Agile methodology is a common practice in the world of software development, and for a good reason. This kind of methodology aims to manage any given project by breaking it down into various phases with smaller chunks of tasks to be released soon after. It includes constant collaboration between the people involved and constant improvement in each phase.

The practices of agile methodology differ from traditional practice. But more companies are using agile methodology these days, thanks to its flexibility and swift software development process.

Often, people interchange agile methodology with DevOps but truth be told, both processes focus on completely different things. To know more about how agile methodology works in software development, let’s compare these two first.

DevOps vs Agile Methodology: Are They the Same Thing?

Although the aim of DevOps and agile is to produce software, they do not contain similar practices and processes.

DevOps has more to do with software deployment than development. It is a practice that cultivates continuous collaboration between the people involved and is rooted in consistency and stability. The practices of DevOps manifest continuous and constant integration, delivery, and deployment.

Using DevOps as a service for software development has a large set of advantages. For instance, you could use DevOps to track and maintain future software releases. You could even reduce the number of steps needed for introducing new software to the market. Also, it’s useful that DevOps service companies can maintain the integrity of software.

Agile methodology, on the other hand, is a development methodology that aims to maintain productivity within the development team and drive releases based on the market’s ever-changing needs.

As its name suggests, the agile methodology also aims to produce software with agility. This is the reason why the concept behind this is to break down development processes into phases so that they could be launched as soon as possible.

Faster software releases would be useful for you and your customers. You could receive quick feedback from customers with the help of timely releases.

Although DevOps and Agile methodology have similarities and differences, both concepts are not mutually exclusive. Experts from Just After Midnight claims that, when used together, the development process will see greater efficiency and reliability in production and results.

Agile Methodology for Software Development

The agile methodology works for companies that wish to collaborate between different business units. If you want your IT and marketing departments to work together, you could use Agile.

Agile is used to divide a large project into smaller components. Doing so makes it easier for developers to focus on each component of a project. The smaller components here are referred to as user stories. Each of these user stories is a feature that developers want to see in their software.

Developers can use these user stories as a to-do list to help them understand their desired features. This allows them to focus on the most important features needed for their software. This process allows developers to create software they can improve using user feedback.

This process is both easy and flexible enough for most software developers to work with. Besides, it leaves software open to improvements throughout the development process. Doing so allows your software to adapt to the changing demands of users.

But this doesn’t mean your software development projects would go on forever if you use Agile. There is a fixed sprint duration for each software project. This allows developers and users to keep the project development on track.

Some developers argue that this is one of the disadvantages of using Agile. They believe that constant user feedback can extend a project despite sprint duration.

Agile Methodology with DevOps in Software Development

1. Test Automation

Testing is an important part of software development as well as quality assurance. To make sure that the software works as intended, it has to be tested first. However, although manual testing is required for quality purposes, it would be better to automate the majority of the test cases.

Test automation is a great way to save time and costs while developing software. Automation is one of the main aspects of using DevOps as a service with Agile.

You can use automation for all your code-scanning processes as a software developer. This would make it easier for you to avoid exposing vulnerabilities in your system. You could even build artifacts in a repository for your software development.

If you don’t want to do this, you could automate any release out the door. In this way, automation offers flexibility for software developers. You could automate the tasks you need for your end-to-end goalposts.

In doing so, you could make these goalposts a place to check for issues if the need arises manually. DevOps software and tools also allow you to test all the points needed in your delivery lifecycle.

This would allow you to keep up the speed at which you want to deliver your software. A good DevOps service company integrates automated testing into its DevOps processes. This reduces the risk of errors in your delivery cycle.

2. Tooling

If you want to use Agile and DevOps together, you would need the right tools on hand. This is another important aspect of using these processes for software development. DevOps would need you to create and replicate infrastructure for software development.

It allows you to replicate infrastructure using the Infrastructure as a Code (IaaC). So, you would need the right software development process configuration tools for this.

You can choose to work with Ansible, Jenkins, and other tools for version control. The same goes for testing and automating build and deployment. These are essential aspects of the software development process.

You can work with similar Agile tools if you want the same results. Or, you could work with Agile and DevOps for better results.

Why DevOps and Agile Should Be Used Together

Combining DevOps and Agile would need a structural shift in your organization. But, you should remember that both these practices can simplify product creation. This is why they’re so popular among software developers.

They can also streamline the deployment process for you, saving you time. If you use them the right way, you can improve your development processes to deliver results in no time.