The Accelerate State of DevOps Report

Strategies for a New Economy
2018 Accelerate: State of DevOps

© 2018, DevOps Research and Assessment, LLC. All Rights Reserved.2
Meet Your Presenters
Derek Langone Jez Humble
Founder & CTO
DORA
CEO
XebiaLabs

Top-ranked
Hundreds of
Companies
deliver software with
XebiaLabs - faster, safer and
more customer focused
Enterprise DevOps Platform
providing intelligence, automation and
control across the entire software delivery
process
Continuous Delivery and
DevOps pioneer, authority
and technology leader
Global team
in the US,
Europe & APAC

● Largest and longest-running research of its kind
● 5 years of rigorous research, surveying 30,000+ professionals worldwide
● Investigates practices that lead to higher software delivery performance
● Higher software delivery performance = powerful business outcomes
● Only report to include performance benchmarks with cluster analysis
● Predictive analysis to identify specific improvement strategies
The Accelerate: State of DevOps Report

© 2018, DevOps Research and Assessment, LLC. All Rights Reserved.6 © 2018, DevOps Research and Assessment, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Software Delivery and
Operational performance
(SDO performance)
2018 - Key Themes
SDO performance is the driver that
unlocks competitive advantages for IT
organizations.
SDO performance is the practice behind
not just creating, but also operating,
software in ways that generate powerful
business outcomes.

Identify the key
Technical Practices
that drive SDO performance
2018 - Key Themes
confirms findings from previous years.
New for 2018, key technical practices
include:
● Monitoring and observability
● Continuous testing
● Database change management
● "Shifting left" on security

Identify the key
Cultural Practices
that drive SDO performance
2018 - Key Themes
confirms the Westrum cultural model
from previous years.
New for 2018! How to influence culture
through organizational work:
● Influencing culture through
autonomy & trust
● Creating a culture of learning
(retrospectives)

Key Findings - Elite Performers

Key Findings - Year over Year

2018: Key Differences

Adding Availability
Ability for teams to ensure their
product or service can be accessed
by end users
Software delivery +
operational performance is
SDO performance
Elite performers are
3.5X more likely to have strong
availability practices

Elite Performers
Data shows a new 4th high
performance group:
elite performers
Proportion of high performers has
grown YoY, but the bar for
excellence remains high
Elite performers are still able to
optimize for throughput and stability

Key Topics of Interest

New 2018 Performance Benchmarks

Doing Cloud Right
It's not just about adopting cloud, it’s
using cloud in essential ways that
matters.
Only 22% of teams are doing cloud
right
Teams that use these essentials
characteristics are 23X more likely to
be elite performers
AGREED OR STRONGLY
AGREED
On-demand self-service
Broad network access
Resource Pooling
Rapid elasticity
Measured service

Open Source Software
The data shows that using open
source software is correlated with
high SDO performance
Teams that use open source software
are 1.75X more likely to be elite
performers
Those same teams are also
1.5X more likely to expand their
open source usage in future

Industry Doesn’t Matter
Industry does not matter for
achieving high performance for
software delivery
High performers exist in both non-
regulated and
highly regulated industries alike
Any team in any industry has the
potential to achieve a high degree of
SDO performance

Don’t Forget the Database
Integrating database work into
software delivery positively
contributes to SDO performance
Integrating database practices look
much like integrating ops work in
early days: communication, config
management, including teams,
visibility
Teams could think about this like
“shifting left”

An Evolution in Testing
Automated testing played a role in
prior years’ research. We investigated
if the evolving role of testing in
continuous delivery contributes.
Continuous testing extends
automated testing practices and
positively contributes to SDO
performance

Looking Into Our Systems
Teams with a comprehensive
monitoring and observability solution
were 1.3 times more likely to be an
elite performer.
Having a monitoring and observability
solution positively contributed to
SDO performance.
Fun stats fact: monitoring and
observability load together.

Deeper Analysis

Surprises

Misguided Performers
Some teams optimize for caution:
low deploy frequency, high lead
times, and low deployment failure
That same group also reports the
longest times to restore service
for outages (1-6 months!)
Large-batch changes add complexity
& no one thinks it will happen to them,
but 5% of teams suffer the
consequences

The J-Curve of Transformation
Teams begin
transformation
and identify quick
wins
Automation helps low
performers progress to
medium performers
Automation increases test
requirements, which are dealt with
manually. A mountain of technical
debt blocks progress.
Technical debt and increased complexity
cause additional manual controls and
layers of process around changes,
slowing work
Relentless improvement
work leads to excellence
and high performance!
High and elite performers
leverage expertise and
learn from their
environments to see
jumps in productivity

Outsourcing
Low performing teams are
3.9X more likely to use
functional outsourcing than elite
teams
Elite teams rarely adopt
functional outsourcing
Misguided performers have the
highest use of outsourcing
of all groups

Major Takeaways

Ways to Improve SDO Performance
● Adopting essential cloud characteristics is key to truly realizing benefits
● Organizations need to make smart investments in technology, lean practices
and culture -- holistic transformation is important
● The data on functional outsourcing is in, and it’s decisive: this is not a winning
bet
● Optimize for throughput, stability, and availability

© 2018, DevOps Research and Assessment, LLC. All Rights Reserved.29 http://devops-research.com © 2018, DevOps Research and Assessment, LLC. All Rights Reserved.http://devops-research.com
Download the full
report
https://cloudplatformonline.com/2018-state-of-devops.html

Report Authors
The DORA Cofounders
Dr. Nicole Forsgren: PhD, sysadmin, scientist, author of Accelerate, named top 10 influencer in DevOps
Jez Humble: Author of Accelerate, Continuous Delivery, Lean Enterprise, and The DevOps Handbook
Gene Kim: Founder of Tripwire Inc, author of Accelerate, The Phoenix Project, DevOps Handbook, & more
Many thanks to George Miranda and Xavier Velasquez for their contributions to the report. Cheryl Coupe was our copyeditor and
Siobhan Doyle did design. We also thank those who assisted with research advice and guidance.

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Questions?
Get your copy of the full report:
https://cloudplatformonline.com/2018-state-of-devops.html

The Accelerate State of DevOps Report

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