Yes, You Can Learn DevOps
This course consists of a series of modules that teach how to design, build, deploy, and test microservice-based systems. Unlike most DevOps courses, its focus is particularly on integration, which is where most problems are. Thus, instead of stopping at the “build pipeline”, you create an integration pipeline. You also learn how to do most of that locally, so that you are not always waiting for cloud deployments for things that could have been done locally – if only you had designed them with that in mind.
The course is designed to enable non-programmers to learn these things. To achieve that, it provides a gentle on-ramp of the technologies, techniques, and languages that are used. The language used in the course is Java, and “bash” scripting is used too.
However, this is not a beginner course: it goes farther than most DevOps courses. It is the real thing. If you are a non-technical person, you will be able to speak with confidence when talking to programmers; if you are technical, you will find that the course provides you with rich new perspectives about having a cloud-independent built chain and local testing.
At the completion of this course you will have built, deployed, and created automated integration tests for clusters of microservices. You will also have learned how to create a comprehensive testing strategy – something that is missing from virtually all courses on this subject. There is an overview of the test strategy approach in this article: https://agile.org.uk/rational-testing-agile-approach/
Participants are asked to try each module part on their own before the corresponding live session. Then during the live session, we walk through it as a group and questions are answered.
The total time commitment is 30 hours, spread across 15 workshops. Each workshop is 1-2 hours. If you are an experienced developer, you can do some of the workshops on your own. Please see the website for the schedule. The sessions will be recorded in case you miss one, but we encourage you to not miss them, because the sessions are where you can ask questions about your code. We cannot promise to help with all coding issues during the workshop, but we will try.
The total cost for all workshops is $1150. Only the optional workshops can be skipped, as the others build on each other, and your codebase builds. (You will also be required to create an AWS account and use AWS. The charges that you can expect should be less than $50, but it can vary.)
If you need additional help outside of the workshops, it is available at $60 for a half hour call. There is also an online class forum in which you can ask questions. The instructor and other participants can respond. You can also ask a coding assistant, such as Github CoPilot or Replit to help you to figure out why code does not work. The certificate of completion lists the syllabus.
How This Differs From a Cloud Certification
Cloud certifications are great to have. However, they are entirely in terms of their own tools. That’s not a good thing, because they want you to become dependent on their tools. For a lot of tasks, it is important to make things tool-independent: we explain and illustrate that very thoroughly in this course. Relying on a cloud vendor’s tools for everything is very expensive, and also slows you down because you will end up waiting for cloud services for things that you could have done locally on your own computer.
“This is AWESOME training. Real hands on, but don't need to be a developer to implement and understand DevOps. It was the most relevant training I ever took.” - Rick Vance, Agile Coach. LinkedIn profile.
“…every part of the course is exactly as described. No fluff, no marketing hype, just hard-core, DEVOPS-centric insights into the technologies that influence and enable DEVOPS adoption in many organizations. [It] …will not only teach you ‘how things work’ but also what is broken about some of the more commonly-used toolsets…you will be able to guide your teams into avoiding many common pitfalls and keep their focus on consistent quality.” - Huet Landry, Agile Coach. LinkedIn profile.
“I have been taking the DevOps for Agile Coaches class…so I could become technically stronger as a coach. This has already had an impact on my ability to improve teams. The class is a walk-through of how to incorporate DevOps into the Agile framework you are using by getting you to actually do all the thing you see your teams doing from a technical perspective. This include hands on work setting up AWS, Docker, creating sample code and tests and running it to see if it works….I believe if any coach wants to get to the next level this is a great course to help you do that.” - David Pointer, Agile Coach. LinkedIn profile.
“This is a unique course tailored for Agile coaches (even non-technical ones) to embrace the concepts of DevOps transformation. It is very practical, you learn all the aspects of DevOps through tools, implementation, concepts, and best practices…this is not an easy course that you can pass on the fly. It is an equivalent of a college course with significant time investment and homework 😊. It is all worth it – you will be transformed through this course to a new level in your career!” - Anastasiya Fomin, Director of Quality Engineering & Agile Program Management Office. LinkedIn profile.
Next Class Begins January 6, 2025
Sessions will be at noon US EST (5pm GMT)
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for five weeks
Or instead of signing up for the whole course, select a track, or even one module at a time. Click here for the packages that are available.
These are the modules that you progress through.
These are not shallow tours: they go deep, and you create and deploy real things.
The completion certificate lists what you learned.
Schedule for January-February Workshops
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Do you want to arrange something custom, or classes for just your organization? Contact us so that we can discuss your precise needs.
System Requirements
Any Windows, Mac (Intel or Apple silicon does not matter), or Intel-based Linux computer will work.
You must have system administration privilege on your computer. (If you own the machine, then you have system administration privilege.)
To perform the activities of the course, these are required in your computer:
At least 8Gb RAM.
Virtualization is enabled. For consumer computers it usually is. If you are using a company computer, please check that virtualization is enabled: if not, ask to enable it. Enabling virtualization requires system administration privilege: if you own the computer, then you have that. Usually software developers have administration privilege on their machines.
