Maximize the synergies between DevOps and Scrum

Today, most organizations adopted or are aggressively adopting DevOps to engineer their release infrastructure, and also for the many cultural benefits it offers. What are the synergies between Scrum and DevOps, how do they work together?

DevOps means that ultimately there are no humans involved through a building, testing and deployment. And removing manual processes have always been the primary goal of Scrum, right from the very beginning of Scrum.

DevOps has always been part of the whole idea behind Scrum.

Extreme Programming which is another framework, focus on the engineering practices, while Scrum focuses on the team, product backlog, and organizational practices. But ever since its original inception, the best Scrum implementations have always included Extreme Programming and DevOps practices.

DevOps largely became an important concept today because of the tool vendors develop to achieve full automation of build, test deploy, and operational support.

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But to achieve technical excellence, teams first need to be agile.

Why are companies still hesitant to invest in full DevOps automation? And the same applies to adopt Scrum?

The main reasons are leadership resistance, the absence of commitment or training. Some leaders never had any training, never read any papers on agile or DevOps and therefore don’t understand that, well implemented, DevOps and agile transformations increase the flow of value and revenue while making defects go way down.

Another aspect is people are changing and adopting practices based on their comfort. Let's take the example of Sports.

In any game, like Cricket,

• You know the rules
• You understand the rules
• You follow the rules

The thing is, people who don't know the rules, don't understand the rules, don't follow the rules, start defining new rules for the game.

In my opinion, Scrum is a game. It has certain rules. Look at Shu-Ha-Ri technique,

• Shu: "obey"—traditional wisdom—learning fundamentals, techniques
• Ha: Innovate —breaking with tradition
• Ri: Transcendence

When it comes to Scrum and DevOps practices, people directly start from "Ri" level.

If you read Agile Project Development at Intel: A Scrum Odyssey,

"The team leaders agreed to commit to three months of implementing Scrum principles and practices “by the book” prior to questioning the effectiveness of the new processes or attempting to tailor it to Intel needs."

"Implementing Scrum “by the book” was an integral part of launching Scrum across the teams."

If you want to maximize the synergies between Scrum and DevOps, then start with knowing, understanding and following the practices by the book, don't question them without trying. Once you reach the level of "Ri" then transcend and tailor the best practices from the frameworks based on your project or company need.