How DevOps capabilities leverage firm competitive advantage: A systematic review of empirical evidence

Abstract

DevOps is an agile software delivery approach which combines IT development and operation functions into cross-functional teams and promotes team autonomy and automation of processes. Many companies transform their IT departments according to the DevOps paradigm, hoping to increase their pace of software delivery and achieve a tighter collaboration between business and IT functions. Whereas reasons for adopting DevOps are often described in terms of operational efficiency, the paper at hand aims to investigate whether implementing DevOps can additionally contribute to the strategic advantage of companies. To this end, we have conducted a systematic review of 37 empirical research papers on DevOps capabilities and analyzed the results in the context of the dynamic capabilities theory. Our conceptual model proposes that DevOps teams can contribute to firm competitive advantage by building both business-and technology-related capabilities which enable them to sense market opportunities, make fast and targeted decisions and transform their assets in case of changing circumstances. This research aims to generate a deeper understanding of the impact which software delivery approaches like DevOps can have on firm competitive advantage and provides insight into the sources of dynamic capabilities in modern IT organizations.

Towards a contextual model of software engineering capabilities: Factors affecting team performance

“…Analogously, more recent research has argued that the possession of certain team capabilities will enable software engineering teams to improve their team performance [2]. This focus is especially relevant considering the rise of modern software development approaches like Agile or DevOps, which rely on decentralized decisionmaking structures and thus heavily depend on identifying and building effective team capabilities to achieve superior performance [3]. Capabilities are often described as idiosyncratic [4] since they are being shaped by organizational context and history.…”

“…Capabilities are often described as idiosyncratic [4] since they are being shaped by organizational context and history. Although a vast amount of research has been conducted on capabilities that improve team performance [3], to the best of our knowledge, there is little research available which has explicitly taken into account how organizational context shapes the capabilities necessary to achieve this. A better understanding of these contextual factors is expected to benefit decision-makers in IT organizations when choosing which team capabilities to invest in and is therefore presumed to lead to an increase in organizational and team performance.…”