Building Industrial DevOps Stickiness

Applying Insights

At an industrial scale, cyber-physical solutions (systems comprised of hardware, firmware, and software) experience many challenges as they embrace Lean and DevOps practices. These Industrial DevOps (IDO) transformations face significant complexities as they respond to critical safety regulations and the “continu-ish” integration and alignment across multiple suppliers and partners.

In this paper, we identify Principle #1 of Industrial DevOps (visualize and organize around the value stream)* as a common cross-industry barrier to IDO transformation stickiness. We use mental modeling, Wardley Mapping, and the Westrum Organization Topology model to identify misalignments and gain a shared understanding of IDO to sustain and scale IDO adoption. We then offer executive sponsors and leaders a set of approaches and insights to address each of

the three identified barriers.

What's inside

  • Debunks Myth — This paper debunks the myth that DevOps-style rapid iteration and improved flow only apply to software systems, not software + hardware systems.
  • Expert Authors — This paper is written by experienced practitioners who have worked developing modern cyber-physical systems.
  • Clear Guidance — Provides eight recommendations (principles) to bring DevOps principles and practices into complex cyber-physical systems.
  • All Levels — Change Agents can come from anywhere on the org chart. This paper directly provides guidance on how to lead change no matter your role or title.
Publication Date
2021
Pages
35
Formats
epub · pdf
License
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

About the authors

8 authors
Suzette JohnsonNorthrop Grumman · as of 2026

Dr. Suzette Johnson is an award-winning author who has spent most of her career in the aerospace defense industry working for Northrop Grumman Corporation. Suzette was the enterprise Lean/Agile transformation lead. In this role, she launched the Northrop Grumman Agile Community of Practice and the Lean/Agile Center of Excellence. She has supported over a hundred enterprise, government, and DoD transitions to and the maturation of Lean-Agile principles and engineering development practices. She has also trained and coached over four thousand individuals on Lean/Agile principles and practices and delivered more than one hundred presentations on Lean/Agile at conferences both nationally and abroad. Her current role is as Northrop Grumman Fellow and Technical Fellow Emeritus, where she continues to actively drive the adoption of Lean/Agile principles with leadership at the portfolio levels and within cyber-physical solutions, specifically within the space sector. As a mentor, coach, and leader, she launched the Women in Computing, Johns Hopkins University Chapter; the Women in Leadership Development program; the Northrop Grumman Lean-Agile Center of Excellence; and the NDIA ADAPT (Agile Delivery for Agencies, Programs, and Teams) working group. She received a Doctorate of Management at the University of Maryland with a dissertation focused on investigating the impact of leadership styles on software project outcomes in traditional and Agile engineering environments. She am also a Certified Agile Enterprise Coach and Scaled Agile Program Consultant/SPCT

Everything by Suzette Johnson →

Robin YemanLeidos · as of 2026

Robin Yeman has spent twenty-six years working at Lockheed Martin as a senior technical fellow building large systems including everything from submarines to satellites. Robin lead the Agile community of practice supporting a workforce of 120,000 people. Her initial experience with Lean practices began in the late 90’s. In 2002 shen had the opportunity to lead her first Agile program with multiple scrum teams. After she had a couple months of experience, she was hooked and never turned back. She both led and supported Agile Transformations for intelligence, federal, department of defense organizations over the next two decades and each one was more exciting and challenging than the last. In 2012 she had the opportunity to extend our Agile practices into DevOps which added extensive automation and tightened our feedback loops providing even larger results. Currently she is consulting for a range of Fortune 500 companies in highly regulated environments enabling them to achieve the same results we experienced at Lockheed Martin. She engages in everything from automotive, pharmaceuticals, and energy reimagining legacy to modern solutions using all of the tools in my toolbox including Agile, DevOps, Lean, Digital Engineering, Systems Theory, Design Thinking and more. Her goal is to make a positive impact for those around her. Robin is a continuous learner. Her education includes a Bachelor's Degree from Syracuse Univision in Computer Information Systems, a Master's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Software Engineering, and she is currently pursuing a PhD in Systems Engineering at Colorado State University, where she is working on my contribution to demonstrate empirical data of the benefits of implementing Agile and DevOps for safety critical cyber-physical systems.

Everything by Robin Yeman →

Harry KoehnemannSAFe Fellow and Senior Consultant, Scaled Agile

Harry Koehnemann, Scaled Agile Inc., is a methodologist and SAFe Fellow. He helps organizations build and deliver large, complex systems faster, more predictably, and with high quality using SAFe. He has spent the past two decades working with large system builders in aerospace, defense, automotive, and other industries to apply Lean/Agile principles to their engineering practices, including systems engineering practices, quality management, and compliance.

Everything by Harry Koehnemann →

Jeffrey ShupackProject & Team · as of 2024

Jeffrey Shupack, president, Project & Team, is an advisor, speaker, and author who helps organizations improve efficiency in delivering complex products. Specializing in change management, AI, digital innovation, and fostering learning cultures, Shupack guides leaders to enhance operational flow, speed to market, and customer satisfaction. As a distinguished SAFe Fellow, he leverages proven methodologies from Lean/Agile, DevOps, design thinking, and organizational development to drive digital transformation. With decades of experience in bridging theory and practice, Shupack has delivered measurable, impactful outcomes across industries such as aerospace, automotive, defense, energy, finance, government, technology, manufacturing, medical, and oil and gas. He collaborates with Fortune 100 companies and government agencies. Shupack is also a published author in leading industry journals and a sought-after speaker at international conferences. Find his work at jeffreyshupack.com.

Everything by Jeffrey Shupack →

Matt AizcorbeDev*Ops Strategy Lead at Northrop Grumman
Adrian CockcroftTech Advisor, Nubank

Adrian Cockcroft is the retired leader of the technology world. He joined Amazon in October 2016, as a VP in AWS Marketing focused on building relationships with customers. He keynoted 20 AWS Summits around the world, presented on technical and management topics at many events, and hired the open source community engagement team. Moving to Amazon Worldwide Sustainability in March 2021, he led sustainability marketing for AWS, invested in the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative, helped coordinate the rapid growth in sustainability related headcount across AWS, and helped author, launch and promote the Well Architected Pillar for Sustainability. Currently Cockcroft is advising, speaking at conferences and private events, and doing occasional consulting and analyst work.

Everything by Adrian Cockcroft →

Michael McKayExecutive Director - Leading SRE & Innovation at NCR Retail
Hasan YasarTechnical Director, Software Engineering Institute, CMU

Hasan Yasar is the Technical Director of the Continuous Deployment of Capability group at the Software Engineering Institute, CMU. Hasan leads an engineering group to enable, accelerate, and assure Transformation at the speed of relevance by leveraging, DevSecOps, Agile, Lean AI/ML, and other emerging technologies to create a Smart and secure Software Platform/Pipeline. Hasan has more than 25 years of experience as a senior security engineer, software engineer, software architect, and manager in all phases of secure software development and information modeling processes. He is also a Teaching Professor at CMU’s Heinz College and Software and Societal Systems College where he currently teaches “Software and Security” and “DevOps for Engineering Secure Development and Deployment”. Hasan also serves various IEEE/ISO, The Open Group, and NIST standard developments. He recently co-authored IEEE 2675 DevOps standard, while working on IEEE 828 Configuration Management, IEEE 982.1 Software Reliability, ISO Wkg 29 Agile, and DevOps standard development.

Everything by Hasan Yasar →