  DevOps is a set of principles and practices to improve collaboration between
development and IT Operations. Against the backdrop of the growing adoption of
DevOps in a variety of software development domains, this paper describes
empirical research into factors influencing its implementation. It presents
findings of an in-depth exploratory case study that explored DevOps
implementation in a New Zealand product development organisation. The study
involved interviewing six experienced software engineers who continuously
monitored and reflected on the gradual implementation of DevOps principles and
practices. For this case study the use of DevOps practices led to significant
benefits, including increase in deployment frequency from about 30 releases a
month to an average of 120 releases per month, as well as improved natural
communication and collaboration between IT development and operations
personnel. We found that the support of a number of technological enablers,
such as implementing an automation pipeline and cross functional organisational
structures, were critical to delivering the expected benefits of DevOps.
