State of DevOps report 2021

Aug 4

Puppet just released its 10th State of DevOps report, and though 83 per cent of surveyed IT decision-makers state they’re implementing DevOps practices, there is still some way to go until organisations will really be able to make the most of it.

This year’s survey incorporated feedback from 2657 individuals from all over the world — though Africa, the Middle East, Central America and South America still seem at least slightly underrepresented with their share of six per cent. Respondents mostly worked in software development or DevOps teams (52%) and hailed from organisations of all sizes, with those in the 1000 to 10000 bracket supplying almost a third of the data.

Puppet used the anniversary edition of the report to clarify the DevOps term once more, and examine what it is that stops organisations from becoming highly evolved DevOps orgs. Highly evolved here means that incident responses are automated, resources are available via self-service, apps are remodeled based on business needs, and that security teams are involved in the design and development process of new technologies.

Amongst other things, the report tries to put an end to the still somewhat prevalent idea that DevOps is just about automation and cloud use. Sure, 90 per cent of respondents in the highly evolved category say that they have automated most repetitive tasks and also seem to be using the cloud well. However, there are other aspects that need to be addressed to increase team efficiency.

Folowing are the main topics of the report of this year:

DevOps is not just automation

Highly evolved firms are far more likely to have implemented extensive and pervasive
automation, but being good at automation does not make you good at DevOps.
90% of respondents with highly evolved DevOps practices report their team has
automated most repetitive tasks.
97% of respondents with highly evolved DevOps practices agree that automation
improves the quality of their work.
62% of organizations stuck in mid-evolution report high levels of automation.

DevOps is not the cloud

Almost everyone is using the cloud, but most people are using it poorly. However, highly
evolved DevOps teams are using it well.
Organizations should not expect to become highly evolved just because they use cloud
and automation.
While 2 in 3 respondents report using public cloud, only 1 in 4 are using cloud to its
full potential.
65% of mid-evolution organizations report using public cloud, yet only 20% of them are
using cloud to its full potential.
While cloud and automation are important, organizations also need to address
organizational and team aspects, namely helping teams clarify their mission, primary
customers, interfaces, and what makes for healthy interactions with others.

Team identities and clear interaction paradigms matter

Enterprises are held back from evolving to the highest levels by organizational
structure and dynamics.
Highly evolved firms use a combination of stream-aligned teams and platform teams
as the most effective way to manage team cognitive load at scale, and they have a
small number of team types whose role and responsibilities are clearly understood by
their adjacent teams.
91% of highly evolved teams report a clear understanding of their responsibilities to
other teams compared to only 46% of low-evolution teams.
89% of highly evolved teams report members of their own team have clear roles,
plans, and goals for their work, compared to just 46% of low‑evolution teams.
While more than 3/4 (77%) of highly evolved teams state that teams adjacent to their
own team have a clear understanding of their responsibilities as they relate to their
own team, only 1/3 of low-evolution teams claim the same.

Cultural blockers are keeping mid-evolution firms stuck in the middle

Challenges related to culture are most acute among low-evolution organizations, but
present persistent blockers among mid-evolution firms.
18% of high-evolution respondents report they have no cultural blockers.
Among mid-level respondents, a mix of cultural blockers present themselves.
21% report their culture discourages risk and 20% state responsibilities are unclear.
18% report fast flow optimization is not a priority, while 17% cite insufficient
feedback loops.

Platform teams are key to success at scale

• The existence of a platform team does not inherently unlock higher evolution

DevOps; however, great platform teams scale out the benefits of DevOps initiatives.

• Platform team adoption differentiates those toward the higher end of mid-level

evolution from those toward the lower end, with 65% of those toward the higher end

(“high-mid”) using self-service platforms and only 40% of those toward the lower end

(“low-mid”) saying the same.

At SouthLights we hope the findings of this year’s report around evolutionary blockers, defining DevOps, and the role of platform teams will help organizations accomplish their goals faster. Contact us if you want to scale your DevOps practices more broadly across your organization.