Always Beta

DevOps for Cyber-Physical Products

Agile development methods describe the iterative development, testing and validation of product increments. For the development of cyber-physical products, these methods are novel and mainly used in the creation phase. The use phase in particular offers enormous potential for gaining knowledge about products and their use. Originally defined assumptions about the use of the products can only be validated in this phase.

In the software industry, the DevOps concept accelerates the cooperation between the development and operations departments so that the short-cycle further development of products can be implemented during the utilization phase.

This approach, transferred to cyber-physical products, is the central enabler for Always Beta. Always Beta describes the continuous state of a product version as a test version for the subsequent optimized product release. Thus, the DevOps approach supports a novel possibility to react to customer needs and to further develop the products according to their actual use. Accordingly, the potential for agility can be significantly increased once again.

The Internet of Production provides the infrastructure for the implementation of the DevOps concept for cyber-physical products. Development and user cycle are connected by returning data from the product use in a structured way to the development. Therefore, optimization potentials can be systematically identified and implemented in the product in form of software and hardware releases. Targeted product development can increase target values such as overall equipment efficiency and contribute to the conservation of resources.