## 1 Introduction  
Software development companies can be classified as very small entities--VSEs (up to 25 employees), small entities--SEs (25 to 50 employees), medium-sized entities--MSEs (up to 250 employees), and large entities--LEs (more than 250 employees) [1]. This classification has characteristics that allow an understanding of how such companies work, their advantages and disadvantages over other classifications, and what problems they constantly face [2]. Likewise, the ISO/IEC 29110 standard allows an understanding of how it could help to improve the software development process (SDP) under the adoption of practices suggested in software engineering [3]. However, the implementation of this standard and other options proposed in the literature is affected when it is necessary to adopt agile frameworks [4]. This is because such frameworks indicate that implementation can be done, but not necessarily how, leaving everything to be explored through the trial and error of different options [5]. This is very costly and, in some cases, unfeasible for VSEs [5]. VSEs constitute a significant portion of the software development industry, accounting for more than 70% [4], a situation that holds across Latin American countries. For this reason, they stand out more when reviews are made about the different success and failure factors of SDP, such as chaos reports, where it is still not possible in more than 50% of cases to achieve coherence between the planning, development, and results of projects of various sizes that lead to their success [6]. Most of these companies have empirical processes, guided by the experience of the founders and development teams, more focused on coding than on formal processes that give relevance to stages such as requirements analysis, software design, quality, and even deployment, which is consistent with the findings in [6]. Reprocessing is constant due to problems in understanding the impact of applying the recommendations of a formal process guided by software engineering practices. This negatively affects the results regarding planning and compliance with objectives agreed upon with clients. Additionally, there is a considerable impact on people constantly under role overload, demotivation, and frustration from having to solve the various errors that arise after the deliveries, as indicated in [5]. To address the issues above, VSEs try to implement frameworks such as Scrum and DevOps that promote communication, quality, automation of repetitive activities, and retrospective reviews to facilitate companies' continuous improvement based on understanding what they do well and what they can improve [5]. However, agile frameworks have a philosophical approach where there are no standards or norms that guide the processes beyond recommending practices that can improve development results, which represents a great difficulty for their implementation [7]. In addition, some are not prepared to take this step towards agility because their SDP is still empirical [7]. This paper addresses a critical need in the software development industry by presenting the design of a guide for implementing harmonized practices in VSEs, drawing on the insights of Scrum and DevOps. This guide offers a structured approach that leads to more consistent and reliable software development outcomes by adopting industry-proven practices from both frameworks. Additionally, the guide is evaluated by experts for refinement before dissemination, which further ensures its relevance and applicability and adds credibility to its recommendations. This research aims to address the following primary research question (RQ): Is the design of an integrated Scrum and DevOps implementation guide for very small entities (VSEs) considered adequate by software engineering experts? To support a comprehensive evaluation, the study also investigates a secondary sub-question: What specific areas of the guide require improvement before its application in industrial settings?