One of the hardest things to do when starting a new initiative is picking the right project to work on. Should I start with App A? App B?  Does it really matter as long as I get started on this DevOps thing and prove its value to management?

Yes, actually, it might.

If you think about it, one of the reasons you’re doing DevOps in the first place is not just because it’s cool (it is, of course, but that rarely flies with the business guys) but because it’s going to add value in one or more ways by improving time to market, reducing risk and lowering operating costs. If the project you choose to go DevOps on isn’t capable of showing those benefits (or isn’t capable of showing those benefits in a reasonable time frame) then you might just be choosing the wrong one to start with.

So how do you choose? Well, how about starting with an app that’s being developed using agile methodologies?

According to the “8th Annual State of Agile” survey from VersionOne 88% of respondents were practicing agile development, which means you shouldn’t have a hard time finding one.

Except, you might if you aren’t paying attention. A high adoption rate doesn’t necessarily mean a high saturation rate, however.

Dig a bit deeper into the survey and you’ll find that agile isn’t used for every project. On the contrary, there’s a good distribution of agile and traditional (waterfall ) methodologies being used. While over half of the respondents are using agile to manage more than 50% of projects, the other 48% are using some other methodology.

Which offers some interesting strategies for how to get started with DevOps on the other side of the wall (that’s you, in operations land).

On the one hand, the projects most in need of improved velocity in deployment (time to market) are likely those being developed using agile methodologies. The aforementioned survey validates that approach, with the top reason cited for adopting agile being “accelerate time to market.” The general premise of agile is fast, frequent updates, making the need to deploy into production a more pressing priority. Choosing an app that’s being developed using agile methodologies means you’ll be able to practice, refine, and optimize the processes as you work to automate the deployment. Because of the frequency with which agile-developed projects tend to need deployment, this gives you the opportunity to practice similar techniques on your automation and optimization.

You’ll be able to automate individual tasks and test them thoroughly before moving on to the next one and the next one and the next one, until you’ve got the process orchestrated (yes, Virginia, there is a difference). You’ll then have ample opportunity to optimize the process, finding redundancies or inefficiencies in the way information is gathered and disseminated into the process. Optimization of the process means greater efficiency, especially if you can knock out those all important wait times between tasks.

The key here is that you have to know which projects are being developed using agile methodologies, and which aren’t. That means communicating with developers. And not just by sending an e-mail and asking for a list, but really talking to them to understand which projects the business would benefit from improving time to market. Getting an app that is the vehicle for competitive advantage to market faster seems a bigger return on investment than the app used by just a few people for non-critical purposes. You’ve got to dig in and determine which agile projects need agile deployment the most, and then decide where to dig in.

This is not to imply that less frequently deployed apps will not benefit from agile. They most certainly will, though the benefits that DevOps brings to those apps are more about stability and consistency than they are those derived from improving time to market.

What’s important is to decide what your goals are with DevOps and what benefits will be worth the most bang for the buck (cause it ain’t going to be cheap in terms of time investment). Getting DevOps on an infrequently but mission-critical app can reduce the risks associated with rusty processes and improve stability in general. Automating the deployment  of such applications can certainly save time and resources that can be redirected to agile projects in need of greater deployment velocity.

But if you’re looking to show value and return on investment, you’ll likely want to choose one of the agile-developed projects that already exists and needs some attention. Not only because it’ll show value faster, but because it’s releasing frequently enough that you’ll actually get the opportunity to refine (and one hopes optimize) your automation and orchestration.