Agile, Scrum, and DevOps Oh My!!
In this blog, I am going to dive deeper into the differences and, even more so, the similarities between DevOps, Agile, and Scrum software development methodologies.
So what is exactly DevOps, Agile, and Scrum?
Atlassian describes DevOps as, “A set of practices, tools, and cultural philosophy that automate and integrate the process between software development and IT teams.” I know, I know we don’t always understand the strict definition of things, so I think of DevOps like this: DevOps is a way for enterprises to incorporate various technologies, ideologies, and workflow changes to enhance communication, throughput, and automation. Companies that implement DevOps practices also encourage more ownership and individual involvement in problems and encourage thinking outside the box.
Agile methodology, on the other hand, is typically described as an iterative process of development. What this means and the goal of using Agile methodology is to deliver smaller increments of a product while still ensuring its value to the project as a whole. This process is repeatable and hence the iterative part of Agile.
Scrum is a framework of Agile so they share a lot of similar ideologies. In Scrum, work is done in “sprints” which are short-term sessions where the scrum team tries to achieve their planned goal. After a sprint, teams may have a retrospective where they can see what worked well, what processes could be improved, and what processes may need to be scrapped or reworked.
As we will see throughout this post, all three of these methodologies have a lot more in common than you might think.
Where in an enterprise do these methodologies fit?
DevOps spans many aspects of development, testing, and business operations. This is one of the reasons DevOps is seen as not only technological practice but as a cultural one as well.
Agile methods are generally used in cross-functional teams and promote a firmly structured project management process. Like DevOps, Agile promotes frequent communication, testing, and accountability.
Like in Agile, a Scrum is made up of a small team that is focused heavily on the development of a product. Its main focus is to provide a work environment that promotes communication and fast turnover of deliverables.
What are the roles that form DevOps, Agile, and Scrum?
According to Maksym Churylov, some of the DevOps roles at large, successful companies include DevOps evangelist, Automation architect/DevOps engineer, Software engineer/tester, Quality/Experience Assurance specialist, Release manager, Product Owner, and Security & compliance engineer. Many of these roles are somewhat self-explanatory, but, as a whole, they all work together to ensure a fluid, well-built product.
The key roles in an Agile team include a Product Owner, Team Lead/Scrum Master, Development team members, and stakeholders.¹ The Product owner typically ensures the right work is being done for that moment and may act as a liaison between development and business teams. The Team Lead assists the development team in organizing necessary tasks and facilitating accurate, timely work. The development team builds out a product and may consist of developers, designers, testers, and quality assurance. Stakeholders include internal stakeholders, such as a manager, and external stakeholders, such as customers or partners.
Since Scrum is a framework based on Agile methodology, most of the responsibilities remain the same except the Team Lead is now the Scrum Master.² The Scrum Master is responsible for facilitating daily standups, leading sprint planning meetings, leading retrospectives after a sprint, and many other important duties ensuring the scrum team is operating efficiently and effectively
What are some of the tools used in these methodologies?
Tools used in DevOps include programs for planning, coding, building, testing, releasing, deploying, and monitoring. Programs such as slack or Jira can be used to track issues and collaborate. Various development environments and version control apps (like GitHub, Java, and IntelliJ) aid in the development and building of the codebase. Testing can be achieved by using JUnit or Selenium (which can also integrate automation). Jenkins is a tool that can help handle releases and deployment along with Docker and Kubernetes. For products built in the cloud on AWS, AWS Cloud Watch is crucial for monitoring the health of the application.
Some of the tools used in Agile are very similar to DevOps, however, some of the automation that DevOps may not fully exist in Agile. Agile may also include things like a vision board to help plan development and facilitate communication.
Again, like DevOps and Agile, Scrum methodology may use a lot of the same tools. In the scrum process teams may also other tools specific to scrum, like a scrum board to help manage their sprint or development backlog.
What are the remnants of these software development lifecycle methodologies?
After the end of a development lifecycle, there will be leftover software, documentation, and storage from building out a product. These are called the artifacts of software development and act as a roadmap that shows the development of a product.
In DevOps, the code base, repositories, dependencies, and many other aspects of the software development lifecycle may be an artifact. These are important because they can provide various data about a project, and some of those aspects can be reused or repurposed for future projects or iterations of the project it is an artifact of.
Agile projects may include many of the same types of artifacts in DevOps and other information such as a vision/planning board and project backlogs.
Artifacts in Scrum may have a similar makeup to DevOps, but may also contain scrum boards, backlogs, or other tools used for planning.
So, which methodology is best?
Much of the draw of DevOps is:
- Improved speed and turnaround time for bug fixes, implementation of new features, and testing.
- Increased efficiency by having teams that have greater open lines of communication.
- Faster and more frequent deployments mean more bug fixes and new features implemented.
- Products tend to have higher quality and are more reliable due to smaller, more frequent deployments, improved incorporation of testing, and automation.
- Active security protocols at each step ensure applications are more bulletproof.
There are many great benefits of Agile which is why it is adopted by a large portion of enterprises all over the world.
- Agile projects promote client interaction by having a Product Owner and Stakeholders that may have a direct line of communication with the customer.
- Agile’s fast-paced environment promotes constant collaboration and continuous improvement in the code base and the Agile team as a whole.
Similar to the Agile environment, Scrum environments can:
- Produce higher-quality products.
- Increase productivity due to their short, concise working sprints.
- Allows the team to focus on specific tasks while providing the customer with a usable product faster.
As you may have seen, DevOps, Agile, and Scrum all have their differences, benefits, and similarities. While one methodology may seem better on paper, without the proper environment success may not be achievable. With a strong team, a concise plan, and a mindset of continuous learning, any of these methodologies can be put to good use.
