Implementing the Planning Process within DevOps Teams to Achieve Continuous Innovation

Integrating business capabilities into software development projects is still a major challenge for organizations. New ways of working are appearing in response to react to novel market places. Hence, there are more and more business managers with good IT knowledge; thus, software developers need to understand business processes. Hence, the relationship between software development, operations, and business strategy needs to be enhanced. For collecting customer perspectives in IT projects, new approaches like DevOps and BizDevOps are being used. The customer view can be integrated within software development teams through the planning processes. Our findings show that continuous innovation mechanisms are connected with the planning of customer requirements. We present planning scalability, security, and quality as rich descriptions of continuous innovation. Furthermore, we present core categories of how the customer perspectives can be integrated within a DevOps team and insights on how planning areas influence the continuous innovation mechanisms

Factors that Influence the Synergy between Development and IT Operations in a DevOps Environment

Software development processes have been associated with severe conflicts between the development and operations teams. The problems further worsened by the occasional performance of activities such as planning, testing, integration, and releases. Many developing software development concepts reveal attempts to address these challenges. For instance, continuous integration is a practice that has emerged to reduce disconnects between development and IT operational deployments. In a comparable thread, the current emphasis on DevOps acknowledges that the integration between software development and its operational deployment needs to be a continuous whole. Problems involving the integration of software development and operations require positive synergy within DevOps teams. Team synergy brings about team effectiveness and performance as well as creating opportunities for innovation. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that influence team synergy between the development and operations teams in a DevOps environment. The researcher conducted a case study at one of South Africa's leading information and communication technology services providers. Thirteen participants were interviewed to provide insight into the research questions. Interviews were conducted at the premises of the participating organization in Cape Town. The participants in the study preferred pseudonyms instead of their actual names to preserve anonymity. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. During the analysis of the transcribed data, themes and categories were identified. The themes and categories that emerged from the data sources were aligned to the theoretical framework. The findings from this study describe enabling and inhibiting factors that influence the synergy between development and operations teams in a DevOps environment. Recognizing that DevOps teams face several challenges, the factors identified in this study provide insights into how organizations can influence the build and motivate their DevOps teams to achieve team synergy. The contribution to DevOps research is the application of a theoretical framework that suggests the importance of team social capital dimensions in the formation of team synergy. Based on its findings, this study recommends that further investigation and improvement on strategies to mitigate the factors that inhibit the dimensions of team social capital and prevent team synergy in a DevOps environment. The study also recommends a more detailed and practical demonstration to validate the value of the theoretical framework and continue to improve or extend it. This study revealed that DevOps teams operate in a complex and dynamic environment with many stakeholders and complex technical infrastructure. Based on this outcome, the study also suggests that future studies can take a different approach to create a different perspective on the synergy between DevOps teams by focusing on the behavior of the actors and complex problematic situations involving social activities

Organisational culture analysis: A case study in Case Company X

This research analysed the type of organisational culture that occurs in Case Company X, particularly in Unit A, by using designed survey, which is based on certain theory and objectives. Case Company X is an international organisation, which focuses on information technology and software engineering, scaling up to data, cloud services, and automation. Unit A itself will be the subject of this research and for this certain unit, a designed survey was sent to its employees. Survey was designed based on Westrum’s organisational culture theory and its theoretical framework, and objectives of Unit A have been taken into account as well. Quantitative research is conducted, and the data received from survey is being statistically analysed. The main objective is to form quantitative information from the data obtained from the survey and draw conclusions and answer the research question and hypothesis of this research. The hypothesis is that it is possible to analyse the current organisational culture situation by conducting a designed survey based on Westrum’s theory. The survey was initially conducted by using simple random sampling method and it was sent to 815 employees in Unit A, via email. The response time for answering the survey is set to three weeks. A total of 165 employees out of 815 employees answered to the survey and a quantitative analysis was conducted on the basis of these. The survey was designed in a way that the employee can choose if employee itself have worked for more than a year or less in Unit A. With this, it was possible to see in the survey data how the response group is distributed according to the years of work. The survey is based on a Likert-scaling, values distributing from 1 to 7. A value of 1 means “strongly disagree” and a value of 7 means “strongly agree”. The data obtained from the survey was quantitatively analysed by using Excel’s mean, median, and bar chart -functions. SPSS software’s descriptive statistics, T test for independent samples, paired samples T test and Spearman’s correlation -functions were used. Quantitative data were collected on the basis of statistical data samples and tests, and conclusions were based on it. The research showed that the survey, based on Westrum’s theory and theoretical framework, has provided data that makes it possible to analyse the current organisational and cultural situation in Unit A. The Westrum’s theoretical framework divides organisational culture into three typologies which are pathological, bureaucratic, and generative. Using statistically analysed data, it was possible to draw a preliminary conclusion about the organisational culture, which revealed that the culture of unit A is based on generative culture typology. Based on the other statistical analyses, it was possible to observe that there was no statistically significant difference between the responses of the respondents and that the correlation between same paired questions was strong, but the correlation between same themed questions was weak.Tässä tutkimuksessa analysoitiin kyselytutkimuksella, millaista organisaatiokulttuuria esiintyy tapausyrityksessä X, eritoten yksikössä A. Tätä tutkittiin kyselyllä, joka perustui Westrumin teoriaan. Teoria tarjoaa viitekehyksen, jonka mukaan organisaatioita on mahdollista arvioida. Tapausyritys X on liiketoiminnallisesti kansainvälinen organisaatio, joka keskittyy informaatioteknologiaan skaalautuen dataan, pilvipalveluihin ja automaatioon. Itse yksikkö A tulee olemaan tässä tarkastelun kohteena ja tälle yksikölle toteutettiin tämä tutkimus ja teetetty kysely. Kyselyn suunnittelussa Westrumin organisaatiokulttuurinen teoria, siihen liittyvä viitekehys, sekä yksikkö A:n tavoitteet on otettu huomioon. Päätavoitteena on muodostaa kyselystä saadusta datasta kvantitatiivista dataa, jonka avulla on mahdollista tehdä johtopäätöksiä ja vastata tutkimuskysymykseen ja hypoteesiin. Hypoteesi on se, että on mahdollista toteuttaa kysely, joka perustuu Westrumin organisaatiokulttuuriseen teoriaan, ja saamaan dataa työntekijöiltä, jonka avulla on mahdollista analysoida tilannetta organisaatiokulttuurin näkökulmasta. Eritoten tätä tilannetta on analysoitu yksikkö A:ssa. Kyselyä toteutettaessa käytettiin alkuun yksinkertaista satunnaisotantaa ja kysely lähetettiin 815 työntekijälle, jotka työskentelevät yksikkö A:ssa, sähköpostin välityksellä. Vastausaikaa kyselylle oli kolme viikkoa. Vastauksia saatiin 165 kappaletta ja näiden pohjalta kvantitatiivinen analyysi toteutettiin. Kysely oli suunniteltu niin, että vastaaja voi valita, onko työskennellyt yli vuoden vaiko alle vuoden yksikkö A:ssa. Tämän avulla kyselyssä oli mahdollista havaita, miten vastausjoukko jakautuu työvuosien perusteella. Kyselyssä käytettiin Likert-skaalaa, jonka asteikko on 1–7. Arvo 1 tarkoittaa ”täysin eri mieltä” ja arvo 7 tarkoittaa ”täysin samaa mieltä”. Kyselystä saatu data kvantitatiivisesti analysoitiin käyttämällä Excelin keskiarvo, mediaani ja pylväsdiagrammi -funktioita. SPSS ohjelmassa käytettiin funktioita kuten kuvaavaa tilastoa, riippumattomien näytteiden T testiä, parinäytteen T testiä ja Spearmanin korrelaatiotestiä. Kvantitatiivinen data, joka on kerätty tilastollisten näytteiden ja testien pohjalta, juurtavat johtopäätöksiä tutkimuksen lopuksi. Tutkimus osoitti sen, että kysely, perustuen Westrumin teoriaan ja teoreettiseen viitekehykseen, on antanut dataa, jonka perusteella on mahdollista analysoida nykyistä organisaatiokulttuurin tilaa yksikkö A:ssa. Westrumin teoreettinen viitekehys jakaa organisaatiokulttuurin kolmeen typologiaan; patologiseen, byrokraattiseen ja generatiiviseen. Tilastollisesti analysoidun datan avulla oli mahdollista juurtaa alustava johtopäätös organisaatiokulttuurista, joka toi ilmi, että yksikkö A:n kulttuuri sijoittuu generatiiviseen kulttuurimuotoon. Tilastollisen analyysin perusteella oli myös mahdollista huomata, että vastausjoukkojen vastauksien välillä ei ollut tilastollisesti merkittävää eroa ja korrelaatiot kysymysten välillä olivat vahvat

Investigation on the Future of Enterprise Architecture in Dynamic Environments

En la economía actual, el cambio constante se ha convertido en la nueva normalidad. Las consecuencias de este desarrollo son vívidamente visibles. La dinámica en los entornos corporativos está aumentando y las empresas que no se adapten a las condiciones cambiantes serán menos exitosas y finalmente acabarán en cierre. Mientras el desarrollo y la mejora de las capacidades de adaptación para tener éxito en los entornos dinámicos requieren el trabajo conjunto de muchas partes dentro de la empresa, la Arquitectura Empresarial (Enterprise Architecture - EA) puede suponer una parte vital al habilitar y guiar a distintos elementos organizacionales para ser más efectivos en entornos dinámicos. Sin embargo, para poder hacerlo, la EA necesita transformarse a sí misma. Esta tesis ofrece resultados que describen cómo la EA puede ser efectiva en entornos dinámicos. Los resultados se han estructurado de acuerdo con las siguientes cuatro áreas. Primero, se presenta una revisión del estado del arte sobre EA, en el que se describe el desarrollo de la disciplina a lo largo de las últimas tres décadas. Desde el análisis, es evidente que el enfoque de la investigación de EA se ha movido desde la comprensión y la definición de la EA hacia gestionar eficazmente la disciplina en entornos empresariales complejos. Las partes posteriores de esta tesis ponen énfasis en la gestión efectiva de la EA también al proporcionar enfoques de EA para circunstancias específicas, es decir, entornos con un mayor ritmo de cambio. En segundo lugar, esta tesis ofrece una descripción formal de cómo los efectos del ritmo creciente de cambio influyen en la efectividad de la EA. El resultado primario de esta parte es un modelo, basado en la teoría de la complejidad, que resume las siguientes dependencias: El ritmo creciente del cambio conduce a una mayor complejidad dinámica para EA ya que existe la necesidad de administrar partes que están cambiando más y más rápido. Esta complejidad debe considerarse desde un punto de vista de negocio y tecnológico. En el modelo final, La complejidad dinámica de negocios y tecnológica se consideran como factores contextuales, los cuales influyen en el uso correcto de la EA y, en consecuencia, la efectividad de la disciplina. Tercero, se presenta una colección de enfoques para mejorar la efectividad de la EA en ambientes dinámicos. Estos están estructurados en torno a cuatro dimensiones: la competencia EA, la cual considera quién en la organización está trabajando en EA; la metodología EA, que considera cómo se ejecuta EA en la organización; el contenido de EA, que considera la salida de EA; EA Tools que considera con qué EA está siendo creado y mantenido. Cuarto, la parte final de esta tesis presenta los resultados en forma de arquitectura de referencia para EA en entornos dinámicos. Los enfoques de EA son nuevamente estructurados de acuerdo con las dimensiones descritas anteriormente. La arquitectura de referencia se describe en el nivel de los enfoques individuales, así como en el nivel de dimensión. En resumen, la competencia EA debe integrarse bien en la empresa. Además de esto, la metodología EA debe estar alineada con prácticas ágiles que permitan decisiones arquitectónicas rápidas. El contenido EA resultante debe ser adaptativo, lo que significa que la arquitectura se puede ajustar fácilmente en caso de que sea necesario. Por último, los arquitectos y otras partes interesadas de EA deberían recibir el soporte de las modernas herramientas de EA. Esta tesis muestra que el objetivo subyacente de EA, en concreto, asegurar la alineación de diferentes facetas dentro de la empresa, incluso en las condiciones cambiantes de hoy en día, sigue siendo necesario. Sin embargo, los arquitectos trabajando en entornos dinámicos deberían revisar las dimensiones descritas (¿quién? - ¿cómo? - ¿qué? - ¿con qué?) en su práctica de la EA para seguir siendo efectivos. Con sus resultados, esta tesis presenta una guía para profesionales para que puedan tomar decisiones adecuadas y así optimizar la efectividad de la EA en entornos dinámicos. Al mismo tiempo, esta tesis contribuye al conocimiento académico sobre EA. Los modelos y enfoques presentados abordan la brecha con respecto al enfoque holístico actual de la EA en entornos dinámicos. Además, esta tesis señala diversas áreas que brindan oportunidades para futuras investigaciones. Se espera que estas inspirarán a investigadores a impulsar aún más la evolución de la EA desde el punto de vista académico.Administración y Dirección de Empresa

Agile Portfolio Management : A Case Study from the Insurance Sector

Nowadays, the increasing uncertainty and instability brought by new competitors and ways of doing business make it crucial for traditional companies to become more agile and able to act fast on consumer needs and expectations. However, this is traditionally not an easy task for many insurance companies as they typically operate with functional and hierarchical organizations that only enable them to succeed in more stable environments. On the other hand, many companies are strengthening their planning methodologies by implementing Portfolio Management models. These models enable them to manage their ini-tiatives in a more integrated and efficient manner that is strategically aligned, minimizes com-plexity, and provides higher flexibility when responding to uncertainty. In this sense, a case study was developed in Fidelidade, a leading insurance group oper-ating in the Portuguese market, to study how Agile and Portfolio Management practices can be conciliated in the traditional insurance industry. This case study was divided into three major parts. First, there was a literature review on the best practices of Agile Portfolio Management in the insurance industry. After that, the data collected was used to design a new Agile Portfolio Management model, the ABP - Annual Business Planning. Finally, the model was implemented in Fidelidade and evaluated. The results collected during the implementation of the model in the insurance company confirmed its success with 96% of the participants feeling satisfied with it. Moreover, a survey confirmed that the ABP fostered a greater strategic alignment (score of 4,2 out of 5), increased the organization's focus (score of 4,2/5), promoted a greater transversal alignment and visibility (score of 4,2/5), and improved the capacity coordination between units (score of 3,9/5).Os dias de hoje caracterizam-se por uma crescente incerteza e instabilidade provocada pelo contínuo surgimento de novos concorrentes e formas de fazer negócio. Assim, é essencial que empresas tradicionais se tornem cada vez mais ágeis e capazes de agir rapidamente às necessidades e expectativas dos seus consumidores. No entanto, esta não costuma ser uma tarefa fácil para muitas seguradoras que tradicionalmente possuem organizações funcionais e hierárquicas que apenas lhes permitem ter sucesso em ambientes mais estáveis. Por outro lado, muitas empresas têm vindo a fortalecer as suas metodologias de plane-amento ao implementarem modelos de Gestão de Portfólios. Estes modelos permitem a ges-tão de iniciativas de uma maneira mais integrada e eficiente, que assegura o alinhamento es-tratégico, minimiza a complexidade e garante uma maior flexibilidade. Neste sentido, foi desenvolvido um estudo de caso na Fidelidade, um grupo segurador líder no mercado português, para investigar de que forma as práticas Agile e de Gestão de Portfólio podem ser conciliadas no setor segurador. Este estudo de caso foi dividido em três etapas principais. Primeiramente, realizou-se uma revisão de literatura sobre as melhores práticas de Gestão de Portfólios Agile no setor segurador. Em seguida, os dados recolhidos foram utilizados para desenhar o novo modelo de Gestão de Portfólios Agile. Por fim, o modelo foi implementado na Fidelidade e avaliado. Os resultados recolhidos durante a implementação do modelo na empresa seguradora confirmaram o seu sucesso, com 96% dos participantes a sentirem-se satisfeitos com o mesmo. Mais ainda, um inquérito confirmou que o ABP promoveu um maior alinhamento estratégico (pontuação de 4,2 em 5), aumentou o foco da organização (pontuação de 4,2/5), fomentou um maior alinhamento e visibilidade transversal (pontuação de 4,2/5), e melhorou a capacidade de coordenação entre as áreas da organização (pontuação de 3,9/5)

The organizational culture influence as a mediator between training development and employee performance in Iraqi Academic sector: University of Middle Technical

Employee performance is a critical issue for organizations especially in academic sector. It undermines the efficiency and productivity of the organization. There is a need of looking at factors that affect this behavior of the workforce. Therefore, this study focuses on the relationship of training development variables which are Perceived availability of training, Motivation to learn from training and Individual characteristic with organizational culture and employee performance in academic settings. This paper also determines whether organizational culture mediates the relationship between training development and employee performance. To have empirical evidence about these relationships, data will be collected from academic staff employed at public sector universities of Iraq using self- administered questionnaire. The collected will be analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Confirmatory factor analysis using Social Science Statistics Package (SPSS) version 23.0 to measure the relationship between variables and to test the hypotheses related to this study. This study contributes to body of knowledge by investigating the relationship of training development with workplace attitudes incorporating constructs of training development, organizational culture effect and employee performance using one comprehensive research framework. This paper will give an enhancement to the policy makers in higher education sector about the availability of training development opportunities which affect the performance of academic staff and in turn affect the effectiveness of universities as well

Interplay between Technology and Culture in Driving Change for Employee Satisfaction

Technology and society have been in constant interplay since the early man’s invention of simple tools. Among modern interplays are e-press, digital technologies, and the internet of things (IoT). Based on a critical review of existing literature, the study investigated how organizational culture is driving employee’s actions to embrace change through technological innovation, and how this interplay result to organizational competitiveness. The study used qualitative design to collect data, which was manually analyzed using the researcher’s insight and research skills to bring out the main themes. After analysis, the study found that technology is a key driver of innovation, and innovation is an enabler for organizations’ to consistently achieve superior performance. In organizations, technological innovation and culture interact to influence organizational behavior which drives economic change, productivity and long term growth. When embraced by organizational employees, technological innovation can lead to high employee performance. The study concludes that people through culture shift, have adopted technological innovation for their organizational superior performance. The study recommends that governments train their organizations and help them buy technologies in form of digital computers and Information Communication Technologies for connecting individuals, promotion of values, mutual respect, and innovation

Public Innovation and Digital Transformation

Public innovation and digitalization are reshaping organizations and society in various ways and within multiple fields, as innovations are essential in transforming our world and addressing global sustainability and development challenges. This book addresses the fascinating relationship of these two contemporary topics and explores the role of digital transformation in promoting public innovation. This edited collection includes examples of innovations that emerge suddenly, practices for processing innovations, and the requirements for transformation from innovation to the "new normal". Acknowledging that public innovation refers to the development and realization of new and creative ideas that challenge conventional wisdom and disrupt the established practices within a specific context, expert contributions from international scholars explore and illustrate the various activities that are happening in the world of multiple digitalization opportunities. The content covers public administration, technical and business management, human, social, and future sciences, paying attention to the interaction between public and private sectors to utilize digitalization in order to facilitate public innovation. This timely book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of technology and innovation management, as well as knowledge management, public service management and administration.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Public Innovation and Digital Transformation

Public innovation and digitalization are reshaping organizations and society in various ways and within multiple fields, as innovations are essential in transforming our world and addressing global sustainability and development challenges. This book addresses the fascinating relationship of these two contemporary topics and explores the role of digital transformation in promoting public innovation. This edited collection includes examples of innovations that emerge suddenly, practices for processing innovations, and the requirements for transformation from innovation to the ""new normal"". Acknowledging that public innovation refers to the development and realization of new and creative ideas that challenge conventional wisdom and disrupt the established practices within a specific context, expert contributions from international scholars explore and illustrate the various activities that are happening in the world of multiple digitalization opportunities. The content covers public administration, technical and business management, human, social, and future sciences, paying attention to the interaction between public and private sectors to utilize digitalization in order to facilitate public innovation. This timely book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of technology and innovation management, as well as knowledge management, public service management and administration