Provision of the Service Platform Retail for the VW Group
How the DevOps approach reduces time to market in software development projects
The best time to get a product to market is usually now. That's why companies are constantly working on optimizing efficiency and speed in their product development strategy. Acquiring new customer segments with an insurance app or accompanying customers even better and more seamlessly as an automotive brand with expanded services through new digital platforms – the challenges are as diverse as the solutions.
Starting out on strong shoulders: the start-up
What is time to market and how is it related to DevOps?
Time to market is defined as the period from the conception of a new idea to its market launch. Market players who enter early secure market share and generate revenue faster. Therefore, time to market is an important metric in product development strategies. Another definition of time to market describes the time between: the team starts working on the product and the first unit is sold.
One approach to optimizing the value chain in digital service development is the DevOps paradigm, in wich a team works on all issues. Developers take care of everything from technical design to implementation and smooth operation. Important tools are appropriate DevOps platforms that enable smooth operation with paradigms such as continuous delivery, GitOps and observability. At the same time, they must ensure seamless integration with development tools and provide straightforward testing and development workflows. In some cases, this infrastructure resides in the cloud.
Product development strategies are as diverse as the business areas, sizes and structures of a wide variety of companies. There is not one way and the main task of a software service provider like jambit is individual support of the most diverse scenarios.
Hit the ground running on strong shoulders – why startups also need partners for technical development
The food startup with the gripping user experience or the artificial intelligence freaks with a groundbreaking technology. Startups are usually experts in their field of business. Teams of developers are passionate about their idea and know the product. Expertise is usually available in the domain, but not in scale-critical areas. Startups also want to bring their product to market quickly and need lean and fast software development workflows.
This is why startups not only need investors, but also strong partners dealing with the technical side leaving more time for the core business. As a company run and managed by its own founders, which has retained its own startup spirit with a successful New Business divison, we understand the special challenges of startups. Our extensive experience in time to market and DevOps allows us to work with our clients to develop the optimal solution for them – whether it's a ready-to-use cloud solution or a more specialized platform tailored precisely to the clients' use case. jambit also supports the implementation of the solution and the subsequent operation of the platform. This allows a strong development partner to carry some of the burden to reach the goal faster.
Dafür brauchen Startups nicht nur Investor*innen, sondern auch auf technischer Seite starke Partner*innen, die ihnen den Rücken beim Kerngeschäft freihalten. Als von den eigenen Gründern geführtes Unternehmen, das sich mit einer erfolgreichen New-Business-Abteilung den eigenen Startup-Spirit erhalten hat, verstehen wir die besonderen Herausforderungen von Startups. Durch unsere umfassende Erfahrung im Bereich Time-To-Market und DevOps können wir zusammen mit den Kund*innen die für sie optimale Lösung erarbeiten – seien es Cloud-Lösungen von der Stange oder auch speziellere, genau auf den Use Case der Kund*innen angepasste Plattformen. Auch bei der Umsetzung der Lösung und beim späteren Betrieb der Plattform unterstützt jambit. So kann ein starker Entwicklungspartner einen Teil der Lasten schultern, um das Ziel schneller zu erreichen.
Focusing on daily business as medium-sized company – and digitizing the business model with DevOps teams along the way
They know their customers and business partners and stand for reliable products. At the same time, medium-sized companies have recently proven that they can react quickly and flexibly to market changes and reliably accompany their regular customers into the future. To be able to concentrate on day-to-day business, no concessions must be made in terms of quality and response times, especially in digitization projects.
When medium-sized companies develop an app, they often need additional developer capacity. With these challenges, it is no longer sufficient to only reinforce manpower temporarily, for example by hiring individual software developers. Product development must be expanded to include an entire Scrum team. In special cases, however, outsourcing the entire feature development can also make sense for the company.
The right DevOps platform supports mid-sized companies to increase the quality of the product by managing requirements and value creation faster. jambit relies on cross-functional DevOps teams to meet these challenges. In addition to the typical competencies in software development, experts must also be proficient in building and operating DevOps platforms. An autonomous jambit DevOps team supports product development in this setup, for example. With us, companies gain a partner who ensures, independently of others, that product changes can go into production without delay. Especially among medium-sized companies, DevOps platforms are not yet part of common knowledge. However, to have time for the essentials – their own customers – and the speed gained through automated tests and high quality in production are arguments in favor of DevOps. As a result, medium-sized companies with autonomous jambit DevOps teams concentrate on their daily business and digitize their business model at the same time.
Die richtige DevOps-Plattform unterstützt Mittelständler*innen dabei, die Qualität des Produkts zu erhöhen, indem Anforderungen und Wertschöpfung schneller geschafft werden. jambit setzt bei diesen Herausforderungen auf crossfunktionale DevOps-Teams. Neben den typischen Kompetenzen im Bereich der Softwareentwicklung müssen Expert*innen sich auch im Aufbau und Betrieb von DevOps-Plattformen auskennen. Ein autonomes jambit-DevOps-Team unterstützt in diesem Setup etwa die Produktentwicklung. Unternehmen gewinnen damit einen Partner, der unabhängig von anderen dafür sorgt, dass Änderungen am Produkt ohne Verzögerung in Produktion gehen können. Gerade bei Mittelständler*innen ist das Wissen von DevOps-Plattformen noch nicht durchdringend vorhanden. Zeit für das Wesentliche – die eigenen Kund*innen – und die gewonnene Geschwindigkeit durch automatisierte Tests und hohe Qualität in Produktion sind dann jedoch Argumente für DevOps. Mittelständler*innen mit autonomen jambit DevOps-Teams konzentrieren sich so auf ihr Tagesgeschäft und digitalisieren gleichzeitig ihr Geschäftsmodell.
How jambit DevOps teams develop customized platforms for corporations
Larger projects in the corporate environment often consist of many Scrum teams. Adverse effects on efficiency of projects are likely if each team autonomously develops and operates its own DevOps platform. After all, the framework conditions are identical and cooperation between the individual teams is often essential. The right strategy in this case is to replace team autonomy by a central team in favor of economies of scale. This team develops and operates a central DevOps platform for the product teams.
Standard platforms often do not offer a solution for corporate groups. In the case of corporate structures, it is often worthwhile to have a customized platform that provides the right features and meets all security and compliance requirements. At jambit, we understand a DevOps platform as a software project to leverage cloud and infrastructure-as-a-code competencies in a targeted way. New iterations of the platform can be rolled out in the cloud and replace older ones. Agile software development also becomes possible for infrastructure.
Clients of the platform team are the product teams. Top priority is supporting them and increasing the teams' effectiveness and speed. In line with the DevOps paradigm, they support the operation of the applications. The same team that develops the platform product should also operate it – the DevOps paradigm applies here as well.
Platform teams provide a complete solution so that product teams can develop and operate their product without further distractions. From CI/CD to artifact repositories, testing and deployment, to monitoring, logging and alerting – jambit delivers everything from a single source as an integrated platform product.
Due to versatile projects in different industries such as Automotive or Banking and Insurance, jambit can look back on numerous and resilient experiences. We have understood what really matters to our clients and support them with our DevOps approach to quickly bring investments in product development to market.
Kund*innen des Plattform-Teams sind die Produkt-Teams. Und diese zu unterstützen und die Effektivität und Geschwindigkeit der Teams zu erhöhen, ist oberstes Gebot. Entsprechend des DevOps-Paradigmas unterstützen sie den Betrieb der Applikationen. Das gleiche Team, welches das Plattform-Produkt entwickelt, sollte es auch betreiben – das DevOps-Paradigma gilt auch hier.
Plattform-Teams stellen eine vollständige Lösung bereit, sodass die Produkt-Teams ohne weitere Ablenkungen ihr Produkt entwickeln und betreiben können. Von CI/CD über Artifact Repositories, Testing und Deployment, bis hin zu Monitoring, Logging und Alerting. jambit liefert alles aus einer Hand als integriertes Plattform-Produkt.
Durch vielseitige Projekte in unterschiedlichsten Branchen wie Automotive oder Banking and Insurance blickt jambit auf zahlreiche und belastbare Erfahrungswerte. Wir haben verstanden, was für unsere Kund*innen wirklich zählt und begleiten sie mit unserem DevOps-Ansatz dabei Investitionen in der Produktentwicklung schnell auf den Markt zu bringen.
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