DevOps, Cloud, and Agile Foundations Specialization

DevOps essential characteristics include culture, behavior, practices, tools, methodologies, technologies, and metrics.

Core concepts of Cloud Computing, including its benefits, models, use cases,  platforms, services, resources, and opportunities.

Agile practices of small batches, minimum viable products, pair programming, behavior- and test-driven development. 

Scrum methodologies to create a product backlog, write user stories, use the sprint planning process, and measure performance.

DevOps is more than just a fusion of development and operations. It is the cultural change that organizations everywhere are adopting to become more agile and innovate at scale. It makes it easier to deliver software and services at the speed the market demands.

This specialization will equip you with a foundational  understanding of DevOps, Cloud Computing, Agile, and Scrum and their  transformational impact on businesses and approaches to software  engineering

You will learn about the DevOps culture and its benefits, Cloud Computing fundamentals, the Agile philosophy, and Scrum methodology. You will familiarize yourself with the skills, technology, tools, processes,  practices, and metrics to become a successful DevOps practitioner.

This specialization is suitable for both technical audiences - who want to either upskill with DevOps or start a career in this in-demand domain to become DevOps Engineers, Software Engineers, Application Developers,  SREs, Cloud Specialists, etc., as well less technical audiences -  including managers, executives, product managers, and project managers.

The projects in these courses do not involve any coding and are designed for you to apply and demonstrate your grounding in DevOps and its principles. 

You will:

examine a business case study and make your recommendations for transforming the organization to adopt DevOps;   

create a cloud account and provision a service on cloud; and

develop an Agile plan with ZenHub by writing user stories, and simulating a Scrum sprint. 

A Coursera Specialization is a series of courses that helps you master a skill. To begin, enroll in the Specialization directly, or review its courses and choose the one you'd like to start with. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. It’s okay to complete just one course — you can pause your learning or end your subscription at any time. Visit your learner dashboard to track your course enrollments and your progress.

Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.

When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.

COURSE 1 - Introduction to DevOps

DevOps skills are in demand! DevOps skills are expected to be one of the fastest-growing skills in the workforce. This course can be a first step in obtaining those skills. 

Introduction to DevOps explores DevOps as a cultural movement, including building a business case for DevOps, the essentials of DevOps, and a brief history of DevOps. You will learn new ways of thinking, working, organizing, and measuring to fully gain the benefits of DevOps. 

 

You will learn how breaking down silos and organizing developers and operators into single cross-functional teams is necessary for truly adopting DevOps. Having everyone contributing and everyone being responsible for success is at the heart of DevOps. 

 

By thinking from a DevOps perspective, you will be able to build better products for your customer. You will view DevOps from a business perspective as well as for becoming a DevOps practitioner. You will see how building a culture of shared responsibility and transparency is the foundation of every high-performing DevOps teams.  

You will have an opportunity to explore the concepts of infrastructure for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. You will be able to use actionable measures that apply directly to decision-making and will ultimately result in continuous improvement. This course is designed for those new to DevOps as well as those looking to increase their current knowledge of DevOps.

COURSE 2 - Introduction to Cloud Computing

This course introduces you to the core concepts of cloud computing. You gain the foundational knowledge required for understanding cloud computing from a business perspective as also for becoming a cloud practitioner. You understand the definition and essential characteristics of cloud computing, its history, the business case for cloud computing, and emerging technology usecases enabled by cloud. We introduce you to some of the prominent service providers of our times (e.g. AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft, etc.) the services they offer, and look at some case studies of cloud computing across industry verticals. 

You learn about the various cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and deployment models (Public, Private, Hybrid) and the key components of a cloud infrastructure (VMs, Networking, Storage - File, Block, Object, CDN). We also cover emergent cloud trends and practices including - Hybrid Multicloud, Microservices, Serverless, DevOps, Cloud Native and Application Modernization. And we go over the basics of cloud security, monitoring, and different job roles in the cloud industry. 

Even though this course does not require any prior cloud computing or programming experience, by the end of the course, you will have created your own account on IBM Cloud and gained some hands-on experience by provisioning a cloud service and working with it.

This course is suitable for a large variety of audiences - whether you are an executive / manager / student who wants to become familiar with cloud computing terminology and concepts, or someone who wants foundational  grounding in cloud computing to start a career in this field or become a cloud practitioner - such as a cloud engineer, developer, analyst, etc.

The completion of this course also makes you eligible to earn the Cloud Computing Core IBM digital badge.  More information about the badge can be found here: https://www.youracclaim.com/org/ibm/badge/introduction-to-cloud-computing

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to embrace the Agile concepts of adaptive planning, iterative development, and continuous improvement - resulting in early deliveries and value to customers. This course will benefit anyone who wants to get started with working the Agile way. It is particularly suitable for IT practitioners such as software developers, development managers, project managers, product managers, and executives.

You will learn to apply Agile practices derived from lean manufacturing concepts, like test-driven development. Learn how a scrum team functions. Learn how to write good user stories and track your team’s progress using a kanban board. Create and refine a product backlog collaboratively with the team and the customer, in a flexible and blameless culture.

This approach will lead you to higher levels of efficiency, with the ability to plan and execute sprints with your development team, measuring success with actionable metrics.

This course is about more than facts and processes. It is about working collaboratively on a self-organizing team, coached by a scrum master, and building what is needed, rather than simply following a plan. 

Developed and taught by an experienced Agile practitioner, the course includes hands-on practice through realistic scenario-based labs using GitHub and ZenHub.