Implementing DevOps with Agile Principles

Agile and DevOps methodologies help in improving the software development and deployment process. This involves cross-functional collaboration and creating feedback loops for software improvement. In this blog, you will learn how does agile and DevOps interrelate, how these two methodologies differ from each other, and how organizations can overcome challenges in implementing these methodologies.

Summary Box

• Agile focuses on iterative development and customer collaboration, while DevOps bridges development and operations to ensure continuous testing, delivery, and deployment.
• DevOps practices like continuous deployment, shorter delivery cycles, and close team collaboration are built on Agile principles of adaptability, teamwork, and customer-centric value.
• AI-driven automation, cloud adoption, self-healing systems, and faster feedback cycles are transforming modern Agile-DevOps workflows, helping enterprises achieve faster innovation and reliability.
• Challenges like cultural resistance and poor data security can be overcome with better collaboration, training teams, and integrating security protocols. 
• Successful DevOps with agile integration requires gradual adoption from agile foundations to CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery), automated testing, and continuous deployment.

What is Agile and how is it different from DevOps?

Agile Methodology involves continuous iteration of development and testing in the SDLC process. The Agile development process breaks the product into smaller pieces and integrates them for final testing. It can be implemented in many ways, including scrum, kanban, XP, etc.

DevOps is a practice of bringing development and operations teams together. It focuses on constant testing and delivery implemented by a large team. On the other hand, Agile is an iterative approach that focuses on collaboration, customer feedback and small rapid releases. It focuses on constant changes and requires a small team. 

Mainly, DevOps addresses the gap between development and testing operations while Agile addresses the gap between client and the development and testing teams. JIRA, Bugzilla, Kanboard are popular Agile tools while DevOps uses Puppet, Chef, TeamCity OpenStack, AWS. 

However,  Agile offers a shorter development cycle and improved defect detection and DevOps supports Agile’s release cycle. Thus, DevOps must be implemented along with Agile to have an efficient delivery process.

What are the practices of DevOps which are developed based on the agile principles?

Based on agile principles like individual interaction, customer collaboration, responding to constant change, DevOps has developed certain principles and practices which are:

• Bring value to the customer by delivering smaller, frequent and continuous deployment of the software.
• Deliver working software in a shorter period of time. While agile focussed on delivering over a few weeks, DevOps aims to deliver small software updates over a few hours.
• Support changes to the requirements whenever the customer wants, based on the market trend. The software development methodology should be flexible enough to handle any changes asked by the customer and deliver them with comfort.
• Collaborate and work closely with all teams.
• Motivate the team, communicate regularly and give freedom to the team members and provide all support required to complete the tasks assigned to them. Maximize  communication via stand up meetings, review meetings etc.

It is visible that the theories and practices followed by DevOps are placed around the basic agile principles and are an extension of them. The focus is on bringing value to the customer through smaller deployments, faster deployments, and continuous deployments. This is done through collaboration with all the stakeholders so that every piece of information is available to the entire team and is kept in mind while developing the software. The team has to work together, unitedly to solve any problem – may it be related to design, architecture, testing or deployment or application performance. Additionally, technical debt needs to be minimized as much as possible. This means that every piece of the program must be attended to, to ensure quality throughout the process. Paying attention to details, excellence and focusing continuously on customers needs is very important at every stage.

Trends in DevOps and Agile Development

1. AI in Agile and DevOps: AI and ML (machine learning) are transforming the face of DevOps and agile development. This is being made possible by pre-identifying issues, automating manual tasks, and assisting in pattern recognition. AI and ML tools can sort through terabytes of data to identify patterns and trends.
2. Cloud Takes Center Stage: Enterprises deploying agile cloud-based technologies are gaining a competitive advantage. Teams are leveraging cloud-based technology to discover innovative approaches to accelerate development, forecasting, and testing.
3. Automation in Modern DevOps: Modern automation involves self-healing capabilities in systems that automatically detect and resolve issues, without the need for human intervention. For instance, Kubernetes orchestrates containerized applications while autonomously restarting failed containers to maintain system health.
4. Accelerated Feedback Cycles: Rapid feedback is one of the most important goals for employing agile and DevOps methodologies in software development. In 2026, we expect to see IT teams striving to shorten feedback cycles. This will include establishing a culture of open communication and deploying automation.

Challenges & Solutions to Overcome DevOps with Agile Implementation

Businesses are constantly seeking ways to optimize their software development and delivery processes. However, common challenges such as cultural resistance, poor security & compliance, and legacy infrastructure for agile and DevOps transformation hinder enterprise growth. Let’s look at solutions to DevOps and agile development challenges:

1. Cultural Resistance: Teams often have reluctance to transition from traditional, expertise-based teams to cross-functional teams. This stems from the fear of change, concerns about loss of specialization and even the comfort of existing roles. To overcome this, organizations should invest in cultural transformation and encourage roundtable meeting or create forums to have honest discussions about the importance of delivering high-quality software.
    
2. Difficulty in Understanding DevOps with Agile Principles: The lack of deep understanding of principles can lead to incorrect implementation, thus affecting the desired outcome. IT teams should foster a deep understanding of agile and DevOps principles through training and education. They should introduce practical exercises to apply agile-DevOps transformation in real projects.
    
3. Poor Access Control and Security: Neglecting security and compliance in DevOps and agile development can lead to regulatory issues and vulnerabilities. Poor access control can expose confidential information, creating significant risks for the organization. Hence, IT leaders must integrate security practices into their pipeline from the outset. They should implement role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce strict access controls.

How to enable DevOps in Agile methodology?

The following things have to be followed while implementing DevOps into Agile product development: 

• Improve Teamwork and Flow
• Adopt DevOps in Sprints
• Regular communication in each phase
• Service Backlog under DevOps
• Automation and using the right tools
• Measurement and Analysis
  • Percentage of release date adherences.
  • Percentage increase in release numbers.
  • Time taken for release to production.
  • Defects attributable to platform/support requirements.
  • Percentage of NFRs met.

Conclusion

DevOps would be just another buzzword without the proper implementation of certain principles that sit at the heart of DevOps. Building a devops culture requires an organization to work as a unified team, from Development and Operations to stakeholders and management. That is what sets DevOps apart from other development models. When transitioning to DevOps, remember that these principles are not set in stone. Organizations should implement DevOps methodologies based on their goals, workflows, resources, and the team’s skill set.

If your organization is planning to implement DevOps, consider implementing it in stages. Depending on where your organization currently stands, you may want to build on an agile approach for DevOps implementation. A gradual implementation sequence might look like this:

1. Establish an agile development process
2. Adopt cloud computing
3. Adapt your processes to a CI and CD workflow
4. Automate your software deployment
5. Automate software testing
6. Implement continuous deployment

DevOps implementation comes with both  infrastructural and tooling shifts that require the proper infrastructure and tools to support processes. To create a true DevOps environment, each stage of the development pipeline should be as automated and agile as possible.

Accelerate Delivery and Empower Innovation With AIT’s DevOps and Agile Expertise

Successful DevOps integration in Agile requires teamwork, automation, regular communication, and measurable metrics. At AIT Global, we help enterprises transform software delivery through a seamless fusion of agile DevOps consulting, ensuring speed, scalability, and reliability at every stage of the development lifecycle. Our dedicated DevOps team collaborates closely with clients to understand unique business needs, implement continuous integration and deployment pipelines, and automate end-to-end processes for faster, high-quality releases. 

By aligning people, process, and technology, we enable organizations to respond swiftly to market demands while reducing operational risks. Partner with us to build, deliver, and scale digital solutions that drive continuous value and measurable business impact.