SDLC Automation
What to know
SDLC Automation on the DevOps Professional exam centers on CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and CodeCommit, plus how they wire into existing CI/CD. Know the stage/action model: pipelines are ordered stages, each stage has actions that can run sequentially or in parallel (runOrder), and artifacts move between stages via an artifact store (S3). Understand CodeBuild buildspec phases (install, pre_build, build, post_build), the difference between build artifacts and reports, caching (S3 or local), and environment variables vs. parameter-store secrets. For CodeDeploy, know deployment strategies (in-place vs. blue/green), the AppSpec file, deployment groups, and lifecycle hooks (BeforeInstall, AfterInstall, ApplicationStart, ValidateService for EC2/on-prem; the Lambda/ECS hook sets differ).
Traps
- Confusing CodeCommit triggers with EventBridge rules; both can start pipelines, but EventBridge is the cross-service integration path.
- Assuming a pipeline action can mutate source artifacts in place - actions produce output artifacts.
- Blue/green on EC2 requires a load balancer and two target groups; in-place does not.
- Manual approval actions don't run code; they gate the stage and can send SNS notifications.
Rule of thumb
If a question asks how to deploy with zero downtime, reach for blue/green (CodeDeploy) or an ECS/Lambda traffic shift; if it asks how to gate a release on human review, use a manual approval action, not a Lambda check.
Worked example
Need parallel test suites before deploy? Put two CodeBuild actions in one stage with the same runOrder so they execute concurrently; the stage completes only when both succeed.