely with the operations
center, according to a director of global FIGURE 4
digital business delivery based in South
Korea. “The whole cycle—from design LEADERS COMPETE ON THEIR SOFTWARE QUALITY
to development, verification, testing, Respondents agreeing/disagreeing with the statement “Our company increasingly competes
on the quality of our software”
release, and management of the service
at the telecom provider—is tightly
coupled,” she says. • STRONGLY DISAGREE
• SOMEWHAT DISAGREE
• SOMEWHAT AGREE
• STRONGLY AGREE

Given that full-cycle nature of DevOps, Leaders 5% 16% 56%

companies increasingly look to develop
employees in multiple disciplines. A
Followers 7% 12% 32% 21%
large global consulting and services
company, for example, is focused
on upskilling and cross-skilling Laggards 29% 19% 18% 13%
employees. “A person should not be an
expert in only one technology,” says SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018
the program manager for innovation
and intelligent automation in India.
As a result, employees rotate across
different areas to develop end-to-end
knowledge of the process.

Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps Harvard Business Review Analytic Services 3
 DevOps Delivers Key This greater commitment has led to
Business Results better results. Leaders vastly outstrip
The benefits of DevOps are clear. the rest in reporting a very positive
Survey respondents who take this impact on all value metrics. FIGURE 6
approach say that it has increased
DevOps generally incorporates
speed to market (named by 70%),
agile and lean practices (small, self-
productivity (67%), customer relevance
governing teams working in sprints,
(67%), innovation (66%), and product/
limiting work in progress, delivering
service quality (64%). FIGURE 5
a minimum viable product) and some
Leaders are more likely to take a degree of automation. When that
DevOps approach, doing so at an 85% is the case, DevOps has proven to
clip, compared with 66% of followers dramatically increase productivity.
and 43% of laggards. Leaders are At the global consulting and services
also twice as likely as followers and company, productivity increased 30%
three times as likely as laggards to to 40% with the use of automation-
say DevOps is very important to their fueled DevOps, according to the
software development efforts (63% program manager. Next year, the
versus 30% and 23%, respectively) company expects that figure to
and to employ it wherever possible reach 50% or more.
(53%, 30%, 15%) rather than only for
Executives must be careful not to let
select projects.
such numbers derail their DevOps
efforts, people interviewed for this
report cautioned. While in some cases
FIGURE 5
a keen focus on productivity gains will
DEVOPS IS PAYING OFF be completely appropriate, in others
Companies use of DevOps impact the following it can hurt both speed and customer

•
VERY POSITIVE
•SOMEWHAT
•
NO IMPACT
•
SOMEWHAT
•
VERY NEGATIVE
•
DON’T KNOW
relevance, according to the director
of business technology in charge
IMPACT POSITIVE IMPACT NEGATIVE IMPACT IMPACT of agile at a large, U.S.-based utility
company. Business leaders who define
Speed to market
their KPIs up front and communicate
23% 47% 11% 4% 15%
them to DevOps teams can avoid this
Productivity risk. But when DevOps programs
23% 44% 12% 5% 2 13% start out with a mission of customer
focus and innovation only to later be
Customer relevance co-opted in the name of productivity,
25% 42% 13% 3% 1 15% it can demoralize those previously
empowered teams.
Innovation
25% 41% 16% 4% 1 13% “Productivity or optimization is turning
into a dirty word for me,” says Korn
Product/service quality Ferry’s Swift. “When you look at it
22% 42% 15% 5% 2 14%
through that flat lens, a lot of times
Employee satisfaction you actually lose the agility you’re
19% 38% 17% 9% 2 15% trying to cultivate.” She believes that
having some slack time is essential to
Costs agility. “That’s where you get those
15% 39% 14% 10% 3% 19% informal gains. People are having
conversations on the fly, they’re getting
Security
things right on the fly, they’re making
18% 30% 27% 5% 1 19%
things better in real time. They’re
Revenue spending more time thinking about and
13% 32% 25% 4% 1 25% interacting with the customer.” When
management focuses too heavily on
Market share productivity or optimization, she says,
11% 28% 33% 2 1 25% “it becomes ‘How much more water
can I squeeze out of the washcloth?’
SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018 You lose some of the flexibility and

4 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps
FIGURE 6

DEVOPS IS TRANSFORMING LEADER ORGANIZATIONS

Percentage of respondents saying their company’s use of DevOps affected the following

• TOTAL
• LEADERS
• FOLLOWERS
• LAGGARDS

60%

40

20

0
CUSTOMER INNOVATION SPEED PRODUCTIVITY PRODUCT/ EMPLOYEE SECURITY COSTS REVENUE MARKET
RELEVANCE TO MARKET SERVICE SATISFACTION SHARE
QUALITY

SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018

fluidity that were creating the gains These disconnects will happen
in the first place.” Swift believes that less often as DevOps becomes
empowered, self-powering teams more ingrained in organizations,
create their own intrinsic motivation, penetrating silos not just within IT but
and “the further you can run on also across the lines of business, and
intrinsic motivation, the better off the goals of development efforts are
you are. Management tries to push more clearly defined and commonly
things with extrinsic motivation, and it understood up front. For an IT service
does slow down.” provider, the ultimate business
This is what happened at the utility goal may be to increase reliability at
company, where IT had created a digital lower cost. For a consumer-facing
innovation center of excellence three business, however, the goals may
years before, taking a customer- and focus more on speed to market and
product-centric approach to developing customer relevance. Whatever the
mobile capabilities for its field force. specific outcomes may be, the speed,
“We focused on how we provide a quality, and approach organizations
totally different experience,” says the use to develop and release software
director of business technology. “We applications have become business
took a design-thinking approach with issues, not just IT issues, according to
end users, focusing on how to help 80% of survey respondents. “We’re
them do their jobs.” The results were seeing wonderful results where
impressive, with IT rolling out new business has had that epiphany and
capabilities “at a pace the business had realized that technology is everyone’s
never seen before.” Response from the work. It’s not work they give another
business was positive, creating more group to do,” says Swift.
demand. But something important was
lost in the process. “It became more
The Culture That
DEVOPS GENERALLY
about how to get hard benefits faster,”
says the director. “What had been a pull
Supports DevOps INCORPORATES AGILE
system, with the teams empowered,
Having the epiphany is just the
beginning. Business leaders who
AND LEAN PRACTICES
became more of a push system
again, with senior leaders saying,
seek to deliver value faster must
first tackle challenges like outmoded
AND SOME DEGREE OF
‘Go do this first,’ and with a focus on
taking cost out.”
organizational structures (silos) and AUTOMATION.
Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps Harvard Business Review Analytic Services 5
FIGURE 7 legacy technology, and they must do
THE CHALLENGES THAT LIMIT FAST VALUE CREATION so while overcoming resistance to
change. FIGURE 7
Percentage of challenges preventing organizations from delivering value to market faster
Making DevOps work goes even deeper
Organizational silos across the enterprise than that, requiring fundamental
50% changes in people’s mindsets and
organizational culture. “DevOps is
Legacy technology
about genuine distributed ownership,”
49%
says Swift. “Participants feel like
Resistance to change owners and are empowered to
46% act like owners.”
Cultural transformation has been
Need to ensure security/compliance
foundational to the utility company’s
40%
faster delivery, according to the
Lack of the right mindset among employees business technology director. This has
37% included “standing up healthy teams
that felt empowerment, psychological
Lack of the right skills safety, and the ability to speak up. They
34% have to trust that it’s safe to go work
in this new way.”
Lack of clear direction from business leadership
That trust and sense of safety are
32%
key given the interconnectedness
Organizational silos within IT of DevOps work and the speed at
32% which teams operate. The utility,
which already has a strong culture of
Outmoded technology practices communicating and enforcing physical
29% safety, created a psychological safety
checklist that is reviewed at the start
Poor IT leadership of team meetings.
29%
Successful DevOps teams share some
Leaders unwilling to give up turf/control essential attributes, according to Nicole
26% Forsgren, CEO and chief scientist at
DORA (short for DevOps Research and
Culture valuing thoroughness over speed Assessment). These include a high
24% degree of cooperation both within
teams and across former silos, using
Fear of major IT failure failure as an opportunity to learn,
24% and continually experimenting to
drive improvement.
Other
6% DevOps requires a shift from a hero
culture to a learning culture. “We’re
Don’t know working with superintelligent people,”
4% says the senior program manager at
the enterprise software company.
SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018 “We need to give them permission to

“STANDING UP HEALTHY TEAMS THAT FELT EMPOWERMENT, PSYCHOLOGICAL

SAFETY, AND THE ABILITY TO SPEAK UP. THEY HAVE TO TRUST THAT IT’S SAFE
TO GO WORK IN THIS NEW WAY,” SAYS KORN FERRY’S SWIFT.
6 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps
 FIGURE 8
step back and say, ‘I don’t know what
that means,’ to create a safe space
for asking real questions without
LEADERS PROVIDE DEVOPS TRAINING
Percentage of organizations providing immersive, hands-on DevOps training
questioning their expertise.”
There’s a lot more direct Leaders
communication with DevOps, says 75%
Swift. “You have to. If you don’t
Followers
put your hand up when you think
44%
something is going wrong, you’re
screwing up the whole process for Laggards
the whole team.” 32%
Getting to this desired state from past
ways of working can be hard. In fact, SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018
survey respondents say that managing
this transition is the number one
obstacle to faster software delivery FIGURE 9
they face. However, there are several
things companies can do to help.
EXECS PLANNING TO USE DEVOPS NEED TO GET UP TO SPEED
Respondents agreeing/disagreeing with the statement “Our business leaders have a good
For instance, three-quarters (75%) of understanding of DevOps methods and terminology”
leaders provide immersive, hands-on
DevOps training and coaching to • STRONGLY DISAGREE
• SOMEWHAT DISAGREE
• SOMEWHAT AGREE
• STRONGLY AGREE

product teams. FIGURE 8 A global defense

technology company has set up a No plans to use DevOps
software center of excellence to train 48% 29% 2 3%
people in the concepts and practices
of DevOps, according to a contract
Planning to use DevOps
research and development lead at the
company. Many companies employ 31% 28% 8%
DevOps coaches. These focus on
everything from the specific methods Use DevOps selectively
used to what Swift calls “conscious 17% 26% 21% 6%
evangelism for this way of working.”
Evangelism and training are backed Always use DevOps
up with a shift from individual to
8% 13% 27% 21%
team-based approaches to managing
performance. The SaaS company
includes both professional and SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018
personal goals in its appraisals, and
these are developed and shared with
colleagues. “This helps to build trust,” good understanding, meaning these
says the program executive. executives must quickly get up to
Of course, none of this will happen speed. FIGURE 9
without C-level support, and that One of the most common mistakes that
means understanding what DevOps leaders without DevOps experience
is and what it entails. make is that they try to launch and run
DevOps in an old-fashioned, command-
There’s a huge difference between
and-control way. They say, “‘My edict is
leaders and laggards in executives’
you all work together now,’” says Swift.
understanding of DevOps methods
“It doesn’t work. Leaders need to step
and terminology, with 65% of leaders,
back, give space, create a context, and
compared with only 7% of laggards,
let others critically engage in some of
saying their business leaders have
that day-to-day decision making.”
a good understanding. SEE SIDEBAR FOR A
LISTING OF KEY DEVOPS TERMS. At companies The role of senior leaders is to set clear
that are planning to use DevOps, only goals and objectives and to make their
8% say their business leaders have a commitment visible. “The broader

Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps Harvard Business Review Analytic Services 7
FIGURE 10

LEADERS USE ADVANCED PRACTICES

Percentage of companies that employ the following practices in developing and releasing software

• TOTAL
• LEADERS
• FOLLOWERS
• LAGGARDS

100%

80

60

40

20

0
USE OF MULTI- AUTOMATION SMALL, PRODUCT SHORT DESIGN WORKING PRODUCT MANAGING CI/CD SAFe
CLOUD FUNCTIONAL WHEREVER SELF- OWNERS SPRINTS THINKING TO AN OWNER PRODUCTS,
ENVIRON- TEAMS POSSIBLE GOVERNING FROM MVP FOR EVERY NOT
MENTS (IT & BIZ) TEAMS LOB PRODUCT PROJECTS

SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018

operating system of the organization Leaders are well ahead of followers

will squash the new way of working and laggards in all, especially when
unless people see leaders leaning in it comes to automation and some of
and role modeling the change,” says the the more advanced practices, such
utility’s business technology director. as SAFe (the scaled agile framework)2
and CI/CD (continuous integration and
Getting this right matters. DORA’s
continuous delivery or deployment.3
research ties DevOps team
FIGURE 10 These practices hold the promise
empowerment directly to business
of shortening release cycles to the point
results. “Letting teams experiment
where small changes are happening in
and find their own solutions drives
an almost continuous flow.
strong outcomes,” Forsgren says.
“Giving them visibility into what the The global consulting and services
customer wants, what the customer company breaks requirements down
needs, and if possible to the customer into microfunctions, with small,
themselves drives good outcomes. specialized teams assigned to each,
We see that setting clear goals and explains the program manager for
objectives and then letting the teams innovation and intelligent automation.
use their expertise drives good These teams follow a Kanban-based
THE ROLE OF SENIOR outcomes.” In DORA’s research, that
includes both commercial and non-
sprint approach SEE SIDEBAR ON PAGE 7 and
work very closely with the operations
LEADERS IS TO SET CLEAR commercial goals.1 team, so deployment goes smoothly.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Putting DevOps into Action

A global supplier of health IT solutions,
services, and devices is moving toward
AND TO MAKE THEIR Business leaders who seek to increase
their speed of software delivery
a continuous delivery model. It has
been using fully automated software
COMMITMENT VISIBLE. use a variety of practices to do so. builds for some time, but to really

8 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps
increase the frequency of releases will
require automated testing as well,
says the head of technology and cloud
TERMS EVERY BUSINESS LEADER SHOULD KNOW
operations strategy. “Automation Agile A set of values and principles originally applied to software development (see
is the basis to even think about a the Agile Manifesto)4 that includes such concepts as rapid, iterative development and
high frequency of releases,” he says. delivery of viable working products; collaboration among cross-functional teams and
However, to achieve this automation their customers; and continuous improvement.
requires defining the software
architecture very carefully. “This was Scrum5 An agile framework that incorporates small, self-directed teams working in
the first major bottleneck we had to (typically) two-week sprints, at the end of which a working product is delivered. Roles
overcome,” he recalls. He believes it include a product owner who sets priorities and is accountable for results and a scrum
will be years before his company will master who manages the work.
have fully automated testing, due to
the complexity of the environment, DevOps6 Combines development and operations groups and practices to improve
with many different underlying client speed and quality, blending development, integration, testing, release, monitoring,
configurations and thousands of and management. Many practitioners believe DevOps is a key element in both agile
database tables within a given system. and lean initiatives.
The advantages of DevOps and more Lean7 A set of principles to improve the delivery cycle. These include identifying value
frequent releases go beyond speed from the end customer’s perspective; mapping the various steps in the value stream
to address reliability and resilience, that contribute to the delivery of the product (and eliminating steps that don’t add
according to Forsgren. “Think of your value); and increasing flow by eliminating bottlenecks. This makes it possible to shift
infrastructure as a Jenga tower— from a push model of work to a pull model, further increasing efficiency.
we’re working with highly complex
distributed systems,” she says. “We Kaizen8 The Japanese word for “improvement.” In business, kaizen refers to activities
need to anticipate that they will that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees, from the CEO
break, and so we build in reliability to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes that cross organizational
and resiliency as we go.” The problem boundaries into the supply chain.
with delivering larger releases of code
“that we push into production every Kanban9 A method developed in lean manufacturing to manage and improve work by
six months or once every year, it’s balancing demands with available capacity and upgrading the handling of bottlenecks.
like a big ball of mud, as [renowned The Kanban board is a tool to visualize the work so it can be managed more effectively.
software developer] Martin Fowler
Scaled Agile Agile by its nature is designed to make use of small teams. To scale
calls it, that we have now propped on
that for larger, more complex, less predictable work requires connecting dozens or
top of our Jenga tower. It will crash,
hundreds of teams so they can communicate, collaborate, and deliver in concert.
and it will crash in massive, epic ways.
Many organizations tap into the scaled agile framework (or SAFe)10, which combines
We don’t know which piece or pieces
elements of agile software development, lean product development, and systems
of that big ball of mud broke it,” and
thinking. Related concepts are the team of teams11 and scrum of scrums.12
so it takes longer to troubleshoot and
fix the problem.
“Now instead, think of the Jenga tower,
and we’re pushing code every week,
release small pieces every day, bit by
every day, putting Jenga pieces on top,”
bit,” Forsgren says. “We can do this
she continues. “If something fails, it’s
with smaller releases much more
much easier to figure out exactly which
strategically.”
change caused the error. Debugging is
simple, and getting that small change Leaders are much more likely to be
through our deployment pipeline is making appropriate investments in the
easy because it’s very, very small.” security of their software and systems,
with 66% strongly agreeing compared
To improve the likelihood that
with 36% of followers and 23% of
the Jenga tower will stand, many
laggards. FIGURE 11
companies, including the defense
technology company, incorporate Suppliers that have made the shift
security into their DevOps model to agile and DevOps face another
rather than waiting until the end challenge: integrating the new
to run systems through a security way of working into clients’ legacy
check. “It is easier to build in strength environment. “It can be a conflict
and resiliency to the tower as we to have continuous delivery on the

Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps Harvard Business Review Analytic Services 9
FIGURE 11
front end,” notes the chief operating
LEADERS INVEST IN SECURITY officer at a European-based supplier
of custom-built applications. This
Respondents agreeing/disagreeing with the statement “We are making appropriate
investments in the security of our software and systems” requires “fitting two kinds of delivery
models to each other so what we
• STRONGLY DISAGREE
• SOMEWHAT DISAGREE
• SOMEWHAT AGREE
• STRONGLY AGREE deliver in an agile way is in sync with
the customer’s release plans.” They use
Leaders 3% 19% 66% containerization and microservices to
deliver into their environment.

Followers 3% 7% 28% 36% Internally, there is one team for

development and support. “It’s a
continuous cycle; software is never
Laggards 10% 18% 22% 23% finished,” the COO says. This improves
quality, because “if a developer on
SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018
the team knows they’re going to
have to support this, they’re more
quality-aware.”
In addition, closer collaboration
FIGURE 12 between IT and the lines of business
COLLABORATION BETWEEN IT AND LOB IS CRUCIAL (LOB) is a must. When asked about
the most important areas for business
To ensure quick, successful rollouts of new software/applications, respondents said business
leaders should focus on: leaders to focus on to ensure they
are successful in rolling out new
More collaboration between IT and LOB software/applications quickly, nearly
72% three-quarters (72%) say it’s more
collaboration between IT and LOB and
Getting the LOB team more engaged in the process over half (53%) say it’s getting LOB
53% more engaged in the process. FIGURE 12
Hiring/developing the right technical skills DevOps addresses this desire for more
50% collaboration by involving users early.
“It gets people out of their rabbit hole,”
Making the case for investment
says the software company COO.
32%
“Putting end users in the middle helps
Getting the IT team on board with new ways of working avoid old patterns of turf wars of the
28% business blaming IT and IT blaming
the business. If we ask, ‘What does
Ensuring security without slowing release the user say?’ we avoid a lot of the
22% discussions about who’s to blame and
Ensuring new apps comply with regulations who’s driving the process. The end
15% user is driving the process.”
Knowing which leader to involve
Other
and keeping that person engaged
2%
throughout the process can be
challenging. “There’s a lot of
SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ANALYTIC SERVICES SURVEY, SEPTEMBER 2018 excitement at the beginning of the
process,” says the software company
COO, “but as soon as something
is running on a daily basis, C-level
executives tend to delegate to
someone junior. That becomes a
problem when they delegate the role
but not the decision power.”
That’s why one of the most important
roles in a DevOps operation is the
product owner and why it’s critical
to view what’s being rolled out as

10 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps
a product that is developed and
managed over its lifecycle, not a
project with a set beginning and
end. Eighty percent of leaders have
a product owner for every project,
compared with only 33% of laggards.
Increasingly, these product owners
come from the LOB.

Conclusion
ADOPTING DEVOPS IS NOT A TECHNOLOGY PROJECT.
Forward-thinking CEOs and CIOs IT REQUIRES CHANGES TO STAFFING, ORGANIZATION
understand that their ability to
develop and release software faster
STRUCTURE, PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT, AND
and to iterate quickly is essential to
meeting rapidly changing customer
EVEN CULTURE.
expectations and market needs.
They’ve also seen evidence of the
dramatic improvements a DevOps
approach can make in their company’s value to the business,” he goes on.
productivity and cost structure. The “And then let the team prioritize their
ability to develop and deploy software work in terms of business value. You
quickly without sacrificing quality is need to get the team to internalize
mission-critical, but few companies do that, to own that way of thinking and
this really well right now. build that muscle on their own.”

With software so central to how a While some organizations focus on the

company makes money and operates, simplest value equation—dollars saved
Forsgren asserts that executives need by decreasing the software lifecycle,
to flip how they view it, shifting focus with fewer person hours spent on
from a cost to an investment. She development—it would be a mistake to
uses an analogy to illustrate her point. stop there. Productivity is important,
“If you go speak to the investment but returns also include faster time
team at a bank, sure, they’re trying to market, customer relevance,
to shave a little bit off whatever their innovation, and quality. Focusing
overhead is, but they’re trying to exclusively on productivity can
invest as much money as they can hamper the broader potential impact
so they can keep reinvesting. They of DevOps efforts.
aren’t trying to invest less money. Adopting DevOps is not a technology
They’re trying to invest more money to project. It requires changes to staffing,
make more money.” organization structure, performance
To get real returns from DevOps, management, and even culture—in
the effort has to be tied to a strategic short, it can fundamentally change an
priority, according to the COO at the organization. Companies investing in
custom software company. “You want DevOps are seeing real value. Senior
executives at leader organizations
to start small and scale quickly so it
understand what DevOps is and
pays off quickly. The output needs
requires. They promote and reward
to be important for the business—
transparency, empowerment,
not just some HR tool. It has to have
and trust. And they model the
bottom-line impact, even if you
right behavior, including knowing
start small,” proving that bottom-
when to step back.
line impact is what will garner top-
management support.
Taking that a step further, team
priorities need to be written in terms
of business outcomes, says the utility
company director. “You have to look
at what’s going to deliver the greatest

Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps Harvard Business Review Analytic Services 11
ENDNOTES
1 “Accelerate: State of DevOps 2018,” https://devops-research.com/2018/08/announcing-accelerate-state-of-devops-2018/
2 Scaled Agile Framework, or SAFe, https://v45.scaledagileframework.com/what-is-safe/
3 “Continuous Integration vs. Continuous Delivery vs. Continuous Deployment,” https://www.atlassian.com/continuous-delivery/ci-vs-ci-vs-cd
4 Manifesto for Agile Software Development, http://agilemanifesto.org/
5 Scrum.org, https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-scrum
6 The DevOps Handbook, by Gene Kim, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M9ASFQ3/
7 Principles of Lean, https://www.lean.org/WhatsLean/Principles.cfm
8 Kaizen, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen
9 Kanban, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban
10 What is SAFe? https://www.scaledagileframework.com/what-is-safe/
11 Team of Teams, New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KWG9OF4/
12 Scrum of Scrums, https://www.scruminc.com/scrum-of-scrums/

12 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Research Report | Competitive Advantage through DevOps
METHODOLOGY AND PARTICIPANT PROFILE
A total of 654 respondents drawn from the HBR audience of readers (magazine/newsletter
readers, customers, HBR.org users) completed the survey.

SIZE OF ORGANIZATION
59% 30% 10% 0%
10,000 OR MORE 1,000-9,999 500-999 499 AND FEWER
EMPLOYEES EMPLOYEES EMPLOYEES EMPLOYEES

SENIORITY
18% 33% 34% 14%
EXECUTIVE SENIOR MIDDLE OTHER GRADES
MANAGEMENT/ MANAGEMENT MANAGERS
BOARD MEMBERS

KEY INDUSTRY SECTORS

17% 15% 14% 8%
TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURING FINANCIAL OR LESS OTHER
SERVICES SECTORS

JOB FUNCTION
16% 15% 10% 9% 11% 8%
OPERATIONS/ IT SALES/BUSINESS HR/TRAINING UTILITIES OR LESS OTHER
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FUNCTIONS
MANAGEMENT

REGIONS
37% 26% 23% 7% 7%
NORTH AMERICA EUROPE ASIA PACIFIC SOUTH/CENTRAL MIDDLE EAST/
AMERICA AFRICA

Figures may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

 hbr.org/hbr-analytic-services

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