DevOps defines the practice of combining software development and IT operations, with the goal of shortening a systems development lifecycle through the method of continuous delivery. The traditional ‘Waterfall’ project management style originated from the automotive industry, where it was necessary to complete one part of a build before moving on to the next, and so on, meaning a diagram on paper would look like a waterfall. However, software development has made continuous delivery more possible, as improvements to the programming and design of applications can be made on a regular basis, and don’t always require the absolute completion of a previous task. This has led to the increasing use of Agile methodologies in DevOps management.

What Are Agile Methodologies?

In short, Agile is best described as a set of principles that methodologies then develop from. In the DevOps space, some of these methodologies include Scrum and Kanban. Scrum, which involves breaking a project into iterations dubbed ‘sprints’, allows for short cycles of software development to be planned, scoped and delivered on in regular collaboration with stakeholders to gain as much feedback as possible throughout a project’s lifecycle. One popular way of managing these sprints is through a Kanban board, where developers and internal stakeholders can be assigned to tasks and track the progress of them through a visual display. There are some great options for different Project Management software online that utilise Kanban boards and the Scrum methodology.

Seek Out Project Management Courses Online

If you need some more learning and development around Agile methodologies which will be key to the driving and success of your DevOps team, there are plenty of online schools that run courses on these project management principles. You can find content specific to Kanban and Scrum, or branch out to other areas of project delivery such as PRINCE2. All you’ll need to do is schedule some time out of your week to dedicate to learning, and make sure you have a laptop capable of keeping up with the demands of an online course. Lenovo offer some great laptops for school that fit the bill for this, as they are reliable and long lasting without leaving you having to sacrifice on quality.

Decide What Works Best for Your Team

Although DevOps teams have increasingly adopted Agile project management principles with great success, there are still some people out there who feel that DevOps and Agile are contrasting methodologies that should be treated as such. Others argue that the two are so closely intertwined that they cannot possibly be considered as two separate branches of principles. Regardless of this debate, it’s more important for you to decide what works best for your specific team, and the best advice is to take what works from both Agile and DevOps to implement this into your working practices, and then disregard what doesn’t. Where possible, take on feedback from your team members to discuss what works best, so you can build on this.

Overall, the best way to begin managing your DevOps team using Agile project management principles is to establish what works best for your team by doing some online learning about the approaches you can take with ICT project management. So long as you have a suitable, reliable laptop to learn from ready to implement any management changes, there’s no end to the opportunity that Agile methodology can give you in the running of your DevOps projects.