Continuous Delivery & DevOps

University of Virginia

About this Course

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Amazon famously delivers new code every 11.6 seconds. Just a few years ago, this was unthinkable: many ‘cutting edge’ firms would release software quarterly. When it comes to digital innovation, velocity is critical and many would say it’s the most reliable determinant of success. 
Bringing an organization to the state of the art (or even functional capability) in this area requires strong work in a combination of disciplines and a combination of both technical and managerial skills. There is no single cookie-cutter approach for achieving this capability. Much like agile, the right focus and formulation depends a lot on the facts and circumstances of the team. This course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and taught by top-ranked faculty, will provide you with the interdisciplinary skill set to cultivate a continuous deployment capability in your organization. 

After completing this course, you will be able to: 
1. Diagnose a team’s delivery pipeline and bring forward prioritized recommendations to improve it
2. Explain the skill sets and roles involved in DevOps and how they contribute toward a continuous delivery capability
3. Review and deliver automation tests across the development stack
4. Explain the key jobs of system operations and how today’s leading techniques and tools apply to them
5. Explain how high-functioning teams use DevOps and related methods to reach a continuous delivery capability 
6. Facilitate prioritized, iterative team progress on improving a delivery pipeline

Learner Career Outcomes

50%

started a new career after completing these courses

31%

got a tangible career benefit from this course

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Beginner Level

Some familiarity with software development is helpful, but not required.

Approx. 8 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, English, Spanish

What you will learn

How to diagnose a team’s delivery pipeline and bring forward prioritized recommendations to improve it

The skill sets and roles involved in DevOps and how they contribute toward a continuous delivery capability

How to review and deliver automation tests across the development stack

How to facilitate prioritized, iterative team progress on improving a delivery pipeline

Skills you will gain

DevopsContinuous DeliveryUnit TestingInfrastructure As CodeSystem Testing

Learner Career Outcomes

50%

started a new career after completing these courses

31%

got a tangible career benefit from this course

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Beginner Level

Some familiarity with software development is helpful, but not required.

Approx. 8 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, English, Spanish

Instructor

Instructor rating

4.68/5 (177 Ratings)

Alex Cowan

Faculty & Batten Fellow

Darden School of Business

285,674 Learners

13 Courses

Offered by

University of Virginia

A premier institution of higher education, The University of Virginia offers outstanding academics, world-class faculty, and an inspiring, supportive environment. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the University is guided by his vision of discovery, innovation, and development of the full potential of students from all walks of life. Through these courses, global learners have an opportunity to study with renowned scholars and thought leaders.

Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

Content Rating96%(2,007 ratings)

Week

Week 1

2 hours to complete

The Importance of Velocity & The Jobs of Delivery

If your job is to make software, you’re probably busy. Everyone needs new features yesterday. Stuff breaks. How do you make time to work smarter? How do you know where you should focus the time you do have for process improvement? In this week, we’ll cover the fundamentals of DevOps and continuous delivery with an emphasis on the relationship between required investment and benefits.

2 hours to complete

9 videos (Total 63 min)

9 videos

Why Is Velocity Important?4m

What Is a Delivery Pipeline?4m

What Is a Test Stack?7m

What Is DevOps?6m

The Job of Development and DevOps6m

The Job of Test and DevOps5m

The Job of Ops and DevOps5m

Interview with Jez Humble16m

Your Delivery Pipeline- Getting Started6m

1 practice exercise

Week 1- The Importance of Velocity & The Jobs of Delivery30m

Week

Week 2

3 hours to complete

Your Testing Stack

Focusing and automating your software testing is one of the most critical foundation elements to a continuous delivery capability. Thinking like a developer and looking at how to automate repetitive tasks is a lot of what DevOps collaboration is about. In this week, we’ll explore the test stack with a focus on the when and how’s of automated testing.

3 hours to complete

14 videos (Total 76 min)

14 videos

The Science and Economics of Testing5m

How Many Tests?6m

Demo: Introduction to Our Sample Application5m

Demo: Introduction to Our Sample Code3m

Demo: Sample Code7m

The Small/Unit Test3m

Unit Test Example7m

Unit Test Practice Example2m

The Medium/Integration Test6m

The Medium/Integration Test Example3m

The Large/System Test6m

Introduction to System Testing4m

System Test Example10m

Creating a Culture of Experimentation2m

1 practice exercise

Week 2- Your Testing Stack30m

Week

Week 3

2 hours to complete

Infrastructure and The Jobs of Ops

Something like 99% of the code that delivers your functionality to the user is code you don’t write- it’s an operating system and supporting packages from third parties. The quality and availability of standard components has driven down the cost of software development exponentially. It’s also increased the importance of managing this supporting code and the environments where it runs to support your application. In this week, we’ll look at the techniques and tools teams are using to manage their environments and operations for continuous delivery.

2 hours to complete

12 videos (Total 54 min)

12 videos

The 99% of Your Code You Don't Write3m

Who Is this Ops Person?6m

The Job of Ops Sys Admin6m

The Job of Designing5m

The Job of Deploying2m

The Job of Maintaining3m

The Job of Monitoring3m

Version Control 1016m

The Role of Version Control5m

What's Under the Hood?6m

Kubernetes and Container Orchestration4m

Week Close48s

1 practice exercise

Week 3- Infrastructure and The Jobs of Ops30m

Week

Week 4

2 hours to complete

Delivering Continuously

You now have an understanding of the key components of a continuous delivery capability. The key to success is focusing on the right things at the right time and creating momentum with your initial investments on the capability. In this final week, we’ll look at how teams get their continuous capability online and keep their pipeline healthy.

2 hours to complete

11 videos (Total 77 min)

11 videos

Towards CI, CD2m

The CI/CD Process7m

Feature Flags and the Blue/Green Pattern6m

Interview with Adam Zimman at LaunchDarkly6m

Microservices vs. Monoliths3m

Interview with Jim Rose4m

Interview with Ricardo at CircleCI14m

Interview with Emma Bukacek at CircleCI4m

Interview with Sam Aronoff at Honey11m

Interview with David at Intuit11m

Course Wrap-up2m

1 practice exercise

Week 4- Delivering Continuously30m

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Continuous Delivery & DevOps