Factors inhibiting the adoption of DevOps in large organisations: South African context

DevOps has been identified as a phenomenon whereby stakeholders of a software development team work together to deliver software continuously, allowing the business to seize emerging and existing market opportunities while reducing the time required for inclusion of client feedback. However, little has been done to develop adoption strategies/frameworks for this phenomenon. The absence of such strategies may result in DevOps not being adequately communicated and its impact not fully comprehended in both the practitioner and academic research communities. This study investigates the factors that are hindering the adoption of DevOps and proposes strategies to address them using both literature study and interviews with practitioners actively involved in the DevOps movement. Five main factors hindering the adoption of DevOps are identified: lack of strategic direction from senior management; lack of education around DevOps; risk of disintermediation of roles; resistance to change and silo mentality. A proposed conceptual framework has been developed both to strategize the adoption of DevOps, and to contribute input for future research.