# Faster Time to Market with DevOps > Boost performance through automation and reach a faster time to market with DevOps. Discover how to get started. Source: https://www.xalt.de/en/blog/faster-time-to-market-with-devops/ TEAM XALT Atlassian Platinum Partner · 13 September 2021 · 6 min The latecomer is punished by life. A proverb everyone knows. Yet, in today's software development, it hits the nail on the head. The faster you develop apps, plugins, or software in today's environment, the more likely you are to be a pioneer in your niche. A rapid time-to-market is therefore essential to avoid being overtaken by your competitors. In addition to a groundbreaking idea and entrepreneurial skill, it is important to bring software (or updates) to market as quickly, completely, and bug-free as possible. Agile methods around DevOps enable exactly that – a faster time-to-market. The introduction of this methodology empowers your entire team to develop, deploy, and release software faster. We show you in this article how to achieve a faster time-to-market with DevOps. [Learn how to introduce DevOps in your company here.](https://www.xalt.de/en/devops-transformation-implementation/) ## What is DevOps? DevOps is a set of practices that combine software development (Development) and IT operations (Operations). It aims to shorten the system development lifecycle and ensure continuous delivery with high software quality. DevOps enables cross-functional teams (e.g., Development, Infrastructure, Customer Service) to coordinate and collaborate to deliver better and more reliable products. Implementing the DevOps culture with DevOps methods and tools can empower teams to respond better to customer needs, strengthen their own confidence in their applications, and achieve business results faster. It is primarily about breaking down silos between departments and working together on innovations, updates, or modifications. ## Why DevOps and CI/CD are a must for every business Wouldn't it be nice to continuously deliver new features and updates without having to constantly shut down systems, allowing users to keep using critical systems? DevOps is characterised by a culture of shared responsibility and collaboration; Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment are the backbone of this culture and methodology. CI ensures that updates or changes are consistently and automatically tested – so that your software still works after the update. CD, on the other hand, ensures that every process along the release of new features or updates is automated and follows a consistent schema. This results in a number of timely and consistent improvements to your product along the development and release process, thereby accelerating the market launch of your software products. ## How DevOps accelerates time to market Some of the most promising DevOps approaches to accelerate time to market are: ### Faster delivery of features, updates and changes #### Deployment and release automation Normally (without DevOps), finished software or updates are passed on to the IT Operations department for testing. However, if the product is new, Operations must first set up a new test environment. If it is an update, an interface and supporting apps are also required and need to be configured. Thus, as a developer, you can only deploy new code when the Operations team is currently testing the product. The time required to deploy and release new code is unnecessarily prolonged. DevOps, on the other hand, eliminates such time-consuming and recurring tasks, thereby enabling faster time to market. For example, with DevOps and the use of Blue-Green Deployments, you can have two active systems online, one available to users and the other used for testing. The time saved by automatically integrating new code into the non-public system is enormous. Another major advantage for your team is that direct feedback on new deployments can always be obtained. This means your developers always know immediately what works and what doesn't. Not only is the “Time to Market” or “Time to Release” drastically shortened, but downtime and Mean Time to Recovery can also be reduced through the implementation of **Blue-Green Deployments, Downtimes and the Meantime to Recovery**. [Learn more about Blue-Green Deployments and CI/CD here](https://www.xalt.de/en/continuous-integration-and-delivery/). #### Test automation An important factor in software development is regularly receiving feedback on the impact of code changes during deployment. Traditionally, these tests were performed manually during deployment on dedicated test systems. This has numerous disadvantages: they were usually costly and time-consuming, unreliable, and feedback was difficult to obtain. ![Schnellere Markteinführung mit DevOps und Automatisiertes Testen](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/c475o02b/production/0b1ec8736321c5b02a1d2e2194c3eba31c3a8b5b-1703x800.jpg?w=1504&q=75&fit=max&auto=format) Automatisierte Tests zur Beschleunigung von Feature und Software Releases By automating tests along the software delivery lifecycle, it is possible to continuously check the functionality and architecture of the system under development and ensure integrity. Tests that are part of your Continuous Delivery pipeline help your teams create high-quality software, improve software stability, and keep your users happy. This also enables faster time-to-market and the release of new features, allowing you to respond precisely to market demands and user wishes. [Find more information about automated tests here.](https://www.xalt.de/en/automated-testing-with-atlassian/) #### Efficient bug fixes with DevOps By constantly testing new features and code changes, your team minimises the likelihood of bugs being created and released. Even more importantly, cross-departmental collaboration and communication ensure that critical errors are consistently reported by users. These are then passed on to development and fixed promptly according to their priority. By using CI/CD methods, these bugs can also be automatically tested on unused systems and automatically released before the final release. ### DevOps culture and efficiency By implementing DevOps culture in companies and using the automation mentioned above, businesses have achieved faster time-to-market with DevOps. DevOps champions have moved from quarterly or semi-annual release cycles to weekly (and sometimes daily) release cycles. The goal is to release updates, bug fixes, etc., as often as possible and to gather feedback early in the development cycle to identify when something is not working. In line with the motto: “If we fail, we fail fast and learn from it!” As mentioned earlier, you can achieve improved teamwork and software quality with CI/CD techniques while simultaneously automating routine tasks. You can read about the associated benefits in the next section. ### Summary of the benefits of using DevOps The time to market for your software can be drastically reduced with DevOps. The methods and solutions presented provide you and your team with the tools to keep your business competitive, fix critical bugs promptly, and consistently prioritise and resolve user issues. #### Further benefits: - Reduces the time required for application approval by improving approval speed - Improves productivity by up to 40% (Source: [Cofortech](https://www.coforgetech.com/resource-library/brochures/achieve-faster-time-market-through-devops-services)) - Happier end customers - Accelerates the transformation into a more agile, quality-oriented, and user-oriented organisation - Improves the continuous integration process, validation, and deployment of changes - Increases the effectiveness of processes and operational performance ## DevOps as a catalyst for market launch Most companies use cloud-based software. Companies collaborate globally using these tools, communicating and conducting business over thousands of kilometres. The software used must therefore be available at all times, have minimal downtime, and be constantly improved. With DevOps, it is not only possible to become available on the market faster, but also to quickly resolve critical issues, keep availability close to 100%, and integrate important user requests as quickly and profitably as possible. DevOps thus forms a catalyst for product launch on the market and enables your company to react even faster to changes and requests. ## Ready to speed up your time to market with DevOps? We help you build DevOps practices and CI/CD automation into your organization. [Talk to us](https://www.xalt.de/en/contact/) ## More articles ### [The Agent Harness: The Real Foundation of Enterprise AI](https://www.xalt.de/en/blog/agent-harness-foundation-enterprise-ai/) Why the agent harness – not the AI model or the generated code – determines the success of enterprise AI initiatives, and how to build one in five steps. *DevOps* ### [Governing Agentic AI Safely: Zero Trust and Compliance for AI Agents](https://www.xalt.de/en/blog/governing-agentic-ai-zero-trust-compliance/) AI agents are transforming the enterprise at speed – and the risk is growing just as fast. How the "in dubio pro securitate" principle, formal verification, and zero trust keep agentic AI safe and compliant. *DevOps* ### [Shift Left: Catching Bugs Earlier in Your Development Cycle](https://www.xalt.de/en/blog/shift-left/) Bugs found late cost time, money, and trust. The shift-left approach moves testing and quality assurance as early as possible into the development cycle. *DevOps* --- *This version is for AI agents. Every page of this site is available as Markdown: append `index.md` to its path. Index of all pages: [llms.txt](https://www.xalt.de/llms.txt)*