DevOps as an enabler for efficient testing in large-scale agile projects: A case study from the Autosys Project at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration

Agile development methods have become the standard in most large IT development projects, and DevOps is on the way. Delivering new functionality to end-users every sprint is still a major goal for most large-scale agile development projects, and the benefits of shift-left testing, continuous integration and DevOps-thinking makes the testing more efficient and comprehensive each sprint. This enables the development teams to deliver working software ready for system integration testing earlier than before. However, it also challenges the teams to re-design their testing process as the introduction of DevOps puts increased focus on “doing the right testing at the right time”, having the right skills and collaboration within the necessary organization. This report describes how a large-scale agile project with 5 development teams benefited from DevOps by improving and streamlining their testing process. The report also provides recommendations on how to organize testing in present and future large-scale DevOps/agile development projects.