Bridging development and operations to deliver software reliably at speed. Automating delivery pipelines, managing infrastructure as code, and ensuring system reliability at scale.
DevOps unifies software development and IT operations to shorten delivery cycles while maintaining system stability. It encompasses continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), infrastructure as code (IaC), container orchestration, monitoring, incident response, and reliability engineering. From basic command-line skills to enterprise-scale platform engineering, DevOps has clear growth stages rooted in automation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
You navigate the Linux command line to perform basic tasks like file manipulation, process inspection, and log reading. You understand what version control is and can use Git for basic operations. You grasp the concept of CI/CD — why automating build and deploy matters — even if you haven't built a pipeline yourself. You understand that DevOps bridges development and operations teams. Corresponds to the DORA proficiency model Awareness stage.
What Comes Next
If you've checked off most of this list, you're ready for the Foundational stage, writing simple CI pipelines, containerizing applications, and managing environment configurations. Bandura(1977)'s Social Learning theory suggests watching CLI command demonstrations and Git workflow examples builds the confidence to automate on your own.
Peer-reviewed research based on 36,000+ professionals over 6 years, classifying software delivery performance into 4 tiers (Low → Elite) with four key metrics (deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR, change failure rate) that serve as the primary basis for DevOps level boundaries.
The definitive guide to Site Reliability Engineering practices including SLOs, error budgets, incident management, and automation philosophy, providing the theoretical and practical foundation for Levels 4-7 reliability and platform engineering competencies.
A research-backed catalog of 38+ technical, process, and cultural capabilities with a 4-tier performance classification (Elite → Low) providing specific behavioral criteria and measurement indicators for CI/CD, monitoring, and automation checklist items.
The canonical DevOps novel explaining the Three Ways (Flow, Feedback, Continuous Learning) through a fictional IT transformation, providing contextual foundation for DevOps culture and organizational transformation.
