DevOps & Continuous Delivery Flashcards

What does 'continuous testing' mean in a DevOps pipeline beyond just running automated unit tests?

Answer: Embedding automated testing at every stage of the pipeline — unit, integration, performance, security, and acceptance — triggered on every change

Continuous testing means quality checks are woven throughout the entire pipeline, not isolated to a single phase.

A DA coach observes that a team's deployment pipeline frequently fails on the same fragile integration test. What should they recommend?

Answer: Quarantine the flaky test, fix or rewrite it, and treat pipeline failures as a team-level priority

Flaky tests erode trust in the pipeline; quarantining and fixing them preserves the reliability of automated quality gates.

Which security practice is part of a 'DevSecOps' approach in Continuous Delivery?

Answer: Integrating automated security scanning (SAST, DAST, dependency checks) directly into the CI/CD pipeline

DevSecOps embeds automated security checks into the pipeline so vulnerabilities are caught as early as code commit.

In a Disciplined Agile context, what is the recommended approach when a production incident occurs in a high-frequency deployment environment?

Answer: Use blameless post-incident reviews to identify systemic improvements without punishing individuals

Blameless post-mortems focus on systemic learning rather than individual blame, improving overall resilience and psychological safety.

What is the primary risk of having very long-lived feature branches in a Continuous Delivery pipeline?

Answer: Long-lived branches accumulate large diffs that are painful and risky to merge, undermining CI principles

The longer a branch lives, the larger and riskier its eventual merge becomes, directly conflicting with Continuous Integration goals.

Which DA concept addresses how teams should handle the tension between releasing frequently and ensuring system stability?

Answer: Balance speed and stability by investing in automated quality gates, observability, and fast rollback capabilities

DA recognizes speed and stability as complementary when teams invest in automation, observability, and resilience engineering.

What is 'value stream mapping' used for in a DevOps transformation within a DA context?

Answer: Visualizing the end-to-end flow of work from concept to customer to identify bottlenecks and waste in the delivery process

Value stream mapping makes the entire delivery flow visible so teams can identify where delays and waste occur and target improvements.