What Are Critical Success Factors of DevOps Projects? A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

DevOps is a software development and operation practice, and a recent addition to a large family of different kinds of software process models. The model was born as it was observed that information systems operations and information system developments are closely integrated activities for the success of any organization. Thus, DevOps methods are an addition for the companies to improve overall performance in their software development process and operations. DevOps fills the gap between the development and operations teams and maintains the collaboration among information technology professionals for delivering the software applications. Due to its recent emergence, there are relatively little research done, at least when compared to the other software process models, on DevOps and its successful usage. Previously, some empirical research studies have been conducted on the success factors of DevOps, but a synthesis of these findings is needed. This paper aims to find out various critical success factors of DevOps projects that have been discussed in prior research by following a systematic literature review. Based on our extensive keyword search and after applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, we have included 30 research articles in this paper. The identified critical success factors were categorized into technical, organizational and social and cultural dimensions. Finally, this study offers a comprehensive framework depicting how the critical success factors impact or drive DevOps success.