SAFe and DevOps: The Perfect Duo (Sarrah Pitaliya)

Today, both SAFe and DevOps have reached a very mature stage of development. The integration of the two is garnering an increasing amount of interest from enterprise organizations. This post will discuss the advantages of integrating SAFe and DevOps and
the steps necessary to implement the integration. 

The post begins with the fundamentals, using a what-why structure as the organizing principle. The discussion then shifts to focus on the integration of SAFe and DevOps. At long last, we get to the missing link that was promised earlier. So without further
ado, let’s get to it! 

The Fundamentals of SAFe and DevOps 

As was discussed previously, let’s begin with the fundamentals of both SAFe and DevOps. You will understand who they are and a general summary of their histories, allowing you to comprehend how they came to hold a prominent position. Following our discussion
of the what, we will move on to the why by elaborating on the significance of SAFe and DevOps and the challenges these two practices alleviate for organizations. 

The Scaled Agile Framework: SAFe 

Scaled Agile Framework, also known as SAFe for short, is an expansion of the ideas presented in the Agile Manifesto so that they can function effectively at the scale of an entire enterprise.  

A Concise Overview of the History of Agile 

You need to be familiar with agile methodologies, in general, to comprehend what SAFe is and how it works. In the 1990s, several seasoned developers and consultants began experimenting with novel approaches to the process of software development. The development
methodologies that they came up with many shared characteristics among themselves. They emphasized having shorter feedback loops, placing a higher priority on clear communication, and choosing to prioritize working software over extensive formal documentation.
They welcomed the unpredictability of the future rather than attempting to forecast it. 

In 2001, seventeen of these software consultants got together to talk about their respective development methodologies. In it, they outline a set of values and principles that they believe, if followed, could result in improved methods for developing software.
The first decade of the 21st century saw a steady increase in developers adopting agile methodologies after it became clear that these approaches produced tangible outcomes.  

Enter SAFe 

The efficiency of SAFe can be attributed to the framework’s four fundamental principles: alignment, transparency, built-in quality, and program execution. 

Enterprise organizations have run into several obstacles over time when it comes to expanding agile practices and principles. Getting agile teams to work with longer-term planning horizons is one of the most difficult challenges. In addition, agile teams’
autonomy to self-manage and choose how they will go about their work may not always be compatible with operations carried out at an enterprise scale. 

The SAFe framework is one tool that can assist organizations in overcoming such challenges. 

The Culture of DevOps 

Now that we’ve covered the first half of the SAFe/DevOps duo, we’ll move on to the second half and delve deeper into the DevOps movement.

According to Google, the percentage of DevOps teams has been gradually increasing, reporting 16%, 19%, and 22% in 2014, 2015, and 2016 respectively. And for the last three years, it has been steadily around 27%. 

What is Meant by the term “DevOps”? 

Combining the words “development” and “operations” resulted in the creation of the term known as “DevOps.” The term DevOps Culture refers to more of a movement than it does a process. By bringing together the appropriate people, processes, technologies,
and cultures, DevOps aims to break down the barriers that have traditionally existed between the various divisions of a technology company, most notably those that exist between developers and operations, to achieve rapid software delivery while maintaining
a high level of stability and quality.  

77% of companies we surveyed have stated that they depend on DevOps to deploy software and planning to do at the earliest. 

And
86% of companies feel the need to develop and start the production of new products quickly. 

Why Is It Necessary to Have DevOps? 

The traditional software development and delivery model functioned by isolating the various roles involved in the process, particularly those who authored the code and those responsible for its deployment and ongoing maintenance in production. This was a
deplorable state of affairs because it gave each group different and conflicting incentives to pursue their goals. Code should be shipped as quickly as possible, according to engineers. On the other hand, those who work in operations or as system administrators
place a high value on consistency. They typically dislike the idea of sending code to production regularly.  

This problem is cleverly solved by the DevOps methodology, which suggests that the lines between software engineers and operations staff should be blurred or completely destroyed to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. According to the State of DevOps report,
DevOps has helped top-performing IT firms deploy software 30 times more frequently with 200 times shorter lead times. They also recover 168 times faster and face 60 times fewer failures. 

The SAFe DevOps Integration Appears to Make logical Sense. 

DevOps has reached its mature state, and many organizations have been trying to adopt it on a large scale, but they’ve had a lot of trouble doing so. 

Because of the achievements of both methodologies, organizations are showing a growing interest in combining SAFe and DevOps in their software development processes. For example, the most recent releases of SAFe include DevOps as one of the framework’s optional
components.  

The Vital Ingredient in the Recipe for Success Is Value Stream Management 

The management of value streams is an innovative set of practices and tools. Throughout the entirety of the software development pipeline, the purpose of VSM is to make the flow of work as transparent as possible. When organizations have improved visibility
over the entirety of a project, from its inception to its production, they are better able to locate and eliminate bottlenecks. 

Conclusion 

We’ve focused on SAFe, DevOps, and the integration of the two. You have understood each of those concepts, including their definitions, histories, and the problems that can be solved using them. We have demonstrated that organizations face difficulties scaling
agile to the entire enterprise and scaling DevOps. You now have even better tools to provide high-quality software in your business while maintaining a high productivity rate. We trust that this article will prove informative. Until next time, happy developing!