Challenges in the Adoption of DevOps as a Service in the Software Industry: Initial Results

As organizations strive for faster delivery cycles and greater efficiency, DevOps as a Service (DaaS) has emerged as a model that allows businesses to leverage DevOps tools and practices through cloud-based platforms. However, the adoption of DaaS presents unique challenges, including integration complexity and alignment with the organization's existing processes. Despite its increasing importance, there is a lack of empirical research on DaaS that identifies the challenges in the adoption of DaaS in the software industry. Moreover, DaaS also introduces specific challenges for client organizations and service vendors. This paper examines these challenges through a mixed-methods approach, including interviews and industrial surveys with industry professionals. To achieve this, we conducted a mixed-methods study involving interviews with 12 industry professionals, including DevOps architects, DevOps engineers, and service providers. We also surveyed 18 participants with experience in DevOps as a service to gather relevant data. The study indicates that a lack of flexibility in customization and integration with existing CI/CD pipelines is a key challenge in the adoption of DaaS in industry projects. We believe the identified challenges can help organizations better understand and manage DaaS projects.