# Best Practices Evidenced for Software Development Based on DevOps and Scrum: A Literature Review
## 3 Results
### What Are the Common DevOps Practices Documented in the Literature? Fifty papers were found for the following question: What are the common DevOps practices documented in the literature? Tables 6-8 present the practices proposed by DevOps for the software development process according to the literature, identifying which are the most mentioned. It is necessary to highlight that the literature shown in Table 6 mentions continuous monitoring, dependency management, continuous planning, code standards, collaborative culture, continuous benchmarking, continuous delivery, continuous information, and continuous feedback. The results show a list of 10 practices associated with DevOps, which are organized as follows from the most referenced in the literature to the least:  
1. **Continuous integration**. Cited in 72.3% of the analyzed papers, continuous integration (CI) is widely recognized as a fundamental practice in modern software development processes. CI involves frequently integrating code changes into a shared repository, followed by automated testing to detect and resolve issues early. This approach enhances software quality, reduces integration risks, and accelerates delivery cycles. Key studies, including [68, 69, 70, 73, 81, 84, 87, 88, 89, 94, 96, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109, 110, 111, 114, 115, 117, 118], emphasize the role of CI in fostering reliable and scalable software delivery pipelines, making it a cornerstone of DevOps and Agile frameworks;
2. **Versioning**. Cited in 68.1% of the analyzed papers, versioning is recognized as a fundamental practice for managing code changes and ensuring traceability throughout the software development lifecycle. By maintaining a system  
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atic history of modifications, versioning allows teams to track changes, facilitate collaboration, resolve conflicts, and improve code stability. Studies such as [68; 69; 70; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 84; 87; 88; 89; 90; 91; 92; 93; 94; 96; 97; 98; 99; 100; 101; 102; 103; 104; 105; 106; 107; 108; 109; 110; 111; 114; 115; 117; 118] highlight versioning as a fundamental practice for improving the software development process and implementing other practices, such as continuous integration and deployment pipelines, reducing risks associated with code integration, and enhancing software quality;
3. **Continuous deployment**. Cited in 68.1% of the papers analyzed, continuous deployment (CD) is highlighted as a key practice for automating software releases to production environments. CD reduces manual intervention, accelerates delivery cycles, and enhances software reliability by seamlessly deploying tested and validated code changes. Studies such as [68; 69; 70; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 84; 87; 88; 89; 91; 93; 94; 96; 99; 100; 101; 103; 104; 105; 106; 109; 111; 115; 117; 118] underscore the importance of CD in enabling a continuous delivery pipeline, ensuring that high-quality software is consistently delivered with minimal disruption;
4. **Cloud computing**. As mentioned in 34% of the papers analyzed, cloud computing is recognized as a key enabler for modern software development and deployment processes. By providing scalable infrastructure, on-demand resources, and flexible computing environments, cloud computing supports the efficient implementation of DevOps practices, such as continuous integration, continuous deployment, and automated testing. Studies including [68; 69; 70; 71; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 102; 113] remark on the role of cloud computing in reducing infrastructure costs, improving resource utilization, and enabling rapid provisioning of development and production environments. Cloud computing is, thus, a foundational technology for achieving scalability, flexibility, and efficiency in software delivery pipelines;
5. **Infrastructure as code (IaC)**. As mentioned in 34% of the analyzed papers, infrastructure as code (IaC) is recognized as a critical practice for automating the management and provisioning of infrastructure through code.