People, practices, and platforms are three critical areas organizations must hone in on when it comes to reaping the benefits of DevOps, according to new insight from Forrester Research. 

Forrester’s State of DevOps 2022 report found that 69% of firms are adopting an agile DevOps transformation. Charles Betz, principal analyst at Forrester, noted in an accompanying blog post that this transformation path is “the default approach for most software-intensive organizations and is having an increasing effect on enterprise IT operating models."

Implementing DevOps consistently reduces time-to-market, increases enterprise agility, and makes businesses more resilient. The practicalities of DevOps in organizations are continuing to evolve. This is “just the beginning — DevOps may have demonstrated its value, but it’s not resting on its laurels,” noted Betz.

People remain central to the value of DevOps, and Forrester claims evolving DevOps starts with developer experience.

There is an ever-increasing difficulty in finding the industry’s top talent. Forrester’s report shows 20% of organizations adopting DevOps cite a lack of skills as a top challenge. Improving developer experience aids a company’s ability to recruit and retain talent for their DevOps teams. However, looking forward, a lack of attention to this area of DevOps could be a set back for some organizations. 

Collaboration across the organization is also key to reaping the benefits of DevOps. Currently, organizations are using different methods for the heavy lifting of integrating development and operations, like dojos, cross-functional teams, and agile-plus-DevOps. High performing organizations still strongly favor cross-functional collaboration channels (96%) according to the Forrester report. Driving an organization's success going forward will require companies to fine-tune these efforts to fit specific contexts and objectives. 

Practices will replace processes, according to Forrester’s predictions. To this notion, employees should be focused on things that demand human attention (irregular, experience-oriented and non sequential practices) rather than mindless tasks. 

One useful way this is taking place is in security and risk management, says Forrester. The biggest challenge for organizations adopting a new agile/DevOps transformation is concern for security, risk, and governance, according to 28% of respondents in Forrester’s report. DevSecOps, or development, security, and operations, replaces bolt-on solutions by integrating security and risk personnel at the beginning rather than the end of a project, and automating processes. 

The market for DevOps is relying on more than just technology. Platforms are consolidating, deepening, and expanding “into a unified new kind of DevOps product, the integrated software delivery platform, that provides end-to-end support for a wide variety of deployment platforms: Linux virtual machines and containers, as well as Windows, mainframes/midranges, legacy Unix, and serverless,” according to Betz. 

Going forward, the future of DevOps will look to AI and machine learning (ML), as well as the development of MLOps which is a continuing practice in the DevOps field. This means the next generation of DevOps will need tools that can support other ML pipelines to upkeep its stance in the software field. 

"DevOps isn't just a trendy term or shiny new thing,” wrote Betz. "It's real and delivers real results." Organizations that want to reap the speed, agility, and resilience of DevOps must cater better attention to its people, practices, and platforms.