OVERVIEW 

The DevOps Leader course is a unique and practical experience for participants who want to take a transformational leadership approach and make an impact within their organization by implementing DevOps. Leading people through a DevOps evolution requires new skills, tools, innovative thinking, and transformational leadership. Leaders up, down and across an organization must align and collaborate to break down silos and evolve the organization.

The course highlights the human dynamics of cultural change and equips participants with practices, methods, and tools to engage people across the DevOps spectrum through the use of real-life scenarios and case studies. Upon completion of the course, participants will have tangible takeaways to leverage when back in the office such as understanding Value Stream Mapping. 

The course was developed by leveraging key DevOps leadership sources to extract real-life best practices in leading DevOps initiatives and has been designed to teach the key differences and emerging practices for DevOps ways of working through leadership in a fast-paced DevOps and Agile environment. 

This certification positions learners to successfully complete the DevOps Leader exam. 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The learning objectives for DOL include a practical understanding of:

• DevOps and time to value
• Mindset and mental models
• Key differences between DevOps IT and traditional IT
• Target operating models and organizational design
• Performance management, rewards and motivation
• Preparing investment cases
• Focusing on value outcomes
• Ideas for organizing workflows
• Empowerment and participation
• Defining meaningful metrics
• Value stream mapping
• Driving cultural and behavioral change

AUDIENCE 

The target audience for the DevOps Leader course are professionals including:

• Anyone starting or leading a DevOps cultural transformation program
• Anyone interested in modern IT leadership and organizational change approaches
• Business Managers
• Business Stakeholders
• Change Agents
• Consultants
• DevOps Consultants
• DevOps Engineers
• IT Directors
• IT Managers
• IT Team Leaders
• Lean Coaches
• Practitioners
• Product Owners
• Scrum Masters
• System Integrators
• Tool Providers

LEARNER MATERIALS 

• Learner Manual (excellent post-class reference) including:
  • Course slideware
  • Value Added Resources
  • Glossary
• Participation in exercises and discussions designed to apply concepts 
• Case stories
• Access to additional sources of information and communities 

PREREQUISITES

An understanding and knowledge of common DevOps terminology and concepts and related work experience are recommended.

CERTIFICATION EXAM

Successfully passing (65%) the 60-minute examination, consisting of 40 multiple-choice questions, leads to the candidate’s designation as a certified DevOps Leader (DOL). The certification is governed and maintained by the DevOps Institute.    

COURSE OUTLINE

• Course Introduction
  • Course Goals
  • Course Agenda
• Module 1: DevOps and Transformational Leadership
  • Current Definitions of DevOps
  • Benefits of DevOps
  • Transformational Leadership
• Module 2: Unlearning Behaviors
  • Psychological Safety and Neuroscience
  • Mindset, Mental Models and Cognitive Bias
  • Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and DevOps
• Module 3: Becoming a DevOps Organization
  • How DevOps Differs
  • DevOps Kaizen
  • Building Safety In
• Module 4: Measure to Learn
  • Avoiding Measure to Target
  • Creating a Current Value Stream Map
• Module 5: Measure to Improve
  • The Improvement Kata and Experiments
  • Creating a Future Value Stream Map
• Module 6: Target Operating Models and Organizational Design

• Conway’s Law 
• Desired Outcomes of DevOps
• DevOps TOM Design Principles

• Module 7: Articulating and Socializing Vision
  • Organizational Change in Large Enterprises
  • Empowering People
  • Broadcasting Outside of Your Organization
• Module 8: Maintaining Energy and Momentum
  • The DevOps Business Case
  • Culture and Climate
  • A High-Trust Culture
• Additional Sources of Information
• Exam Preparations
  • Exam Requirements, Question Weighting, and Terminology List 
  • Sample Exam Review