I last wrote about this annual report on 18th May with the opening of the 2015 DevOps Survey.

The results are in, compiled and the 2015 state of DevOps Report has been released from Puppet Labs and it can be downloaded from:

https://puppetlabs.com/2015-devops-report

Key findings  include: *

• High-performing IT organizations experience 60 times fewer failures and recover from failure 168 times faster than their lower-performing peers. They also deploy 30 times more frequently with 200 times shorter lead times. Failures are unavoidable, but how quickly you detect and recover from failure can mean the difference between leading the market and struggling to catch up with the competition.

• Lean management and continuous delivery practices create the conditions for delivering value faster, sustainably. Manufacturing was revolutionized by the application of lean principles in the 1980s. Today, it’s IT’s turn to go lean. When you apply lean management and continuous delivery practices to software delivery, you get the same results — higher quality, shorter cycle times with quicker feedback loops, and lower costs. And the benefits don’t stop there: These practices also contribute to creating a culture of learning and continuous improvement, lower levels of burnout, and higher organizational performance overall.

• It doesn’t matter if your apps are greenfield, brownfield or legacy — as long as they are architected with testability and deployability in mind, high performance is achievable. We were surprised to find that the type of system — whether it was a system of engagement or a system of record, packaged or custom, legacy or greenfield — is not significant. Continuous delivery can be applied to any system, provided it is architected correctly. We also found that high performers are more likely to use a microservices architecture, and less likely to outsource software development or run their software on mainframes.

• IT managers play a critical role in any DevOps transformation. This year’s report shows us how IT managers can help their teams win and lead their organizations through a DevOps transformation. Managers play a critical role in connecting the strategic objectives of the business to the work their teams do. Managers can do a lot to improve their team’s performance by ensuring work is not wasted and by investing in developing the capabilities of their people.

• Diversity matters. Research shows that teams with more women members have higher collective intelligence and achieve better business outcomes. Our survey shows that few teams are truly diverse with regard to gender. We recommend that teams wanting to achieve high performance do their best to recruit and retain more women, and improve diversity in other areas, too.

• Deployment pain can tell you a lot about your IT performance. Do you want to know how your team is doing? All you have to do is ask one simple question: “How painful are deployments?” We found that where code deployments are most painful, you’ll find the poorest IT performance, organizational performance and culture.

• Burnout can be prevented, and DevOps can help. Burnout is associated with pathological cultures and unproductive, wasteful work. The consequences of burnout are huge, both for individuals and for organizations. Organizations can fix the conditions that lead to burnout by fostering a supportive work environment and ensuring work is meaningful, and that employees understand how their own work ties to strategic objectives

*report findings taken from the 2015 State of DevOps Report