Integrated Solution for Timely Delivery of Customer Change Requests: A Case Study of Using DevOps Approach

Abstract

Numerous past studies have indicated a strong linkage between customer satisfaction and business performance exhibited through timely responses and delivery of customer requests. As the enterprise software industry is shifting to capabilities such as timely delivery of new features, fast delivery of customization requests, and close collaboration between customers and software development (including DevOps), this study examined the usage of a software tool to accelerate the responses to customer change requests within a product development organization. This paper analyzes a comprehensive case study (from conception to deployment) of a prototype created by IBM Rational Software AM release team to collect, analyze, monitor the flow of customer change requests for a set of products. The results of this work have led to a more accessible, frequent and informative tracking and reporting system that has significantly reduced the response delivery time for customers. The implication of this study could be applied to many software development companies to improve customer responses and promote open development and DevOps processes. This study is only limited to one firm from a particular industry sector, but nonetheless it offers future exploration opportunities for researchers and practitioners to better utilize currently available resources within their organization to increase customer satisfaction. This study also suggests a cost-effective way to facilitate collaboration between development and project management teams.