Reviewing Trends at DevOps World | Jenkins World 2018

Chris Condo, senior analyst at Forrester Research, outlined recent trending topics in DevOps at DevOps World | Jenkins World in San Francisco this week.

The pace of digital transformation is accelerating along with DevOps adoption, and will keep doing so, even though the meaning of the term is starting to blur as it becomes the norm. "People are getting tired of the term 'digital transformation,'" Condo said. "But it doesn't end, it will just continue." Businesses may think they've transformed their release cycle once they've implemented a DevOps toolchain and some automation, but it's not that simple. 

"If they're not constantly measuring and monitoring their velocity and customer satisfaction, they're not realizing they can do more," Condo said.

The public will soon be able to switch their banks, grocery stores, and other services as easily as deleting a mobile app. Customer experience is only growing more important, Condo explained, as the fight to attract and retain customers grows more cutthroat. Along those lines, the feature release cycle will accelerate.

Technologies that need DevOps are multiplying — serverless, IoT, artificial intelligence, and machine learning all increase the necessity for DevOps. "The entire toolchain needs to expand and grow in complexity," Condo said.

Lean concepts and value stream management are also set to go mainstream. Companies want to see what they're getting out of their DevOps toolchain, Condo explained, and they're building comprehensive views of their delivery cycles — a departure from the Agile idea that "it's done when it's done."

Finally, DevSecOps has moved from a wish list item to a "must-have," as organizations make moves to protect the product lifecycle from end to end.

Key 2018 Trends

• Digital transformation acceleration

• Customer experience continues to drive DevOps

• Technologies that need DevOps multiply

• Lean concepts, value stream management will go mainstream

• DevSecOps moves from a request to a requirement