DevOps Professional preparation guide

Overview

Scope
DevOps is best known in the field of software services, but its principles are applicable in all
contexts where fast delivery of reliable products and services is relevant. DevOps contributes to the
success of the overall organization by facilitating the synergy of Agile development, Service
Management and Lean improvement while assuring security and maintaining control in a
continuous delivery pipeline.
The primary purpose of this module is to test whether the candidate is familiar with DevOps
practices in the Three Ways: Flow, Feedback, Learning and Experimentation. The candidate will
understand the impact of these organizational and technical changes on their daily work.
Summary
The word DevOps is a contraction of ‘Development’ and ‘Operations’. DevOps is a set of best
practices that emphasize the collaboration and communication of IT-professionals (developers,
operators, and support staff) in the lifecycle of applications and services, leading to:
-Continuous Integration: merging all developed working copies to a shared mainline several
times a day
-Continuous Deployment: release continuously or as often as possible
-Continuous Feedback: seek feedback from stakeholders during all lifecycle stages
The DevOps practices covered in this certification are derived from the Three Ways:
The First Way is to enable the work to move fast from left to right, from Development to
Operations to the customer.
The Second Way is to enable feedback to go fast from right to left, from all stakeholders
back into the value stream.
The Third Way is to enable learning by creating a high-trust culture of experimentation and
risk-taking.
Moreover, the crucial subjects of security in all stages, and maintaining compliance during change
are covered.
The certification has been developed in cooperation with experts in the DevOps work field.

Target Group
The EXIN DevOps Professional certification is meant for anyone working within a DevOps
environment or in an organization that considers the transition to a DevOps way of working.

The target group includes, but is not limited to:
-Software and Website Developers

-System Engineers
-DevOps Engineers
-Product and Service Owners
-Project Managers
-Test Engineers
-IT Service Management operating and support staff
-Process Managers
-Lean IT Professionals
-Agile Scrum practitioners

Requirements for certification
-Successful completion of the DevOps Professional exam.
-Pre-knowledge of Agile, Lean and/or IT Service Management, for instance through the
EXIN Agile Scrum Foundation exam, LITA Lean IT Foundation exam or EXIN IT Service
Management Foundation based on ISO/IEC 20000 exam, is recommended.
Bloom level
The EXIN DevOps Professional certification tests candidates at the Bloom Levels 2 and 3
according to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy:
-Bloom Level 2: Understanding – a step beyond remembering (Level 1). Understanding
shows that candidates can comprehend what is presented and can evaluate how the
learning material may be applied in their own environment.
This type of questions aims to demonstrate that the candidate is able to organize,
compare, interpret and choose the correct description of facts and ideas.
-Bloom Level 3: Applying – shows that candidates have the ability to make use of
information in a context different from the one in which it was learned.
This type of questions aims to demonstrate that the candidate is able to solve problems
in new situations by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques and rules in a
different, or new way. The question usually contains a short scenario.
Examination details
Examination type: Computer-based or paper-based multiple-choice questions
Number of questions: 40
Pass mark: 65%
Open book/notes: No
Electronic equipment/aides permitted: No
Time allotted for examination: 90 minutes

The Rules and Regulations for EXIN’s examinations apply to this exam.

Training
Contact hours
The recommended number of contact hours for this training course is 16. This includes group
assignments, exam preparation and short breaks. This number of hours does not include
homework, the exam session and lunch breaks.
Indication study effort
60 hours, depending on existing knowledge.
Training provider
You can find a list of our Accredited Training Organizations at www.exin.com.

Exam requirements

Exam specifications

1. DevOps Adoption
1.1 Basic Concepts of DevOps
The candidate can…
1.1.1 describe basic DevOps concepts like continuous delivery, Agile
infrastructure, Kata, WIP, technical debt and lead time.
1.2 Principles of the Three Ways
The candidate can…
1.2.1 distinguish the principles of flow, feedback and continuous learning
and experimentation.
1.2.2 explain the difference between System of Records (SoR) and
System of Engagement (SoE) in relationship to DevOps.
1.3 Organization
The candidate can…
1.3.1 explain how the several DevOps roles work together in order to add
value to the business.
1.3.2 explain the differences between I-shape, T-shape and E-shape in
relationship to DevOps.
1.3.3 explain how to integrate Operations into the daily work of
Development.
2. The First Way: Flow
2.1 Deployment Pipeline
The candidate can…
2.1.1 choose techniques, such as infrastructure as a code and containers,
to solve a deployment pipeline problem.
2.1.2 choose the best solution to optimize the value stream.
2.1.3 assess a shared version control repository for completeness.
2.1.4 adapt the Definition of Done (DoD) in order to reflect the DevOps
principles.
2.1.5 explain how tooling can be used to automate the building and
configuration of the environment.
2.2 Automated Testing
The candidate can…
2.2.1 explain the difference between a non-ideal testing pyramid and an
ideal testing pyramid.
2.2.2 select the intended use of test-driven development in a flow.
2.3 Continuous Integration
The candidate can…
2.3.1 choose the optimal branching strategy.
2.3.2 explain the influence of technical debt on the flow.
2.3.3 explain how to eliminate technical debt.
2.4 Low-risk Releases
The candidate can…
2.4.1 discriminate the several release and deployment patterns in order to
enable low-risk releases.
2.4.2 select the right architectural archetype to use.

3. The Second Way: Feedback
3.1 Telemetry
The candidate can…
3.1.1 describe how telemetry can contribute to optimizing the value
stream.
3.1.2 describe the monitoring framework components.
3.1.3 explain the added value of self-service access to telemetry.
3.2 Feedback
The candidate can…
3.2.1 solve deployment problems using fix forward and roll back
techniques.
3.2.2 change launching guidance requirements checklists to fit into a
DevOps guidance.
3.2.3 apply safety checks using the Launch Readiness Review (LRR) and
the Hand-Off Readiness Review (HRR).
3.2.4 explain how user experience (UX) design can be used as feedback
mechanism.
3.3 Hypothesis-Driven Development and A/B testing
The candidate can…
3.3.1 explain how A/B testing can be integrated into a release and into
feature testing.
3.3.2 explain how hypothesis driven development can aid the delivery of
expected outcome.
3.4 Review and Coordination
The candidate can…
3.4.1 examine the effectiveness of a pull request process.
3.4.2 explain the review techniques: pair programming, over-the-shoulder,
e-mail pass-around and tool-assisted code review.
3.4.3 choose the best review technique for a given situation.
4. The Third Way: Continual Learning and Experimentation
4.1 Learning
The candidate can…
4.1.1 differentiate between the several Simian Army Monkey types to
improve learning.
4.1.2 conduct a blameless post mortem meeting.
4.1.3 explain how injection of production failure creates resilience.
4.1.4 explain when to use game days.
4.2 Discoveries
The candidate can…
4.2.1 describe how to use (codified) non-functional requirements (NFR) to
design for Operations.
4.2.2 explain how to build reusable operations user stories into
development.
4.2.3 explain which objects should be stored in the single shared source
code repository.
4.2.4 explain how to convert local discoveries into global improvements.

5. Information Security and Change Management
5.1 Information Security
The candidate can…
5.1.1 explain how to integrate preventative security controls.
5.1.2 explain how to integrate security in the deployment pipeline.
5.1.3 explain how to use telemetry for enhancing security.
5.2 Change Management
The candidate can…
5.2.1 explain how to maintain security during change.
5.2.2 explain how to maintain compliance during change.

List of Basic Concepts

This chapter contains the terms and abbreviations with which candidates should be familiar.
Please note that knowledge of these terms alone does not suffice for the exam; the candidate must
understand the concepts and be able to provide examples.

• A/B testing
• Acceptance tests
• Agile infrastructure
• Andon cord
• Anomaly detection techniques
• Antifragility
• Automated tests
• Bad apple theory
• Bad paths
• Blameless post mortem
• Blue-green deployment pattern
• Branching strategy
• Brownfield
• Business value
• Canary release pattern
• Change categories
• Change schedules
• Cloud configuration files
• Cluster immune system release pattern
• Code branch
• Code review forms
• Codified NFR
• Commit code
• Compliance checking
• Compliancy officer
• Containers
• Continuous Delivery
• Conway’s law
• Defect tracking
• Definition of Done (DoD)
• Dev rituals
• Development
• Downwards spiral
• E-mail pass-around
• Fast feedback
• Feature toggles
• Feedback
• Feedforward
• Gaussian distribution
• Greenfield
• Hand-off readiness review
• Happy paths
• I-shaped, T-shaped, E-shaped
• Information radiators
• Infosec
• Infrastructure as code
• Integration tests
• Kaizen Blitz (or Improvement Blitz)
• Kanban
• Kata
• Latent defects
• Launch readiness review
• Lauching guidance
• Lead time
• Learning culture
• Logging levels
• Loosely coupled architecture
• Microservices
• Monitoring Framework
• Monolithic
• MTTR
• Non-functional requirement (NFR)
• Non-functional requirement (NFR) testing
• Operations
• OPS liaison
• Organisational typology model
• Organization archetypes
• Over-the-shoulder
• Packages
• Pair programming
• Peer review
• Post mortems
• Product Owner
• Pull request process
• QA
• Reduce batch size
• Reduce number of handoffs
• Release branch
• Release managers
• Release patterns
• Sad path
• Safety conditions
• Security testing
• Self service capability
• Shared goals
• Shared operations team (SOT)
• Shared version control
• Single repository
• Smoke testing
• Standard deviation
• Standard operations
• Static analysis
• Swarming
• System of Engagement (SoE)
• System of Records (SoR)
• Technical debt
• Technology adaption curve
• Technology executives
• Test-Driven Development
• The Agile Manifesto
• The Lean movement
• The Simian Army: Chaos Gorilla, Chaos Kong, Conformity
• Monkey, Doctor Monkey, Janitor Monkey, Latency Monkey,
• Security Monkey
• The Three Ways
• Theory of constraints
• Tool-assisted review
• Toyoto Kata
• Transformation team
• Trunk
• Value stream
• Virtualized environment
• Visualisation
• Waste
• Waste reduction
• WIP (Worrk in Progress /Process
• WIP Limit

Literature

Exam Literature

A. The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in
Technology Organizations
Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, John Willis
ISBN-10: 1942788002
ISBN-13: 978-1942788003
IT Revolution Press; 1 edition (2016)

Additional literature

B. DevOps Best Practices
Bart de Best
ISBN-13: 978-94-92618-07-8
Leonon Media (2017)
C. The Phoenix Project
Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
ISBN-10: 0988262576
ISBN-13: 978-0988262577
IT Revolution Press (January 10, 2013)
D. Other sources:
http://newrelic.com/devops
http://devops.com/

Comment

Additional literature is for reference and depth of knowledge only.

Literature reference