Twenty years after the Agile Manifesto was formulated, and 12 years after DevOps became a thing, both these inter-related philosophies are still works in progress -- and for some enterprises, very slow works in progress. These methodologies have the potential to change the way software is designed and delivered, but it takes a great deal of organizational work to make them stick. What's at issue? The long-sought agile and fast-sprinting agile approach to software may not be quite enterprise-ready, and that's the challenge -- particularly when game-changing initiatives are underway.
Photo: Joe McKendrick
Consider the drive toward advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. In this space, "agile and DevOps are still largely misunderstood, overlooked, and misapplied," says Chris Bergh, CEO of DataKitchen. For example, DevOps is widely accepted in the software engineering community, "but spotty and sporadic in the data analytics space, often consisting of data scientists who use code and configure tools to create analytic insights," he says.
