Granted, there are business models like Netflix and Uber that are truly disruptive in both product and process, but they remain rare exceptions within the context of the global business community. For every masterclass in speed and fluidity, offered up by the likes Adobe and Amazon Web Services, there are thousands more akin to the more traditional 'assembly line' movement. This disparity has drawn attention to one important teaching:
A small handful of highly-engineered product releases per year is no match for the beta release strategy, spinning up hundreds of apps and features every quarter.
"Today, it's about short sprints, quick releases and imperfect betas. It's about fast fail or rapid scale – the market ultimately deciding your product's destiny. It's about adopting a more agile practice, fit for the modern business landscape. Enter DevOps."
While production specialisation extolled the virtues of ruthless efficiency in HenryFord's day, it now acts as a physical and psychological drag on the modern enterprise and its workforce. And that's because the waiting game is over. The era of cloud computing, remote working and over-the-air updates has dulled the end user's feeling of excitement and anticipation for every 'full fat' new product release. Today, it’s about short sprints, quick releases and imperfect betas. It’s about fast fail or rapid scale – the market ultimately deciding your product’s destiny. It’s about adopting a more agile practice, fit for the modern business landscape. Enter DevOps.