Investigating Software Engineering Artifacts in DevOps Through the Lens of Boundary Objects

Abstract

Software engineering artifacts are central to DevOps, enabling the collaboration of teams involved with integrating the development and operations domains. However, collaboration around DevOps artifacts has yet to receive detailed research attention. We apply the sociological concept of Boundary Objects to describe and evaluate the specific software engineering artifacts that enable a cross-disciplinary understanding. Using this focus, we investigate how different DevOps stakeholders can collaborate efficiently using common artifacts. We performed a multiple case study and conducted twelve semi-structured interviews with DevOps practitioners in nine companies. We elicited participants’ collaboration practices, focusing on the coordination of stakeholders and the use of engineering artifacts as a means of translation. This paper presents a consolidated overview of four categories of DevOps Boundary Objects and eleven stakeholder groups relevant to DevOps. To help practitioners assess cross-disciplinary knowledge management strategies, we detail how DevOps Boundary Objects contribute to four areas of DevOps knowledge and propose derived dimensions to evaluate their use.