For DevOps teams looking for insights on how to improve, it’s invaluable to leverage the learnings of others. At the same time, given the wide range of DevOps teams’ expertise, tenure, and organizational dynamics, it’s also clear that one size does not fit all. That’s why efforts like this year’s “Accelerate State of DevOps Report” are so important. We’re proud to be a sponsor of this 2022 edition.
This report was written by DORA and the team at Google Cloud. DORA stands for DevOps Research and Assessment. DORA’s goal is to provide scientific research to help technology organizations improve the productivity of software development and delivery.
This is one of the longest running and largest research efforts of its kind. This survey has been conducted for eight years now, and more than 33,000 professionals worldwide have participated.
The long track record of this effort, coupled with the teams’ continued iterations and enhancements, makes this a truly unique and valuable report for development teams and business leaders. Not only does it provide an important look at the current state of development, but it provides key insights for how teams can make optimal improvements based on where they are now.
In this post, I’ll offer an overview of some of the highlights from this year’s report.
Three Key Factors that Boost Organizational Performance
The report offers a concrete look at how organizations are performing. The researchers found that high-performing organizations had several characteristics that distinguished them from the rest. There are three key variables:
- Organization and team culture. One key factor is trust. Organizations that were characterized as high trust and low blame were more likely to be successful. In addition, teams that felt supported by leadership were stable, and teams that had flexible work arrangements were also higher-performing.
- Reliability. Reliability plays a central role in organizational performance. Practices associated with reliability engineering and the degree to which reliability requirements are met are critical determinants of success.
- Cloud. Those organizations that are currently leveraging all the potential capabilities of cloud offerings see improved software delivery and operational performance, resulting in better organizational outcomes. Furthermore, these cloud users also report a 16 percent increase in positive cultural elements, such as less burnout, higher job satisfaction, greater team stability, and more.
Identifying Critical Interdependencies
The report authors have done significant investigation into the correlations that cut across specific responses for a particular type of organization. In this way, they’ve been able to establish definitions of different organizational archetypes, which can be helpful in enabling teams to tailor approaches based on their current aptitudes and resources.
In their investigation, the authors found that many factors were interrelated. Following are two key examples of these findings:
- Delivery performance must be coupled with reliability. The researchers examined how, while optimal software delivery performance is essential, it only yields improved organizational outcomes when enhanced operational performance, namely reliability, is also realized. Ultimately, the report cites that while speed is critical, delivering quickly won’t matter if your service fails to meet users' reliability expectations.
The latest report alarmingly indicates that for low maturity organizations, Change Failure Rate has increased from 16–30 percent last year to 46–60 percent, while it has stayed the same for medium and high-performing organizations.
In recognition of this issue, Broadcom has developed a unique patent pending approach to addressing Change Failure Rate by leveraging continuous observability (supported by machine learning) to proactively predict (and prevent) change failures based on metrics gathered in the pre-production stage. Read more about our solution approach here.
- Continuous integration is often essential for security. Supply chain security controls have a number of positive effects. However, those gains are often only realized by teams who have integrated security practices with firmly established continuous integration capabilities.
The Force Multiplier Effect
The report examines the massive impact that occurs when organizations employ four technical capabilities: use of version control, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and loosely coupled architectures. Those organizations that have a higher-than-average use of all four of these capabilities perform 3.8 times better than their counterparts.
Check Out the Report Today
This most recent report underscores an important principle: Those teams that recognize the need for continuous improvement don’t just enhance delivery performance — they realize better organizational results.
As a leading developer and user of advanced DevOps tools and approaches, Broadcom Software is focused on embracing these key principles in its own operations. Broadcom Software is proud to be honored with a Google Cloud DevOps Award.
To learn more about Broadcom’s DevOps solutions, be sure to visit our DevOps page.
Again, be sure to review the Accelerate State of DevOps Report. This report can help your team gain a better understanding of how your technologies and DevOps processes compare with others in the industry. The report can also provide you with targeted insights into some of the key approaches you can take to optimize your practices.
