Industrial DevOps
Lead Authors: Suzette Johnson, Robin Yeman
Industrial DevOps (IDO) extends Lean, Agile, and DevOps principles to the design, development, deployment, and sustainment of cyber-physical systems (CPS). As industries face increasing demands for faster delivery, greater resilience, and digital transformation, IDO offers a framework to improve collaboration, accelerate integration, and reduce risk in complex systems. This article synthesizes insights from practical implementations, principles, and advancements, including AI-enabled digital twins, to illustrate how organizations can build better systems faster.
Concepts
DevOps (development and operations) is a set of principles and practices which enable better communication and collaboration between relevant stakeholders for the purpose of specifying, developing, and operating software and systems, products and services, and continuous improvements in all aspects of the life cycle. (See ISO/IEC/IEEE 32675). Industrial DevOps applies lean, agile and DevOps principles to cyber-physical systems throughout their life cycles. Both are potential approaches to address the strategic aspects of SE agility.
Principles
The principles of Industrial DevOps and their associated benefits are outlined below in Table 1.
| Principle | Description | Benefit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Organize Around the Flow of Value | Organizing cross functionally around the product delivery value stream. | Reduces handoffs between organizations improving communication and delivery speed. |
| 2. | Apply Multiple Horizons of Planning | Links the short-term plans to long-term plans using regular business rhythms to adjust long-term plan based on empirical data. | Increase delivery predictability and reduce risk. |
| 3. | Implement Data-Driven Decisions | Use current observations and metrics to determine the state, manage the flow of work across systems of systems. | Increase transparency into product scope, schedule, cost and quality. |
| 4. | Architect for Change and Speed | Modular components with standardized interfaces. | Rapidly adapts to change. reducing the lead time and impact of change. |
| 5. | Manage Queues and Create Flow | Minimize work in progress and focus on smaller batch sizes. | Reduce bottlenecks and Increase delivery speed. |
| 6. | Establish Cadence /Synchronization | Put all teams and their work on the same synchronized cadence. | Enables shorter integration loops resulting in risk reduction. |
| 7. | Integrate Early and Often | Integrate products and resources using frequent integration points. | Faster feedback cycles and reduced risk. |
| 8. | Shift Left | Shifting left emphasizes a “test-first” mindset encompassing the multiple levels of testing across cyber-physical systems. | Reduced rework, built in quality resulting in increased delivery speed. |
| 9. | Adopt a Growth Mindset | Applying a growth mindset expresses the need to continuously learn. | Increased quality and innovation. |
Enabling practices
The enabling practices of Industrial DevOps (IDO) shown in the bulleted list below translate its core principles into actionable strategies that drive real-world implementation across complex, cyber-physical systems. These practices support the seamless integration of hardware and software development, enabling organizations to respond more rapidly to change, reduce delivery risk, and enhance product quality throughout the system lifecycle. As industrial systems face increasing demands for speed, adaptability, and resilience, these practices help bridge traditional silos between engineering disciplines, streamline workflows, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
From value stream management and test automation to the use of AI-enabled digital twins and infrastructure as code, these practices offer the tools and methods necessary to operationalize IDO. They not only improve technical execution but also support organizational transformation by aligning teams, automating compliance, and promoting agile program execution. Together, they form a foundation that empowers industrial enterprises to build better systems faster while maintaining the rigor and reliability required in high-stakes environments.
- Value Stream Management - Enables visualization and optimization of work from concept to deployment. It helps identify delays, waste, and inefficiencies across the full value stream.
- Integrated Digital Engineering (IDE) - Leverages digital models and simulations (such as digital twins) to support continuous integration and validation of both hardware and software systems.
- Agile Program Execution - Focuses on aligning multiple teams through program increment planning, system demos, and synchronized cadences to deliver value effectively and predictably.
- Test Automation and Virtualization - Includes test-first approaches, automated testing, and use of virtual environments to verify functionality early and continuously throughout the development cycle.
- Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD) - Enables teams to integrate, test, and release updates rapidly and safely, even in complex, safety-critical environments.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) - Uses code to manage and provision hardware and software infrastructure, enabling repeatable and reliable deployments.
- AI and Digital Twins - Supports predictive maintenance, performance optimization, and real-time decision-making by simulating the behavior of physical systems through digital replicas.
- Lean Governance and Compliance Automation - Applies automation and lean thinking to ensure that governance, regulatory, and security requirements are met without slowing delivery.
References
Works Cited
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-10. (2025 - Under Development). Systems and software engineering — Life cycle management. Part 10: Guidelines for systems engineering agility. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Available at https://www.iso.org/standard/90086.html.
ISO/IEC/IEEE 32675. 2022. Information technology — DevOps — Building reliable and secure systems including application build, package and deployment. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Available at https://www.iso.org/standard/83670.html.
Industrial DevOps Book
Primary References
None.
Additional References
Johnson, Suzette, and Robin Yeman. Industrial DevOps: Build better systems faster. IT Revolution, 2023
Johnson, S., LaFortune, D., Leffingwell, D., Koehnemann, H., Magill, S., Mayner, S., Ofer, A., Wallgren, A., Stroud, R., & Yeman, R. (2018). Industrial DevOps: Applying DevOps and Continuous Delivery to Significant Cyber-Physical Systems. IT Revolution.
Atwell, J., Grinnell, B., Johnson, S., Koehnemann, H., Yeman, R., (2019). Applied Industrial DevOps. IT Revolution
Crook, J., Johnson, S., Koehnemann, H., Shupack, J., Spear, S. J., Yasar, H., Yeman, R., Boleng, J., Wrubel, E., & Kersten, M. (2020). Applied Industrial DevOps 2.0: A Hero’s Journey. IT Revolution.
Johnson, S., Yeman, R., Koehnemann, H., Shupack, J., Aizcorbe, M., Cockcroft, A., McKay, M., & Yasar, H. (2021). Building Industrial DevOps Stickiness: Applying Insights. IT Revolution.
Johnson, S., Yeman, R., Koehnemann, H., Shupack, J., Yasar, H., Grinnell, B., Brey, D., Farley, S., & Corman, J. (2022). Overcoming Barriers to Industrial DevOps: Working with the Hardware-Engineering Community.
Fawcett, J., Houston, K., Johnson, S., Moore, B., & Yeman, R. (2024). Accelerating value delivery in highly complex domains: Integrating value stream management, system architecture, and Lean/Agile execution. IT Revolution.
Johnson, S., & Yeman, R. (2024). The Application of Industrial DevOps Using Digital Twins: A Deep Dive Into Building Better Systems Faster. IT Revolution.
Bannon, T., Bensing, B., Brey, D., Johnson, S., Radcliffe, R., Yasar, H., & Yeman, R. (2024). AI-Enabled Digital Twins: Revolutionizing Efficiency for Modern Enterprises. IT Revolution.