DevOps Leader Certification Training

Prepares current and aspiring IT leaders to guide DevOps cultural, organizational, and technical transformations.

What we cover

• Module 1: DevOps and Transformational Leadership DevOps Defined: Integration of development and operations, continuous improvement, and delivery acceleration. Transformational Leadership Dimensions: Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, Individualised Consideration, and Idealised Influence. DevOps Soft Skills: Communication, cross-functional team dynamics, empathy, and adaptability. Strategic Vision Frameworks: The Golden Circle model (Why, How, What) applied to IT transformations and the Lean Strategic Change Canvas.
• Module 2: Unlearning Behaviours Neuroscience of Change: Neuroplasticity, emotional intelligence (EI), and managing cognitive biases. Cognitive Biases in IT: Confirmation bias, anchoring bias, availability heuristic, and sunk cost fallacy. Psychological Safety: Establishing a blame-free work environment that supports measured risk-taking. Stakeholder & Educational Alignment: Bateson Stakeholder Mapping and Training from the Back of the Room (4Cs model). Legacy Coexistence: Integrating DevOps within brownfield/legacy IT architectures.
• Module 3: Becoming a DevOps Organisation Initiating Transformation: Current infrastructure evaluation, milestone planning, and establishing pilot initiatives. Operational Comparison: Traditional IT Operations vs. DevOps Operating Models. Product-Centric Delivery: Minimum Viable Product (MVP) iterative cycles and customer feedback mechanisms. Continuous Improvement Culture: DevOps Kaizen, Shift-Left security, continuous monitoring, fail-fast mechanisms, and inclusive participation.
• Module 4: Measure to Learn Value Stream Mapping (VSM): Documenting the "As-Is" software delivery pipeline. VSM Metrics: Touch time vs. wait time, value-added activities, and % complete and accurate (%C&A). Strategic Measurement: Establishing SMART objectives, defining baseline performance, and creating data feedback loops. DevOps Performance Indicators: Deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and mean time to recovery (MTTR).
• Module 5: Measure to Improve Improvement Kata Routine: Understand direction, grasp current condition, establish target condition, and conduct PDCA cycles. Principles of Controlled Experimentation: Small-batch testing, feature flags, automated testing, and hypothesis validation. Identifying Waste & Opportunities: Post-mortems, retrospective analyses, and prioritization frameworks (Cost of Delay, WSJF). Future State VSM: Projecting target workflows, removing bottlenecks, and defining execution roadmaps.
• Module 6: Target Operating Models & Organisational Designs Target Operating Model (TOM) Core Layers: Processes, organizational structure, people, technology, data, and culture. Organizational Design Principles: Strategic alignment, balance of centralization vs. decentralization, and customer orientation. Conway's Law: Alignment between communication architectures and software architectures. Scaled Agile Frameworks: Comparison of SAFe, LeSS, Scrum@Scale, DAD, and Nexus models. Teal Organizations: Self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose.
• Module 7: Articulating and Socialising Vision Modern Performance Management: Continuous feedback, shared accountability, and measuring outcomes over outputs. Beyond Budgeting Principles: Rolling forecasts, dynamic resource allocation, and decentralized decisions. Holistic Organizational Perspectives: Ken Wilber’s Four Quadrants (Integral Theory) applied to organizational change. Conflict Resolution & Narratives: De-escalating the Karpman Drama Triangle (Victim, Persecutor, Rescuer) and leadership storytelling techniques. Leadership Archetypes: Visionary, democratic, coaching, transformational, transactional, and servant leadership.
• Module 8: Maintaining Energy and Momentum Change Paradigms: Revolution vs. Transformation vs. Evolution. The Business Case for DevOps: Quantifying speed, stability, resource efficiency, and client satisfaction. Organizational Culture vs. Climate: Sustaining high-trust environments through transparency, autonomy, and accountability. Learning Theory & The Future: Kolb’s Learning Styles (Diverging, Assimilating, Converging, Accommodating) and navigating Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies.

Every session is customized to your organization's needs. The final agenda is confirmed with your facilitator before delivery.