And the Benefit of Using Them Together in Salesforce
Both agile and DevOps in Salesforce aim to deliver the end product (a change, hotfix, or app) as efficiently and quickly as possible. However, there’s a fundamental difference between agile and DevOps. Agile is an approach for developing and delivering changes in response to ever-changing customer needs. DevOps, on the other hand, is a philosophy about how to bring teams together to continuously deploy changes using automation and other set processes.
In this blog, we’ll illustrate the differences between agile and DevOps in Salesforce by defining each of these concepts. Then we’ll discuss the benefit of using the two approaches in your Salesforce change management process.
What Is Agile?
The agile methodology was formally introduced in 2001, with the publication of the Agile Manifesto. According to the Agile Alliance, agile encompasses four core values:
- Individuals and interaction over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
In addition, agile rests on 12 principles. The most important is the prioritization of satisfying the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable changes and apps. With an agile methodology, smaller teams collaborate to continuously align development with customer needs, even when those requirements change late in the development process.
An agile mindset focuses more on people than on tools and processes. The people performing the work learn to leverage constant change to identify new opportunities that will add more value for the customer.
What Is DevOps?
DevOps is a methodology that combines app and change development with operations. By breaking down the silos between the development and operations teams, you can enhance communication and collaboration. This allows you to build, test, and release changes with greater efficiency and speed.
By combining development and operations, you promote transparency in code repositories, continuous integration and continuous delivery (or CI/CD), and automated testing. The result is that with DevOps, you can quickly and efficiently deliver high-quality changes on a continual basis.
The Benefit of Using Agile and DevOps Together
Agile and DevOps are by no means mutually exclusive. In fact, using the two methodologies complement each other, and together, they can benefit your Salesforce change management process significantly.
Agile gives you the ability to adapt to quickly changing requirements, while DevOps ensures a fully-automated CI/CD pipeline to achieve frequent releases. Agile empowers you to develop changes and apps that are driven by user needs, while DevOps lets you innovate faster and continuously improve the quality of your applications.
Combining the two methodologies can help you better prioritize customer demands based on an improved understanding of how your product is being used and how you need to enhance it. At the same time, you can develop and deliver new, high-quality changes and apps at a much higher pace than with methods like the waterfall methodology.
FAQs
Is DevOps a form of agile?
DevOps is derived from agile and supplements it. Agile focuses on having the ability to quickly adjust the end product to customer demands regardless of where it is in the development cycle. DevOps focuses on using automation and continuous integration to increase the speed and quality of releases.
Can you implement DevOps without agile?
In principle, you can implement DevOps without an agile framework. Both methodologies focus on delivering higher-quality changes and apps faster. However, they each have different focuses and processes. Many experts believe that to achieve the best results, you should combine agile with DevOps.
