IBM DevOps and Software Engineering study plan

Define DevOps in your own words and contrast it with traditional waterfall-style delivery, citing at least three concrete differences

Diagram the CI/CD feedback loop and label where version control, automated build, automated test, and deployment gates sit

Explain the CALMS framework (Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement, Sharing) and give one real example of each element from a project you know

Distinguish continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment and state which one a given team scenario actually practices

Compare Git branching strategies (feature branch, trunk-based, GitFlow) and justify a choice for a small team

Practice the core Git workflow: clone, branch, commit, push, open a pull request, review, merge, and resolve a merge conflict

Identify what belongs in a repository versus what belongs in configuration or secrets management

Explain the role of infrastructure as code and name two tools that implement it

Describe the Scrum framework: roles, artifacts, and events, and map each to its purpose

Write user stories with acceptance criteria in the 'As a ... I want ... so that ...' form

Estimate a small backlog using story points and relative sizing, then justify your estimates

Explain how Agile principles from the manifesto connect to DevOps practices like small batch size and fast feedback

Simulate a sprint planning session and produce a sprint goal, selected backlog items, and a task breakdown

Define done using a team Definition of Done and apply it to each selected story

Interpret a burndown chart and identify at least two signals of scope creep or blocked work

Run a retrospective format (Start/Stop/Continue) and convert findings into two actionable improvement items

Explain what cloud-native means and contrast it with lift-and-shift migration

Describe the twelve-factor app principles and apply at least four of them to a sample service

Build a CI pipeline that installs dependencies, runs tests, and fails on a broken test

Explain how a CI/CD tool such as Jenkins, Tekton, or GitHub Actions triggers and reports pipeline stages

Distinguish continuous delivery from continuous deployment in pipeline design and describe the approval gate for each

Add automated testing layers (unit, integration, smoke) to a pipeline and explain what each layer catches

Describe artifact repositories and versioning of build outputs

Explain blue-green and canary deployment strategies and state when each reduces risk

Explain how containers differ from virtual machines in terms of isolation, startup, and resource use

Write a Dockerfile for a simple application and build and run the image locally

Describe Kubernetes core objects (Pod, Deployment, Service, ConfigMap) and what each solves

Apply a Deployment and Service manifest to a local cluster and verify the app is reachable

Explain application modernization approaches: rehost, replatform, refactor, and retire, with a tradeoff for each

Describe how containers and Kubernetes fit into a CI/CD pipeline from build to deploy

Review weak areas across all four domains and close the top three gaps

Complete a timed practice set covering all domains and analyze every missed question