DevOps Challenges and Risk Mitigation Strategies by DevOps Professionals Teams

Abstract

DevOps is a team culture and organizational practice that eliminates inefficiencies and bottlenecks in the DevOps infrastructure. While many companies are adopting DevOps practices, it can still be risky. We conducted 26 interviews with DevOps professionals around the globe and found four major risks associated with DevOps practices: Organizational risks (Intra-organizational collaboration and communication, strategic planning), Social and cultural risks (Team Dynamics, Cultural shift), Technical risks (Integration, Build and test automation), Ethics and security breaches in DevOps environment (Ethical risks, Data collection ethics, Ethical decision making). Our research also identified several risk mitigation strategies namely continuous testing, using infrastructure as code, security audit and monitoring, disaster recovery planning, cross-functional training, proper documentation, continuous learning, continuous improvement etc. that companies can adopt for better performance and efficiency.