Inspire, develop, and guide a winning organization.
Create visible workflows to achieve well-architected software.
Understand and use meaningful data to measure success.
Integrate and automate quality, security, and compliance into daily work.
Understand the unique values and behaviors of a successful organization.
LLMs and Generative AI in the enterprise.
An on-demand learning experience from the people who brought you The Phoenix Project, Team Topologies, Accelerate, and more.
Learn how making work visible, value stream management, and flow metrics can affect change in your organization.
Clarify team interactions for fast flow using simple sense-making approaches and tools.
Multiple award-winning CTO, researcher, and bestselling author Gene Kim hosts enterprise technology and business leaders.
In the first part of this two-part episode of The Idealcast, Gene Kim speaks with Dr. Ron Westrum, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University.
In the first episode of Season 2 of The Idealcast, Gene Kim speaks with Admiral John Richardson, who served as Chief of Naval Operations for four years.
New half-day virtual events with live watch parties worldwide!
DevOps best practices, case studies, organizational change, ways of working, and the latest thinking affecting business and technology leadership.
Is slowify a real word?
Could right fit help talent discover more meaning and satisfaction at work and help companies find lost productivity?
The values and philosophies that frame the processes, procedures, and practices of DevOps.
This post presents the four key metrics to measure software delivery performance.
October 8, 2024
Industrial DevOps emerged in 2018 as an innovative expansion of DevOps principles to large-scale cyber-physical systems. Originating in the 2018 paper by Dr. Suzette Johnson, Robin Yeman et al., Industrial DevOps was developed to address the unique challenges of applying DevOps practices to systems with significant hardware components.
Over the course of five years, Dr. Johnson and Yeman worked to evolve the concept through a series of papers before culminating in the 2023 publication of the award-winning book Industrial DevOps: Build Better Systems Faster. This evolution represents a significant advancement in systems engineering and product development.
On the first anniversary of the publication of the groundbreaking book, we wanted to take a moment to look back at the history of Industrial DevOps.
In 2018, Dr. Suzette Johnson, Robin Yeman, and other contributors published their groundbreaking paper “Industrial DevOps: Applying DevOps and Continuous Delivery to Significant Cyber-Physical Systems.” This seminal work coined “Industrial DevOps” and laid out eight core principles. The paper defined Industrial DevOps as an approach to enable cyber-physical system development to respond more to changing needs while reducing lead times.
Importantly, this work highlighted the unique challenges and opportunities of applying DevOps practices in industrial contexts. Johnson and Yeman’s research focused on integrating engineering, product development, and operational systems, laying the groundwork for the Industrial DevOps movement. Their work emphasized the critical convergence of Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) in complex industrial systems.
Over the next four years, Johnson, Yeman, and their colleagues published a series of papers that further developed and refined the concept of Industrial DevOps:
These papers collectively built a comprehensive framework for implementing Industrial DevOps across diverse industries and engineering disciplines.
The evolution of Industrial DevOps from concept to comprehensive framework culminated in 2023 with the publication of the award-winning book Industrial DevOps: Build Better Systems Faster by Dr. Suzette Johnson and Robin Yeman.
This comprehensive book synthesizes years of research and practical insights, providing both theoretical frameworks and actionable guidance for implementing these practices in industrial settings. Industry leaders underscore the importance of this work.
Mik Kersten, CTO of Planview and author of Project to Product, describes it as “your guide for the changes that you need to put in place to reap the benefits of digitization and AI,” asserting that “organizations adopting the practices in this book will outperform and outlast those that do not lean into the change and learn to move at the speed of DevOps.”
Dean Leffingwell, Creator of SAFe® and renowned author, praises the book’s practical approach, noting that “it is not just about abstract principles” but offers “real-world and exemplary case studies, practical tips, and guidance.” Leffingwell emphasizes the book’s significance: “This is an important work; as an industry and a society dependent on these future systems, we are lucky to have it.”
These endorsements highlight the book’s role in solidifying Industrial DevOps as a key trend in DevOps and cloud computing, particularly for industries relying heavily on automation and large-scale operations.
Since its inception, Industrial DevOps has gained significant traction across various industries dealing with complex cyber-physical systems. The term has gained recognition as a key trend in DevOps and cloud computing, emphasizing its potential to transform industries that rely heavily on automation and large-scale operations, such as manufacturing, energy, and telecommunications.
The automotive industry has quickly adopted these principles, with major manufacturers leveraging Industrial DevOps to streamline the development of connected and autonomous vehicles. Aerospace, defense, and healthcare sectors have also shown keen interest, recognizing the potential of Industrial DevOps to reduce development cycles while maintaining rigorous safety and security standards.
In the manufacturing sector, Industrial DevOps principles are being applied to improve the development and deployment of smart factory solutions. Companies see benefits in reduced time-to-market for new products and improved ability to respond to changing market demands.
The growing relevance of Industrial DevOps is reflected in its mention as an emerging trend in various DevOps and cloud reports. It is often discussed in the context of broader trends such as edge computing, containerization, and the need for continuous improvement in DevOps processes. These trends align with Industrial DevOps’s goals, which aim to enhance efficiency, scalability, and operational resilience in industries increasingly relying on digital and automated solutions.
As more success stories emerge, interest in Industrial DevOps continues to grow. Industry conferences are increasingly featuring sessions on Industrial DevOps, and educational institutions are beginning to incorporate these principles into their engineering curricula.
Since the book’s publication, Dr. Johnson and Yeman have continued their research, publishing new papers on Industrial DevOps, particularly digital twins.
The growing adoption across diverse sectors suggests that Industrial DevOps is well on its way to becoming a standard approach in developing cyber-physical systems. It promises faster innovation, improved quality, and alignment with rapidly evolving market needs. Most recently, Copia published the first annual State of Industrial DevOps Report.
The journey of Industrial DevOps, from its conception by Johnson and Yeman in 2018 to its recognition as a critical industry need in 2024, demonstrates the foresight of its originators and the rapidly evolving nature of industrial technology. As industries continue to grapple with the challenges of developing increasingly complex and interconnected systems, Industrial DevOps offers a promising path forward, combining the best software development practices with rigorous hardware engineering requirements. The work of Dr. Suzette Johnson and Robin Yeman has been instrumental in shaping this field, and their contributions continue to influence the future of industrial operations and technology management.
Trusted by technology leaders worldwide. Since publishing The Phoenix Project in 2013, and launching DevOps Enterprise Summit in 2014, we’ve been assembling guidance from industry experts and top practitioners.
No comments found
Your email address will not be published.
First Name Last Name
Δ
If you haven’t already read Unbundling the Enterprise: APIs, Optionality, and the Science of…
Organizations face critical decisions when selecting cloud service providers (CSPs). A recent paper titled…
We're thrilled to announce the release of The Phoenix Project: A Graphic Novel (Volume…
The following post is an excerpt from the book Unbundling the Enterprise: APIs, Optionality, and…
