DevOps or die: Why companies must transform software delivery

Stephan Swart.

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DVT, a global custom software development and data engineering company, hosted a DVT Insights webinar on 5 September, featuring Fractional CTO Stephan Swart. The "DevOps or Die" session explored why DevOps practices are no longer optional but essential for successful software delivery.

To complement the insights shared in the webinar, DVT announced the launch of its one-day in-person DevOps Foundation Training Course via the DVT Academy, with Swart as the lead trainer.

Swart, an expert in DevOps implementation with extensive experience across multiple sectors, delivered an engaging talk that traced the evolution of DevOps, highlighting its critical role in accelerating software delivery and improving organisational performance. 

He emphasised the need for organisations to break down silos between development, operations and security teams to streamline processes and deliver value to users more frequently and reliably.

"DevOps is not just a buzzword or a trend," says Swart. "It's a necessity for survival in today's software development landscape." His words reflect the growing sentiment across industries: without DevOps, businesses risk falling behind in an increasingly competitive market.

For decades, enterprises have relied on a waterfall model to manage their software development processes. In this approach, development and operations teams worked independently. Developers focused on building software, while operations were responsible for deploying and managing it. This divide often led to delayed releases, poor communication, and frequent errors during deployment. The lack of synergy meant development cycles were slow and operational failures were frequent.

"What I've seen in the industry is that deployment becomes this massive batch of work that we try to push through all at once," explains Swart. "This often leads to painful deployments, especially if things go wrong — like deploying on a Friday evening and spending the entire weekend fixing issues." 

This bottleneck is common in large enterprises where multiple teams work on separate project stages without effective collaboration.

This outdated model struggles to keep pace with today's rapid changes, where customer demands and business priorities shift constantly. In contrast, enterprises that have embraced DevOps are deploying updates faster and with fewer errors.

DevOps bridges the gap between development and operations by encouraging collaboration and continuous feedback. It integrates automated testing, continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) into the development cycle, ensuring software is built faster and deployed reliably. This shift enables enterprises to push smaller, more frequent updates to their software, reducing risk and improving overall agility.

"DevOps focuses on smaller, more frequent deployments," says Swart. "This reduces the likelihood of errors and ensures quicker recovery times if something does go wrong." This proactive approach contrasts sharply with traditional methods, which often involved large, risky deployments that could take weeks — or even months — to fix if they failed.

Swart emphasises that DevOps isn't just about deploying faster; it's about reducing team friction and creating a unified approach to software delivery. "True DevOps success comes from aligning development, operations and business teams. It's about shared responsibility for software delivery rather than handing it off from one team to the next."

For enterprises looking to stay competitive, the benefits of DevOps are clear. Swart points to several advantages during his DVT Insights talk:

• Faster time-to-market

DevOps enables enterprises to deploy updates and new features much faster. "The days of waiting six months to deploy a new feature are over," says Swart. "With DevOps, you're pushing value to your users in a matter of days, sometimes even hours." This rapid delivery model allows businesses to meet customer demands and respond to real-time market changes quickly.

• Improved software quality

Automation is at the heart of DevOps and is vital to improving software quality. Continuous testing ensures bugs and errors are caught early in development. According to Swart, enterprises that implement DevOps see significant improvements in both speed and quality.

"High-performing DevOps organisations have a 2 555 times faster lead time for changes and three times lower change failure rates," he notes, referencing the State of DevOps Report.

By catching issues before they reach production, companies can avoid costly downtime and reduce the risks of deploying new software.

• Collaboration and culture

DevOps fosters a collaborative environment where development, operations and security teams work together toward a common goal. This cultural shift breaks down the silos that have traditionally hindered enterprise software delivery. "Instead of isolated teams working on their priorities, DevOps encourages shared responsibility," says Swart. This shift toward cross-functional teams reduces friction and accelerates delivery timelines, leading to better outcomes for the business.

Adopting DevOps practices is not just a technical improvement — it's a strategic business decision. Enterprises that embrace DevOps are seeing significant competitive advantages. They can innovate faster, improve customer satisfaction and reduce operational costs.

Swart says: "The evidence is overwhelming — DevOps isn't just about making incremental improvements. It's about making dramatic shifts in how you deliver value to your customers."

One area where this is particularly clear is operational efficiency. By automating manual tasks such as testing, deployment and monitoring, DevOps frees up teams to focus on more strategic activities. This results in fewer outages and faster recovery times, dramatically lowering operational costs.

Security is often a concern for enterprises, especially as they adopt new technologies. Fortunately, DevOps has evolved to include DevSecOps, a practice that integrates security into every stage of the development process. This ensures security vulnerabilities are caught early, reducing the risk of breaches and compliance issues.

"By embedding security checks into the pipeline, DevSecOps ensures vulnerabilities are addressed before they ever reach production," Swart says. This proactive approach is increasingly critical as enterprises face growing cyber security threats.

Swart recommends starting small and scaling gradually for enterprises looking to implement DevOps. "You don't need to overhaul your entire operation overnight," he advises. "Start by introducing DevOps practices in a small team, prove the value, and then scale across the organisation."

Swart also emphasises the importance of tracking key metrics such as lead time for changes, deployment frequency and change failure rates. "These metrics help you understand how well your teams are doing and where improvements are needed," he explains.

DevOps has emerged as the future of software delivery for enterprises that want to stay agile, innovative and competitive. As more businesses embrace this transformative approach, those who cling to outdated practices will need help to keep up. Swart's message is clear: "In today's enterprise world, it's DevOps or die."

To watch the DVT Insights Webinar, click on this link: https://youtu.be/0SVjz-dCzrQ?si=9hkjpN1ZiAcXffnY

* Swart leads a tech leader coaching community and is looking for dynamic tech leaders, such as tech leads, development managers, CTOs and consultants, eager to learn from each other and grow together. To connect with Swart on LinkedIn, click on this link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanswart/