Wikipedia describes DevOps (a clipped compound of “development” and “operations”) as a software engineering practice that aims at unifying software development (Dev) and software operation (Ops). The main characteristic of the DevOps movement is to strongly advocate automation and monitoring at all steps of software construction, from integration, testing, releasing to deployment and infrastructure management. DevOps aims at shorter development cycles, increased deployment frequency, more dependable releases, in close alignment with business objectives.​

Successful DevOps consists of the following:

• Visibility across the value stream
• An agreement between developers and operations that the goal is realizing value quickly
• Automation of integration, testing and releasing

Much can be accomplished in the DevOps arena via the first two alone.  It’s usually a good first step and makes it easier to truly implement DevOps efficiently.

Note that although a full blown implementation of DevOps is recommended, creating visibility and including DevOps in planning will go a long ways towards improving operations.

Additional Resources

Whether you are using SAFe or not, its DevOps resource if very good and stands on its own whether using SAFe or not.