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

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).

The State of DevOps Reports show thatLOW performing organizations have higher change failure rates, meaning a larger percentage of changes lead to incidents, outages, or degraded service. In contrast, high performers have more frequent deployments, faster lead times, and quicker recovery from incidents.

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.

Command(authoritarianism) is not a crucial ingredient for leading digital transformation.

The key ingredients:

Collaboration

Curiosity

Courage

DevOps leadership is about empowering teams, experimenting, and driving change,notcommand-and-control.

Extract-style reference:

“Digital transformation leaders embrace collaboration, curiosity, and courage, fostering an environment where experimentation and learning drive change.”

—Accelerate,DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Advocates servant and transformational leadership, not command/control.

Learning through immersionis powerful in DevOps because:

People learn by doing (A)

People learn from subject matter experts (B)

People learn from failures in a safe environment (C)

All of the above (D) are true

DevOps encourages hands-on, real-world, collaborative, and safe-to-fail learning environments.

Extract-style reference:

“Immersive learning, including hands-on labs, peer interactions, and blameless retrospectives, is vital to building DevOps capabilities.”

—DevOps Handbook,Accelerate

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Calls for learning culture, blamelessness, and experimentation.

TheThomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)is a psychometric tool that measures an individual’s behavior in conflict situations—specifically, how they handle disagreement with colleagues.

It classifies responses into five modes: Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Accommodating.

Why not the others?

Kubler Ross Change Curve:Describes emotional responses to change, not conflict styles.

Westrum’s Typology:Categorizes organizational culture (pathological, bureaucratic, generative) but doesn’t measure individual behavior.

Value Stream Mapping:A process improvement tool, not a behavioral assessment.

Reference/Extract:

“The Thomas-Kilmann instrument helps teams understand how individuals approach conflict and collaboration, enabling better resolution strategies—a key aspect of high-performing DevOps teams.”

—DevOps Handbook; PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6 Section 3.7

Deployment frequencyis not aculture metric.

It’s aprocessmetric, indicating how often code is released.

Culture metricsfocus on engagement, morale, retention, psychological safety, and NPS.

Why not the others?

Employee NPS:Measures employee satisfaction and willingness to recommend.

Engagement/morale:Direct indicators of cultural health.

Retention:How well an org keeps talented people, reflecting culture.

Extract-style reference:

“Measuring DevOps culture relies on employee engagement, morale, and retention, not on delivery metrics like deployment frequency.”

—State of DevOps Report

PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6:Culture metrics focus on people, not just process.

DevOps is not simply a team, methodology, or standard. The PeopleCert DevOps Foundation v3.6 materials define DevOps as a “cultural and professional movement” that stresses communication, collaboration, integration, and automation to improve workflow between software developers and IT operations professionals. The cultural transformation is fundamental, emphasizing shared responsibilities, breaking down silos, and fostering continuous improvement.

ChatOpsis the DevOps practice of using chat platforms (like Slack, Teams, Mattermost) as the central interface for communication, collaboration, and even automated deployment or support tasks.

It encourages “conversation-driven development, delivery, and support,” making processes transparent and collaborative.

Second Way(A) is about feedback loops, but not specifically conversational platforms.

Communication Platforms(C) is a generic term.

VisOps(D) is not a standard DevOps term.

Extract-style reference:

“ChatOps is a collaboration model that connects people, tools, process, and automation into a transparent workflow. Teams communicate and execute commands from a central chat client.”

—DevOps Handbook

PeopleCert Foundation v3.6: ChatOps promotes rapid feedback and a culture of sharing.