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A theory of organizational structures for development and infrastructure professionals
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  • Leonardo Leite ,
  • Nelson Lago ,
  • Claudia Melo ,
  • Fabio Kon ,
  • Paulo Roberto Miranda Meirelles ,
  • Paulo Meirelles
Leonardo Leite
University of São Paulo, University of São Paulo, University of São Paulo, University of São Paulo

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Nelson Lago
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Claudia Melo
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Fabio Kon
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Paulo Roberto Miranda Meirelles
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Paulo Meirelles
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Abstract

DevOps and continuous delivery have impacted the organizational structures of development and infrastructure groups in software-producing organizations. Our research aims at revealing the different options adopted by the software industry to organize such groups, understanding why different organizations adopt distinct structures, and discovering how organizations handle the drawbacks of each structure. By interviewing 68 carefully-selected IT professionals and analyzing these conversations through a Grounded Theory process, we identified conditions, causes, reasons to avoid, consequences, and contingencies related to each discovered structure (segregated departments, collaborative departments, API-mediated departments, and single department). In this way, we offer a theory to explain organizational structures for development and infrastructure professionals. This theory can support practitioners and researchers in comprehending and discussing the DevOps phenomenon and its related issues, and also provides valuable input to practitioners’ decision-making.
01 Apr 2023Published in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering volume 49 issue 4 on pages 1898-1911. 10.1109/TSE.2022.3199169