This blog post will cover available learning materials and docs links to information relevant to the exam AZ-400, links to these articles will be updated regularly.
Hopefully this will give you a head start on what you need to learn in order to pass the AZ-400 exam.
UPDATE: The following course is the best study resource I have found before I sat and passed this exam: -
These 2 are also very good: -
- https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/5912/study-material-for-exam-az400-microsoft-azure-devops-solutions-beta/
- https://azurementor.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/how-to-pass-the-az-400-microsoft-azure-devops-solutions-beta-exam/
Introducing Azure DevOps - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-azure-devops/ and https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/devops/
And how about some free Azure DevOps labs - https://azuredevopslabs.com/
Checkout Donovan Brown and others demoing off Azure Devops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWmcGK714IE
Design a DevOps Strategy (20-25%) Recommend a migration and consolidation strategy for DevOps tools - Analyze existing artifact (e.g. deployment packages, NuGet) and container repositories
- Analyze existing test management tools
- Analyze existing work management tools
- Recommend migration and integration strategies for artifact repositories, source control, test management, and work management
Azure Test Plans - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/devops/test-plans/ Azure Boards - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/boards/get-started/what-is-azure-boards?view=vsts&tabs=new-nav Migrate to Azure DevOps - https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/azure/devops/articles/migration-overview?view=vsts
Design and implement an Agile work management approach - Identify and recommend project metrics, KPIs, and DevOps measurements (e.g. cycle time, lead time, Azure Kubernetes Service, WIP limit)
- Implement tools and processes to support Agile work management
- Mentor team members on Agile techniques and practices
- Recommend an organization structure that supports scaling Agile practices
- Recommend in-team and cross-team collaboration mechanisms Implement tools and processes to support Agile work management - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/boards/get-started/what-is-azure-boards?view=vsts&tabs=new-nav
Design a quality strategy - Analyze existing quality environment
- Identify and recommend quality metrics
- Recommend a strategy for feature flag lifecycle
- Recommend a strategy for measuring and managing technical debt
- Recommend changes to team structure to optimize quality
- Recommend performance testing strategy
Design a secure development process - Inspect and validate code base for compliance
- Inspect and validate infrastructure for compliance
- Recommend a secure development strategy
- Recommend tools and practices to integrate code security validation (e.g. static code analysis)
- Recommend tools and practices to integrate infrastructure security validation
Getting started with the Secure DevOps Kit for Azure (AzSK) - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/videos/azure-friday-getting-started-with-the-secure-devops-kit-for-azure-azsk/ Use InSpec for compliance automation of your Azure infrastructure - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/chef/chef-inspec-overview Mindset shift to a DevSecOps culture - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/learn/devops-at-microsoft/security-in-devops Static Code Analyis - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Veracode.veracode-vsts-build-extension Learn how to add continuous security validation to your CI/CD pipeline - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/articles/security-validation-cicd-pipeline?view=vsts
Design a tool integration strategy - Design a license management strategy (e.g. VSTS users, concurrent pipelines, test environments, open source software licensing, DevOps tools and services, package management licensing)
- Design a strategy for end-to-end traceability from work items to working software
- Design a strategy for integrating monitoring and feedback to development teams
- Design an authentication and access strategy
- Design a strategy for integrating on-premises and cloud resources
Implement DevOps Development Processes (20-25%) Design a version control strategy - Recommend branching models
- Recommend version control systems
- Recommend code flow strategy
Git - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/learn/git/what-is-git Branch policies - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/devops/repos/git/branch-policies?view=vsts
Implement and integrate source control - Integrate external source control
- Integrate source control into third-party continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) systems
Implement and manage build infrastructure - Implement private and hosted agents
- Integrate third party build systems
- Recommend strategy for concurrent pipelines
- Manage VSTS pipeline configuration (e.g. agent queues, service endpoints, pools, webhooks)
Pipelines - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/agents?view=vsts Concurrent Jobs - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/licensing/concurrent-jobs-vsts?view=vsts
Implement code flow - Implement pull request strategies
- Implement branch and fork strategies
- Configure branch policies
Pull Requests - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devops/2014/06/10/conduct-a-git-pull-request-on-visual-studio-online/ Branch Policies:- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/repos/git/branch-policies?view=vsts https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/buckh/2016/03/20/gated-checkin-for-git-using-branch-policies-to-run-a-build-in-vsts-and-tfs/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/repos/git/branch-policies-overview?view=vsts
Implement a mobile DevOps strategy - Manage mobile target device sets and distribution groups
- Manage target UI test device sets
- Provision tester devices for deployment
- Create public and private distribution groups
Mobile DevOps - https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/DevOps-Lab/Real-World-Mobile-DevOps-with-VSTS-and-App-Center UI Tests - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/appcenter/test-cloud/vsts-plugin Distribution Groups - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/appcenter/distribution/groups
Managing application configuration and secrets - Imhttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/appcenter/distribution/groupsplement a secure and compliant development process
- Implement general (non-secret) configuration data
- Manage secrets, tokens, and certificates
- Implement applications configurations (e.g. Web App, Azure Kubernetes Service, containers)
- Implement secrets management (e.g. Web App, Azure Kubernetes Service, containers, Azure Key Vault)
- Implement tools for managing security and compliance in the pipeline
Secure DevOps Kit for Azure - https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/Article/Content/919/Building-cloud-apps-using-the-Secure-DevOps-Kit-for-Azure Manage secrets, tokens and certs - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/accounts/use-personal-access-tokens-to-authenticate?view=vsts Implement applications configurations (e.g. Web App, Azure Kubernetes Service, containers) - https://azuredevopslabs.com/ Implement secrets management - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/accounts/manage-conditional-access?view=vsts Implement tools for managing security and compliance in the pipeline - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/release-notes/2018/sprint-141-update
Implement Continuous Integration (10-15%) Manage code quality and security policies - Monitor code quality
- Configure build to report on code coverage
- Manage automated test quality
- Manage test suites and categories
- Monitor quality of tests
- Integrate security analysis tools (e.g. SonarQube, WhiteSource Bolt, Open Web Application Security Project)
Monitor Code Quality - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/example-scenario/apps/devops-dotnet-webapp DevOps Reporting - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/devops/reporting/ Automated Testing - https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Microsoft-Azure/Azure-DevOps-Launch-2018/A104 Test suites and categories - https://www.azuredevopslabs.com/labs/azuredevops/testmanagement/ Integrate security analysis tools - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/java/sonarqube?view=vsts
Implement a container build strategy - Create deployable images (e.g. Docker, Azure Container Registry)
- Analyze and integrate Docker multi-stage builds
Container DevOps in Azure - https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2018/BRK2142 Add a container registry in Azure - https://www.linkedin.com/learning/developing-container-based-applications-with-visual-studio-and-azure/add-a-container-registry-in-azure and https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devops/2017/06/09/deploying-applications-to-azure-container-service/
Implement a build strategy - Design build triggers, tools, integrations, and workflow
- Implement a hybrid build process
- Implement multi-agent builds
- Recommend build tools and configuration
- Set up an automated build workflow
Design build triggers - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/build/triggers?view=vsts&tabs=yaml and https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/release/triggers?view=vsts Azure Pipelines - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/?view=vsts DevOps tool integrations - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/devops-tool-integrations/ DevOps overview for Azure DevOps Services - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/user-guide/devops-alm-overview?view=vsts
Implement Continuous Delivery (10-15%) Design a release strategy - Recommend release tools
- Identify and recommend release approvals and gates
- Recommend strategy for measuring quality of release and release process
- Recommend strategy for release notes and documentation
- Select appropriate deployment pattern
Use the visual designer - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/get-started-designer?view=vsts&tabs=new-nav Use approvals and gates to control your deployment - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/release/deploy-using-approvals?view=vsts Release approvals and gates overview - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/release/approvals/?view=vsts Release deployment control using gates - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/release/approvals/gates?view=vsts
Set up a release management workflow - Automate inspection of health signals for release approvals by using release gates
- Configure automated integration and functional test execution
- Create a release pipeline (e.g. Azure Kubernetes Service, Service Fabric, WebApp)
- Create multi-phase release pipelines
- Integrate secrets with release pipeline
- Provision and configure environments
- Manage and modularize tasks and templates (e.g. task and variable groups)
UI test with Selenium - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/test/continuous-test-selenium?view=vsts Run Functional Tests task - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/test/run-functional-tests?view=vsts Set up environments to run continuous test tasks with your build tasks - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/test/set-up-continuous-test-environments-builds?view=vsts Run automated tests from test plans - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/test/run-automated-tests-from-test-hub?view=vsts Continuously build, test and deploy to any platform and cloud - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/devops/pipelines/ Define your multi-stage continuous deployment (CD) pipeline - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/release/define-multistage-release-process?view=vsts Multi-phase builds – VSTS Sprint 123 Update - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/release-notes/2017/sep-15-team-services Release stages, queuing policies, and options - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/release/environments?view=vsts Multiple jobs - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/multiple-phases?view=vsts&tabs=yaml Azure Key Vault task - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/deploy/azure-key-vault?view=vsts Task and variable groups - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/library/variable-groups?view=vsts&tabs=yaml Task groups for builds and releases - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/library/task-groups?view=vsts
Implement an appropriate deployment pattern - Implement blue-green deployments
- Implement canary deployments
- Implement progressive exposure deployments
- Scale a release pipeline to deploy to multiple endpoints (e.g. deployment groups, Azure Kubernetes Service, Service Fabric)
Implement blue-green deployments - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/blue-green-deployments-using-azure-traffic-manager/ https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/blob/master/articles/jenkins/jenkins-aks-blue-green-deployment.md Implement progressive exposure deployments - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devops/2018/05/07/release-gates-enable-progressive-exposure-and-phased-deployments/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/learn/devops-at-microsoft/progressive-experimentation-feature-flags Explore how to progressively expose your Azure DevOps extension releases in production to validate, before impacting all users - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/articles/phase-rollout-with-rings?view=vsts
Implement Dependency Management (5-10%) Design a dependency management strategy - Recommend artifact management tools and practices
- Abstract common packages to enable sharing and reuse
- Inspect codebase to identify code dependencies that can be converted to packages
- Identify and recommend standardized package types and versions across the solution
- Refactor existing build pipelines to implement version strategy that publishes packages
Getting started with package management using Azure Artifacts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3BPkyikvNM Azure Artifacts - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/devops/artifacts/ Secure and share packages using feed permissions - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/artifacts/feeds/feed-permissions?view=vsts&tabs=new-nav Collaborate more and build faster with packages - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/artifacts/collaborate-with-packages?view=vsts Versioning - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=gittools.gitversion
Manage security and compliance - Inspect open source software packages for security and license compliance to align with corporate standards (e.g. GPLv3)
- Configure build pipeline to access package security and license rating (e.g. Black Duck, White Source)
- Configure secure access to package feeds
Configure build pipeline to access package security and license rating (e.g. Black Duck, White Source) - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=black-duck-software.hub-tfs Configure secure access to package feeds - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/artifacts/feeds/feed-permissions?view=vsts&tabs=new-nav
Implement Application Infrastructure (15-20%) Design an infrastructure and configuration management strategy - Analyze existing and future hosting infrastructure
- Analyze existing Infrastructure as Code technologies
- Design a strategy for managing technical debt on templates
- Design a strategy for using transient infrastructure for parts of a delivery lifecycle
- Design a strategy to mitigate infrastructure state drift
Analyze existing Infrastructure as Code technologies - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/learn/what-is-infrastructure-as-code Design a strategy for managing technical debt on templates - https://www.azuredevopslabs.com/labs/azuredevops/sonarcloud/ Design a strategy for using transient infrastructure for parts of a delivery lifecycle - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/modernize-with-azure-and-containers/modernize-existing-apps-to-cloud-optimized/reasons-to-modernize-existing-net-apps-to-cloud-optimized-applications Design a strategy to mitigate infrastructure state drift - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/tomholl/2017/10/16/detecting-drift-between-arm-templates-and-azure-resource-groups/
Implement Infrastructure as Code - Create nested resource templates
- Manage secrets in resource templates
- Provision Azure resources
- Recommend an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) strategy
- Recommend appropriate technologies for configuration management
Create nested resource templates - https://samcogan.com/modularisation-and-re-use-with-nested-arm-templates/ Manage secrets in resource templates - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/resource-manager-keyvault-parameter Provision Azure resources - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/azuredev/2017/02/11/iac-on-azure-an-introduction-of-infrastructure-as-code-iac-with-azure-resource-manager-arm-template/ Recommend an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) strategy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFo9cdxG9Hs
Manage Azure Kubernetes Service infrastructure - Provision Azure Kubernetes Service (e.g. using ARM templates, CLI)
- Create deployment file for publishing to Azure Kubernetes Service (e.g. kubectl, Helm)
- Develop a scaling plan
Provision Azure Kubernetes Service (e.g. using ARM templates, CLI) - https://www.azuredevopslabs.com/labs/vstsextend/kubernetes/ Create deployment file for publishing to Azure Kubernetes Service (e.g. kubectl, Helm) - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops-project/azure-devops-project-aks Develop a scaling plan - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/projects/about-projects?view=vsts&tabs=new-nav
Implement infrastructure compliance and security - Implement compliance and security scanning
- Prevent drift by using configuration management tools
- Set up an automated pipeline to inspect security and compliance
Implement compliance and security scanning - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/articles/team-services-security-whitepaper?view=vsts Prevent drift by using configuration management tools - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/tutorial-configure-servers-desired-state
Implement Continuous Feedback (10-15%) Recommend and design system feedback mechanisms - Design practices to measure end-user satisfaction (e.g. Send a Smile, app analytics)
- Design processes to capture and analyze user feedback from external sources (e.g. Twitter, Reddit, Help Desk)
- Design routing for client application crash report data (e.g. HockeyApp)
- Recommend monitoring tools and technologies
- Recommend system and feature usage tracking tools
Design processes to capture and analyze user feedback from external sources - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/project/feedback/get-feedback?view=vsts https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/test/provide-stakeholder-feedback?view=vsts Design routing for client application crash report data (e.g. HockeyApp) - https://hockeyapp.net/features/crashreports/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/hockeyapp/ Recommend monitoring tools and technologies - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/product-categories/management-tools/
Implement process for routing system feedback to development teams - Configure crash report integration for client applications
- Develop monitoring and status dashboards
- Implement routing for client application crash report data (e.g. HockeyApp)
- Implement tools to track system usage, feature usage, and flow
- Integrate and configure ticketing systems with development team’s work management system (e.g. IT Service Management connector, ServiceNow Cloud Management, App Insights work items)
Configure crash report integration for client applications - Develop monitoring and status dashboards - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/devops/reporting/ Implement routing for client application crash report data (e.g. HockeyApp) - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/hockeyapp/
Optimize feedback mechanisms - Analyze alerts to establish a baseline
- Analyze telemetry to establish a baseline
- Perform live site reviews and capture feedback for system outages
- Perform ongoing tuning to reduce meaningless or non-actionable alerts
Analyze alerts to establish a baseline - Perform live site reviews and capture feedback for system outages - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/learn/devops-at-microsoft/live-site-culture-and-reliability
