Abstract
Development and operations (DevOps) are a set of good practices that merges software development and IT operations into one, in order to reduce the software development life cycle through the automation of processes and continuous deployment. Project Management (PM) is a powerful tool that is used to manage the development of software projects. Combining DevOps with the management of software projects can improve quality and delivery. PM and DevOps have been used many times in software development to manage software product delivery. Some of the limitations which delay projects were noticed. These are caused by conflicting ideas from both the DevOps and PM teams. Firstly, communication between the development and operations teams is difficult and normally broken, as PM keeps them apart. Secondly, the complex and voluminous documentation, which must be complied with for the sake of good governance, normally delays the completion of the software product. Lastly, DevOps requires a cultural change in the organisation, but this is always difficult, as the prevailing culture is the backbone of organisational strategy. There has been an increasingly growing trend of frequent software deployment and this is usually too advanced for new features that are ready for production. This has resulted in many companies embracing a couple of different strategies, which also include the DevOps approach which, in the real world, affects many of the companies’ processes and cultures. However, the concept of DevOps is still not clear and many software companies find it challenging to embrace it.
The primary objective of this research is to explore ways in which project management can be embedded into DevOps in Software Development projects to improve quality and delivery time. For the research to fulfil its objectives, ways in which future PM frameworks can be made to incorporate the DevOps framework were explored. The shortfalls and benefits of combining the PM and the DevOps frameworks into one framework were identified. The study also identified a number of ways in which PM and DevOps can be embedded as governance tools in software development projects. The research used the quantitative data collection method, and the IBM SPSS 26 and other tools were used to analyse the data and test the validity of the results in the form of graphical representation.
DevOps, PM frameworks and related tools were analysed to identify inherent gaps and limitations that prevent efficiency in software development projects. Furthermore, the strengths of each framework were analysed so that they could be leveraged on the envisaged frameworks. DevOps and PM frameworks addressed the efficiency of software development, with each framework putting more attention to detail on different aspects of efficiency, notably automation and governance. The combination of DevOps and PM frameworks can afford the new framework multiple efficiencies, as is
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normally found in different frameworks. The adoption of the proposed framework in the research could assist in improving the efficiency of a software development project. Furthermore, it could help reduce the duplication of effort and improve resource utilisation.
Keywords: DevOps, Agile, Governance, Automation, Framework, Software Development.