DevOps, a portmanteau of Development and Operations, is the collection of principles and practices that try to improve cooperation between IT Development and IT Operations teams in the software development domain. The DevOps paradigm, thus, promises to overcome the traditional boundaries between development and operations teams and to improve collaboration across teams through a culture that is conducive to shared goals and accountability.
Responding to the recent call for a better understanding of DevOps Knowledge Management (KM), this study aims to explore the role of knowledge management in advancing DevOps performance outcomes. Toward this, the study adopts a practice perspective of KM, and aims to answer the following research questions: 1) What are the enablers of KM practices in DevOps teams? 2) What are the distinctive characteristics of KM practices that underpin positive DevOps performance outcomes?
Using an inductive research design and qualitative data collection and analysis procedures, this study followed a multiple case study approach, and collected and analyzed data from nine in-depth interviews with DevOps professionals across three organizations. Using grounded theory coding procedures, an emergent theoretical model of DevOps KM is presented and discussed, along with various propositions that outline how DevOps teams acquire, capture, share and apply knowledge, and how their KM practices can drive positive DevOps performance.
Key insights from this study indicate that technology leaders need to foster greater awareness about the significance of KM in DevOps teams. This can be done by highlighting challenges associated with a lack of effective KM practices, and best practices followed by other companies. Furthermore, DevOps teams should adopt a mix of people-centered and technology-centered KM practices that enable effective personalization and codification of knowledge. Lastly, DevOps managers need to encourage alternative-bridging KM practices through regular use of KM tools and features within DevOps technologies while investing in dedicated knowledge sharing platforms.
Through a discussion of the enablers of KM practices in DevOps; typical configuration of people-centered, technology-centered, and alternative-bridging KM practices in DevOps; and the linkages between KM practices and DevOps performance outcomes, this study aims to contribute to the extant research literature on DevOps KM, and provide practical guidelines for institutionalizing KM practices that can support the fast-paced nature of DevOps teams.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/40585 |
| Date | 03 June 2020 |
| Creators | Solouki, Soha |
| Contributors | Ruhi, Umar, Lessard, Lysanne |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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