One of the most significant recent developments in software engineering is the concept of Devops*. Dismissing the idea as “just the latest buzzword” would be wrong. It may be a buzzword but it reflects a fundamental change in the way we structure system development; with web applications in particular the traditional distinctions between steps of development, V&V** and deployment fade out. If you are using Microsoft Word, you know or can easily find out the version number; but which version of your search engine are you using?
With the new flexibility indeed come new risks, as when a bug in the latest “devopsed” version of Google Docs caused me to lose a whole set of complex diagrams irretrievably; an earlier article on this blog (“The Cloud and Its Risks“, October 2010) told the story.
In the new world of continuous integrated development/V&V/deployment, software engineering principles are more necessary than ever, but their application has to undergo a profound adaptation.
With Jean-Michel Bruel (Toulouse), Elisabetta Di Nitto (Milan) and Manuel Mazzara (Innopolis), we are organizing a workshop on the topic, DEVOPS 18, on 5-6 March 2018 near Toulouse. The Call for Papers is available here, with Springer LNCS proceedings. The submission deadline is January 15, but for that date a 2-page extended abstract is sufficient. I hope that the event will help the community get a better grasp of the software engineering techniques and practices applicable to this new world of software development.
Notes
*I know, it’s supposed to be DevOps (I am not a great fan of upper case in the middle of words).
** Validation & Verification.
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