Agile Vs DevSecOps: Understanding Differences

Understanding the Differences Between Agile & DevSecOps

Agile and DevSecOps are two different frameworks for the delivery process. They are one of the most popular and commonly used methodologies adopted by industries worldwide. These two processes work independently as well as in unison.

Both methodologies of software development have a lot in common. Agile improves the delivery process and encourages changes for better product delivery, while DevSecOps improves the delivery outcomes through enhanced engineering and automation tools, and continuous collaboration of the development, security, and operation teams towards continuous development and delivery.

Agile and DevSecOps more than processes are a mindset. Organizations need to implement them in a way that teams following these processes need to be clear with the working model. This will help them in working effectively in a collaborative environment resulting in fast and better outcomes.

Certain organizations opt for both processes, while some follow only one. Keep reading through to know each of the methodologies better and also the similarities and differences between the two. It will help you in making better decisions for your organization.

What is Agile Methodology?

Agile is a process involved in software development that focuses on agility and flexibility. It is a collection of iterative steps that are necessary for project development, and less important steps like documentation take a backseat. This helps developers focus on the mainstream task making the development and delivery of the software faster.

The agile software development process encourages the teams to work simultaneously on the software development and testing instead of waiting for each team to complete its task and then move forward to the next development phase (as was the case with the waterfall model).

It helps keep track of different phases of development easier, without compromising the speed, facilitating developers to focus on creating software faster.

While the software is in the development phase, it moves through testing at various points. This is done to ensure that the best product reaches the clients in the shortest time. For that reason, it is one of the most popular methodologies of software product development.

What is DevSecOps Methodology?

Like the agile development process, the goal of DevSecOps is also to develop software applications in less time, while maintaining speed and quality. DevSecOps moves one step ahead of the agile methodology by introducing the aspect of security before the deployment.

TDevSecOps methodology encourages teams to work in collaboration. This helps in breaking the communication silos within the software developers, security testing, and operation teams, making the development and deployment process faster.

Integrating security in the DevOps process before the delivery also helps in saving time, energy, and resources for the organization as the software already goes through various software tests before the deployment.

In most cases, DevSecOps is used in conjunction with the agile methodology. This helps organizations increase the efficiency of project development, deployment, and delivery.

You can also read about DevSecOps methodology, its benefits, and the security tools commonly used by organizations here.

Agile Vs DevSecOps: Similarities

Agile and DevSecOps share similar values and principles. They have a strong emphasis on eliminating communication gaps within different teams and building a collaborative environment. This keeps the workflow smooth and increases the speed of the development and delivery process.

DevSecOps teams require Agile teams to implement the development activities while Agile needs DevSecOps principles of culture, automation, and sharing.

Agile and DevSecOps teams work together to deliver secure and reliable products to organizations.

There are various software testing tools available in the market that delivers great results but here it’s not about tools and automation. When these two methodologies are implemented during the SDLC process, they bring in their mindset, culture, and understanding within the teams working together. This improves the overall process like faster software delivery through the use of continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) processes, continuous improvement, collaborative environment, and minimal silos.

Agile Vs DevSecOps: Understanding the Difference

Considering Agile and DevSecOps as rivals or competitors will be an inaccurate statement. These are the most widely used processes for successful software development. These are very similar methods and both contain elements of each other. An agile environment can easily work in accordance with DevSecOps.

However, since these two methods are widely popular in the software industry, let us discuss and see what makes them unique.

Agile focuses on agility and flexibility while DevSecOps keeps the security aspect in the center during the SDLC. Incorporating both as a part of the process will fill in the gaps where one of the methods lags.

Agile is sometimes seen as a mindset as organizations need to promote a cultural shift within their development, operation, project management, and product development teams to adopt the agile methodology. On the other hand, DevSecOps is considered a shift in core methodology.

As security is one of the major part of any software development process. Agile implements security in the later stages of development while in the case of DevSecOps, the software is tested for security at the very initial stage. The two processes differ by when, where, and who implements the security in the SDLC process.

Both processes incorporate synergistic practices, like the CI/ CD (Continuous Improvement/ Continuous Deployment), that support frequent testing, and version control, with the help of various automated tools and strategies. It reduces the risk after deployment as the code moves through several testing phases, saving organizations from higher testing costs after deployment. It also reduces the efforts of the team as the errors or loopholes are identified and rectified in the early stages of the SDLC.

Conclusion

Now that you have read in-depth about both methodologies and you also know the similarities and differences between Agile and DevSecOps, it will now be easier to take a decision about the working process within the teams for the development and delivery processes.

One important aspect I would like to cover here. Since both processes are similar to each other and encourage teams to work in collaboration in order to deliver fast and reliable products but these two mainly require a change in mindset to make an effective cultural shift within teams involved in the entire process.

Also, it is essential that the company uses both Agile and DevSecOps principles as you can implement Agile without using DevSecOps but you cannot implement DevSecOps without the Agile process.

The DevSecOps principles like CI/CD integration, version control, frequent code testing with automation tools, and continuous feedback and changes minimized any risk and make the deployment process faster. It is great for your business as you will save your time and money through enhanced operations, and less rework and the projects will be delivered in lesser time..

If you are looking forward to implementing DevSecOps for your organization, here is great news for you. ITTStar is here to help you with the same.

If you still have some questions related to DevSecOps practices, we will be happy to help. You can reach out to us with our contact form and we will revert within 24 hours.

ITTStar also provides software solutions. Our services range from AI/ML automation, providing analytics and insights, application development, and cloud services. We can also help you with Amazon web services providing reliable and scalable cloud computing solutions.

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