EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF DEVOPS MATURITY ON PROJECT SUCCESS: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

DevOps maturity how technical practices and cultural enablers are institutionalized has been linked to delivery performance, yet the evidence remains fragmented across models and metrics. This PRISMA-guided systematic review synthesizes peer-reviewed, English-language studies published from 2015 to 2025 across IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Google Scholar; after screening and eligibility assessment, 29 studies were included. To enable comparability, we standardized DevOps maturity into seven recurring dimensions (culture, automation, continuous integration, continuous delivery, infrastructure as code, monitoring/feedback, and architecture) and project success into two outcome families: delivery performance (deployment frequency, lead time, change-failure rate, mean time to recovery) and business/experience outcomes (quality, availability, customer satisfaction, and ROI). Data were extracted with a structured template, double-coded for reliability, appraised using a mixed-methods quality tool, and synthesized thematically. Results show that higher maturity is consistently associated with faster and safer delivery and improved stakeholder outcomes, with the strongest effects where CI/CD, IaC, automated testing, and observability are institutionalized; culture and leadership moderate technical gains, and effects vary by regulation level, legacy burden, and team scale. We conclude with a unifying construct map for comparing maturity frameworks and practice-level recommendations, and we outline a research agenda emphasizing longitudinal and sector-specific designs, stronger confounder control, and integration of DevSecOps as maturity increases.