Context: To accelerate time-to-market and improve customer satisfaction, software-producing organizations have adopted continuous delivery practices, impacting the relations between development and infrastructure professionals. Yet, no substantial literature has substantially tackled how the software industry structures the organization of development and infrastructure teams. Objective: In this study, we investigate how software-producing organizations structure their development and infrastructure teams, specifically how is the division of labor among these groups and how they interact. Method: After brainstorming with 7 DevOps experts to better formulate our research and procedures, we collected and analyzed data from 37 semi-structured interviews with IT professionals, following Grounded Theory guidelines. Results: After a careful analysis, we identified four common organizational structures: (1) siloed departments, (2) classical DevOps, (3) cross-functional teams, and (4) platform teams. We also observed that some companies are transitioning between these structures. Conclusion: The main contribution of this study is a theory in the form of a taxonomy that organizes the found structures along with their properties. This theory could guide researchers and practitioners to think about how to better structure development and infrastructure professionals in software-producing organizations.
翻译:为了加快时间到市场和提高客户满意度,软件生产组织采取了持续交付做法,影响了发展和基础设施专业人员之间的关系,然而,没有实质性文献对软件行业如何组织发展和基础设施团队进行了实质性研究。目标:在本研究中,我们调查软件生产组织如何组织其发展和基础设施团队,特别是这些群体之间的分工及其互动方式。方法:在与7个DevOps专家集思广益以更好地制定我们的研究和程序之后,我们收集和分析了与信息技术专业人员进行的37次半结构性访谈中的数据,遵循了基础理论准则。结果:经过仔细分析,我们确定了四个共同的组织结构:(1) 分散的部门,(2) 古典DevOps,(3) 跨功能团队,(4) 平台团队。我们还注意到,有些公司正在这些结构之间过渡。结论:本研究的主要贡献是一种理论,其形式是组织发现的结构及其特性。这一理论可以指导研究人员和从业人员思考如何改进软件生产组织的发展和基础设施专业人员的结构。