Difference Between Agile and Devops

The main difference between Agile and Devops is that Agile is involved in development, testing, integration and deployment while Devops is involved in development, testing, integration, deployment and monitoring.

Software development is a continuous process, which is challenging as well as highly demanding. Development teams follow certain steps throughout the software development lifecycle. Agile is a better development approach with multiple advantages. It provides customer satisfaction, flexibility to change requirements and saves money. Even though Agile reduces the development time drastically, it lacks the agility in operations.  Devops is an alternative to this issue. It involves development, testing, integration, deployment and operations after deploying the product. It involves continuous monitoring. In simple words, Devops brings agility to both development and operations.

Key Areas Covered

1. What is Agile
     – Definition, Functionality
2. What is Devops
     – Definition, Functionality
3. Difference Between Agile and Devops
     – Comparison of Key Differences

Key Terms

Agile, Devops, Software Development

What is Agile

Agile is a new software development methodology. It does not require a fixed set of requirements before developing the software, unlike in traditional waterfall method.  A waterfall process model follows sequential steps. Even though it was a well-organized and structured approach, it was not a better approach for software development. It had issues on budget, time, scope and quality; often, the final product is not what the customer asked for. To overcome these issues, a team of software engineers created an alternative approach. They came up with the Agile Manifesto. It focuses on 4 values and 12 principles as follows:

Values

• Individuals and Interactions over process and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan.

Principles

• Customer satisfaction
• Embracing changes
• Speedy delivery
• Collaboration
• Empowerment
• Effective communication
• Good metrics
• Steadiness
• Operational excellence
• Simplicity
• Self-organization
• Continuous improvements

It is necessary for a software project to follow the above values and principles if the development approach is agile.

Figure 1: Agile Project Management

When developing software using Agile, developers first take a set of requirements. These requirements are defined, coded and tested. Then, the team meets the customer to get feedback. In the next iteration, a new set of requirements are taken. Similarly, they are defined, coded and tested. In parallel, the development team also works on the required adjustments in the previous feedback. Again, they meet the customer to get feedback. Likewise, this process continues until producing the final product.

What is Devops

Even though Agile is a better development approach, it lacks the agility in operations. Devops is a solution to overcome this issue. It is a software development approach that involves continuous development, continuous testing, continuous integration, continuous deployment and continuous monitoring throughout the development lifecycle.

Figure 2: Stages in a Devops Tool Chain

Various tools can be used to automate the stages in Devops. The git and SVN can be used for Source Code Management. They help to maintain the code throughout the development lifecycle. Different versions of the code can be stored, and it is possible to rollback changes anytime. There are tools like Maven, Gradle and ANT for building. These tools help to package the code into executable files so that they can be directed for testing. For continuous testing, there are tools like Selenium and JUnit. Jenkins can be used for continuous integration. Puppet, chef, and SaltStack are used for continuous deployment. Finally, tools such as New Relic, Sensu and Nagios can be used for continuous monitoring.

Difference Between Agile and Devops

Definition

Agile is a method of software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross functional teams and their customers. Devops is a software engineering culture and practice that aims at unifying software development and software operation.

Process

Agile involves development, testing, integration, and deployment. It does not perform any operations after delivering the product. On the other hand, Devops involves development, testing, integration, deployment, and operations after deploying the product. It involves continuous monitoring to ensure that the product is performing well.

Feedback

Furthermore, Agile gets feedback from the customer. Devops gets feedback from customers as well as from the internal team.

Automation

Devops emphasizes more on automation. It uses more open source tools to reduce the overall workload.

Goal

Agile minimizes the gap between customer needs and development and testing teams. Devops minimizes the gap between development, testing and operation teams.

Time Size

Agile involves small teams while Devops involves larger teams.

Conclusion

Both Agile and Devops are software development methodologies that help fast software development. The difference between Agile and Devops is that Agile involves development, testing, integration and deployment while Devops involves development, testing, integration, deployment and monitoring. Usually, Devops is better than Agile.

Reference:

1. What Is Agile?, Agile ME, 7 Mar. 2016, Available here.
2. Agile Methodology, Tutorials Point (India) Pvt. Ltd., 4 Feb. 2017, Available here.
3. What Is DevOps? | DevOps Training – DevOps Introduction & Tools | DevOps Tutorial | Edureka, 15 Sept. 2016, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Agile Project Management by Planbox” By Planbox – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Devops-toolchain” By Kharnagy – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia