Erik Hochbergs, Laroy Nilsson Sjödahl:
Software Configuration Management in a DevOps context,
summary, report, January 2020.

Abstract:

Software configuration management is rarely explicitly discussed within the context of DevOps, and vice versa. Literature on DevOps often mentions parts of software configuration management as being important, but specifics on how it is done within DevOps is often left out, which creates a disconnect between software configuration management and DevOps regarding its usage in DevOps, and the benefits of it.

There is a lack of an operational definition of DevOps, which creates different expectations, because organizations and people have differing understanding on what DevOps is and how it is done, or can be done, in practice. DevOps has also become somewhat of a buzzword, which further obscures what DevOps is, and what one can expect from it. Depending on the source, there are different ways of accomplishing DevOps, but there appears to be principles and practices which are commonly used in DevOps. We attempt to map out these commonalities by characterizing DevOps based on literature and interviews with companies.

This characterization of DevOps is used to produce a connected graph, showing relations between DevOps characteristics, and mapping these to activities present in software configuration management. From this mapping, we propose guidelines for adapting activities in software configuration management to a DevOps context. It is not intended to be a one-size-fits-all method, each part is treated as a piece which has a defined purpose, what problems it intends to solve, with examples of how it can be implemented.