A large number of organizations across Hong Kong (80 percent) agree that Agile and DevOps are critical to successful digital transformation, according to results from a new CA Technologies global study on Agile and DevOps practices.
The study, Accelerating Velocity and Customer Value with Agile and DevOps, polled 1,770 senior business and IT executives worldwide, with 799 from across Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) region including Hong Kong, about their attitudes and use of Agile and DevOps practices and the impact they have on the business.
“The Hong Kong market is fiercely competitive. Companies are evolving with increasing focus on customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. It’s overwhelmingly clear that digital transformation needs to be embraced by every business for future readiness,” said SK Cheung, director, Hong Kong, CA Technologies.
“Our research has shown that organizations are very much aware of the fact that they have to be ‘built to change’ – to be agile enough to adapt to changing market environments - if they are to win in today’s application economy.
“However, we have found that advanced implementation of Agile and DevOps is at very low levels among Hong Kong companies, who cited a lack of skills and in-house knowledge (52 percent) and corporate culture (40 percent) as top obstacles, respectively.”
With the study showing a direct correlation between technology and tools and real business benefits, organizations across APJ and in Hong Kong have much to gain from broadly implementing Agile and DevOps – particularly if they go a step further and combine them by adding DevOps to an Agile environment.
Better Business Results
The Hong Kong surveyed firms confirmed that Agile and DevOps are vital to successful digital transformation. This reflects the positive impact both practices have on business performance as shown by the study:
- Improved employee productivity ( 43 percent for Agile users;37 percent for DevOps users)
- Improved operational efficiency (36 percent for Agile Users and 40 percent for DevOps users)
- Improved IT-related costs (33 percent for Agile users and 38 percent for DevOps users)
While both Agile and DevOps improved business results, the study also showed that combining both practices enhanced the positive impact even further.
Compared to those companies that only use Agile methodologies, the surveyed organizations in APJ that have adopted both Agile and DevOps demonstrated:
- Improved new business growth by an additional 86 percent;
- Improved operational efficiency by an additional 65 percent; and
- Improved IT-related costs by an additional 135 percent over Agile-only environments
Happy Employees Result in Happy Customers
When adding DevOps practices to an Agile working environment, APJ users found:
- A further increase of 27 percent in employee productivity;
- Improved customer satisfaction by an additional 59 percent; and
- 78 percent of users who paired Agile and DevOps reported an increase in customer experience, versus 53 percent of Agile-only users
In fact, 76 percent of companies in APJ that used Agile and DevOps together showed an advantage in employee recruitment and retention, compared to 48 percent for Agile only – a huge benefit when you consider the costs associated with attracting and retaining the best talent.
“The results from our study are clear – pairing the DevOps paradigm with Agile practices gives organizations of all sizes a competitive advantage with increases in employee productivity and satisfaction that results in a loyal customer base,” said Cheung.
“Embracing a combined approach reduces cycle times and ensures that execution is aligned to strategy, ultimately, for customer benefit.”
Scaling Beyond IT
The benefits of Agile and DevOps adoption extend far beyond the purview of IT. The wider benefits available to the surveyed organizations in Hong Kong that embraced these practices across the organization experienced:
- A 36 percent improvement in time-to-decision (the time to act on new opportunities) due to Agile;A 34 percent and 38 percent improvement in speed-to-market for Agile users and DevOps users respectively;
- Improvement in customer experience (witnessed by 56 percent of Agile adopters, and 64 percent of DevOps users)