Agile models were created for software development, but are being applied in other branches of the industry, such as infrastructure and managed services. Smart integrations of teams can reach some results for software development.
Its adoption on a large scale will redefine the market, both from the perspective of the customer, as well as that of suppliers. But there are some challenges to be overcome and the main one is the internal culture of organizations.
Generally speaking, these concepts represent methods for accelerating the delivery of new versions of an application and are in line with agile development methodologies.
The use of these practices collaborates so that the software development work is based on smaller but more frequent deliveries, making the process more flexible, agile, and efficient.
This means that, instead of spending a long time building the product, without any kind of validation, the best way to create is interactive, that is, working together with the customer, listening to them first, creating value together, and receiving their constant feedback.
Thus, everyone involved can give their opinion and modify the product while it is being built. At the end of the delivery, the user or customer cannot say that it was not quite what he wanted, nor does he throw away a job of months.
In this article, you will find out some steps to produce more smart integration in your team and get better results.
Integration of teams
DevOps is nothing more than putting together a multidisciplinary team that will define the requirements to work together. The idea is that, at the end of the day, all members of different teams you guide on the same objective and have a method to guide the activities.
This characteristic of people with different visions building together is enriching, but, of course, there are still some rows.
DevOps and agile methodologies bring about arm wrestling between infrastructure and programming teams. For example, allowing these people to work together more harmoniously.
What accelerated its adoption was cloud computing, which made access to hardware virtually infinite. And setting up a server has never been easier and faster.
But, this culture change doesn’t happen overnight. You need to invest in training, explaining the principles more than the details of the different approaches, such as Scrum, Extreme Project Management, among others.
It is also worth noting that the agile model alone will not solve all problems. It is necessary to have a rigorous method, but not in a plaster cast. Otherwise, you spend more time on control than execution.
Another point is that methodologies are not suitable for all operations. Some tasks can and should be performed well with features like Form2Task and Task Effort.
Advantages for the customer due to smart integration teams
The agile method has some very clear advantages. The validation of the work throughout the execution takes away the surprise effect, that is, when the delivery does not correspond to the expectation.
The model sells itself as more agile and efficient. It reduces the Time to Market, that is, the time to design a product and put it on sale.
But, the managed services contractor needs to be more engaged and active in the decision chain. There is more desire for integration between the parties and using a feature like Rock Star Team will bring your team together. A change that even reflects on trade policies.
The traditional IT purchasing process has always been based on quotation, shortlist, and the famous function point. The proposal is now another, is to have the deliveries done in stages.
The customer is part of the Scrum group or the DevOps team. He/she must not only validate the activities but participate and build a story together.
There is indeed challenges and adaptations side by side. But the premise of bringing together the smart integration team of highly qualified employees for the same purpose bears good results.
If everyone is facing ‘the same trouble’, value creation tends to be richer, with greater alignment of information and expectations, more accurate briefings, more accurate deliveries, more assertive feedbacks.
A software development team that wants to adopt DevOps practices, for example, must have a strong understanding of the concepts of continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment.
Continuous Integration
Continuous integration is a software development practice that aims to make code integration more efficient, through automated builds and tests.
Agile methodologies propose that the software development process is carried out with more frequent deliveries.
As a result, the work required to gather, integrate and test all the code developed by the team in a central repository has also become more frequent.
In this context, Continuous Integration arises to reduce the manual work required in this code integration process.
Furthermore, with test automation, the work of fixing bugs is made easier. It ensure that the software is up and running after every change.
To adopt Continuous Integration, it is essential to use version control tools such as Gitlab or Github.
Solutions like Jenkins and Hudson are also important for coordinating code builds, testing and integrations.
Continuous Delivery
Continuous Delivery is an evolution of Continuous Integration. In addition to Continuous Integration practices, Continuous Delivery aims to ensure that the code can enter a production environment.
For this, it is necessary that the deployment of the code in the approval and development environments performance in a simplified way. And supplementary unit tests and final inspections you must carry out as soon as possible.
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Deployment allows the developer, as soon as they understand that their code is ready, to go through automatic tests and validations. Also, it allows them to make their changes available in the production environment.
For Continuous Deployment to be successful, the team must be able to monitor indicators to ensure the effectiveness of changes.
Benefits
For the development team, the integration, delivery and continuous deployment practices allow for work minimization. It reduces errors and enables the availability of the software in shorter cycles.
For the business, the main benefit of using these approaches is the decrease in the time to release product updates.
In competitive markets, this represents a great advantage for companies that want to quickly meet the demands of their users.
In addition, by making new features available to users more frequently, the company has the possibility of making its learning cycle more efficient.
Scrum team smart integration dynamics
The great role of the Scrum Master is to be the guardian of the best practices of the Scrum method. And also try to prevent the team from committing to do more than is possible in each Sprint.
Therefore, it is important to have a look at the team’s motivation and integration. For this, he can count on some icebreaker dynamics to engage the team differently from the tasks.
Their objective is to help the team solve a problem and create actions. Each one can put themselves in the other’s shoes. In addition to promoting a climate of trust in the team.
GitScrum supports your team to better results and effective deliveries!
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