DevOps-Foundation PeopleCert DevOps Foundationv3.6Exam Questions and Answers

The “Three Ways” are foundational principles in DevOps:

The First Wayfocuses on increasing the flow of work from left (development) to right (operations). It is about optimizing the entire system for fast delivery, limiting bottlenecks, and enabling a rapid flow of features and fixes to customers.

The Second Wayis about amplifying feedback loops so corrections can be made early.

The Third Wayemphasizes continual learning and experimentation.

Extract-style reference:

“The First Way emphasizes the performance of the entire system, as opposed to the performance of a specific silo of work or department. The goal is to maximize the flow of work (value) from Development to Operations to the customer.”

—Gene Kim, The Phoenix Project / DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6highlights this in the section on "Principles and Practices," emphasizing The First Way as critical to accelerating flow.

When work is delayed due to resource availability or local optimizations causing global degradation, the issue relates toThe First Way—maximizing flow from left to right.

Organizations should analyze and remove bottlenecks in the delivery pipeline (e.g., in testing).

Extract-style reference:

“Optimizing the flow of work requires eliminating bottlenecks, delays, and handoffs that slow the movement of changes from development to operations.”

—The Phoenix Project

DevOps Foundation courseware discusses value stream mapping and the First Way as critical tools for diagnosing and correcting such issues.

Shift Left Testingmeans moving testing earlier in the development process, so defects are found sooner and fixes are cheaper.

Unit testing as part of CIis the classic “shift left” strategy: automated unit tests run with every code change, catching errors before code moves further down the pipeline.

Testing in production(A) is “shift right.”

Manual testing(B) is typically late-stage and not automated.

Biannual vulnerability assessments(D) are after-the-fact and far from “shift left.”

Extract-style reference:

“Shift left means performing testing activities earlier, for example by including unit tests in the CI process, reducing costly late-stage defects.”

—DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert Foundation: “Shift left” is a key DevOps testing principle—find issues fast, fix fast, deploy safely.

Microservices architecturebreaks down applications into small, independent, loosely coupled services that can be developed, tested, and deployed independently.

Why does this improve release frequency?Each microservice can be updated, tested, and deployed on its own, reducing the risk and coordination overhead associated with monolithic releases.

This allows for faster feedback and more frequent delivery of value to users.

Extract-style reference:

“Microservices enable teams to deploy independently, reduce deployment risk, and increase release frequency by decoupling services.”

—Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps, Chapter 4

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Stresses modular architectures for enabling rapid, independent deployments and continuous delivery.

When developers practice agile but operations is slow to deploy, it means IT Operations have not kept pace—classic “left behind” scenario. DevOps aims to align development and operations, breaking down barriers and enabling faster, safer, and more frequent deployments. DevOps is not only about development (B is incorrect), does not break cadence but instead aligns it (C is incorrect), and is not the same as agile but complements it (D is incorrect).

TheDeming Cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act)is foundational to continuous improvement in Lean, and is specifically applied in theImprovement Katapractice:

Improvement Kata: A structured routine for continuous, incremental improvement based on scientific thinking (PDCA).

Value Stream Mapping and Andon cord are Lean practices, but they don’t directly reference PDCA as the core mechanism.

Extract-style reference:

“The Improvement Kata incorporates the Deming cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) to drive small, rapid cycles of change, helping teams to experiment, learn, and adjust.”

—Toyota Kata, Mike Rother

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6: Cites PDCA as integral to continuous improvement and Lean/DevOps adoption.

Forcing all development teams toimmediately migrateto a standard set of tools dictated by IT Operations isnota recommended DevOps strategy.

DevOps promotescollaboration, flexibility, and evolutionof toolchains, allowing teams to choose what fits their needs while moving toward sensible defaults and integration over time.

Abrupt, top-down mandates undermine trust and autonomy, often leading to resistance and lower adoption.

Why are the other options better?

IT Ops or infra squads managing toolchain as a service(A),sensible defaults(C), andself-service(D) are all recognized best practices to support DevOps evolution and developer enablement.

Extract-style reference:

“Mandating a single toolset without considering team needs reduces engagement. Toolchains should be managed as self-service platforms with sensible defaults, supporting but not constraining teams.”

—State of DevOps Report;DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Encourages enabling choice, not enforcing uniformity without context.

A DevOps professional needs:

Business skills: Understanding the business context and value.

Technical skills: Automation, coding, cloud, infrastructure.

Core (soft) skills: Collaboration, communication, empathy, learning.

Self-management: Time, priorities, feedback.

Other options miss the full blend or focus too much on tech or process.

Extract-style reference:

“DevOps success requires a blend of business, technical, and core (soft) skills, as well as the ability to self-manage and continuously learn.”

— DevOps Handbook; Accelerate

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6: Holistic skillsets are emphasized for cross-functional teams.

Let’s clarify what these terms mean in DevOps:

Continuous Integration (CI):Developers integrate code into a shared repository frequently (ideally daily), with each integration automatically verified by tests.

Continuous Delivery (CD):Ensures software is always in a releasable state. Every change can be deployed to production, but the deployment itself may be a manual decision.

Continuous Deployment:Every change that passes automated tests is automatically deployed to production,withoutmanual intervention.

Why is D (“Continuous Deployment requires a manual push button”) NOT TRUE?

BecauseContinuous Deploymentis aboutno manual intervention—once code passes all tests, it’s automatically pushed live. Manual deployment is a feature of Continuous Delivery, not Continuous Deployment.

Extract-style reference:

“Continuous Deployment means that every change goes through the pipeline and is automatically put into production, resulting in many production deployments every day.”

—Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps, Jez Humble & Nicole Forsgren

DevOps Foundation v3.6distinguishes between Continuous Delivery (manual trigger) and Continuous Deployment (fully automated).