In this blog, I want to discuss what we’re predicting in the area of DevOps for 2020 and, as a bonus, provide a sneak peek at some other DevOps trends that we’ll certainly be digging into in 2020.

In 2020, firms' release frequency will decrease by 5%

So what are we forecasting for DevOps this year? While our full report is here, here are three predictions:

  • Chaos engineering as a controls strategy. Yes, you read that right. This crazy “chaos” thing meeting the staid world of governance, risk, and compliance? Yes, because, in fact, that’s what chaos engineering excels at: identifying risk in systems that are too complex to feasibly test in other ways. We’ve been using the concept of “environment” to contain risk, and “testing in production” is one of the worst things a team can be accused of. But what happens when it’s no longer feasible to fully test in pre-production environments? A brave new world awaits.
  • Business value will overtake velocity as a favored metric. Currently, DevOps teams tend to measure velocity, but business value is a close second. This will change in 2020. The divide between IT and the business is shrinking, and business results will increasingly overrule any proxy metrics. As valuable as velocity may be, it is still just a proxy.
  • Tools will emerge to help developers keep pace. The new digital operating model has a different approach to staffing. Instead of focusing on skill sets, there’s a growing recognition that team cohesion is an essential quality, and moving people on and off teams should not be done casually. This leads to a renewed emphasis on continuous learning within the context of the team. But learning new development technologies via traditional offline methods is difficult, especially while also trying to perform daily tasks. As companies emphasize continuous team learning (so that teams don’t have to be continuously reorganized), new tools will come to the rescue in 2020 to help developers pull in “just enough” learning while creating software.

Other predictions in our full report address the new vertical market DevOps is gaining traction in and the problem of stuck or even declining release frequency across the industry.

Looking forward to an exciting 2020! Keep us posted on what you are seeing.

To learn more predictions from Forrester’s DevOps team, download Forrester’s Predictions 2020 guide to understand the major dynamics that will impact firms next year.