Factors Affecting Cloud Infra-Service Development Lead Times: A Case Study at INGSEIPIndustry Program
Background: The development of Cloud Infra-Services has shifted over the past decade in the direction of a software code development process, also known as infrastructure as code (IaC). Objective: Contemporary continuous delivery settings in industry require fast feedback. As a consequence, companies need metrics that can be used to steer on improvements of time to (internal) market, and to benchmark the performance of their Cloud Infra-Services with peer groups. Method: We perform an exploratory study on the state of affairs in industry and research on the topic of infra-deliveries. For that purpose we examine a series of 28 Cloud Infra-Services within ING. Results: We identify observations, o.a. the initial perception among many stakeholders that Cloud Infra-Services within ING take longer durations than those in peer companies is not confirmed, and the Consumer Ordering Interface (the IPC-portal) and the Orchestration Workflows were agreed to negatively affect time to internal market by many stakeholders. Conclusions: Based on these, we propose take-away messages for improvement, such as reduce the complexity of the environment by treating cloud infra services just like regular software deliveries, and do follow-up research into the possibilities to reduce the dependencies of other teams.