WSQ - Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions (AZ-400)

Topic 1: Introduction to DevOps

• What is DevOps?
• Explore the DevOps journey
• Identify transformation teams
• Explore shared goals and define timelines

Topic 2: Choose the right project

• Explore greenfield and brownfield projects
• Decide when to use greenfield and brownfield projects
• Decide when to use systems of record versus systems of engagement
• Identify groups to minimize initial resistance
• Identify project metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Topic 3: Describe team structures

• Explore agile development practices
• Explore principles of agile development
• Define organization structure for agile practices
• Explore ideal DevOps team members
• Enable in-team and cross-team collaboration
• Select tools and processes for agile practices

Topic 4: Choose the DevOps tools

• What is Azure DevOps?
• What is GitHub?
• Explore an authorization and access strategy
• Migrate or integrate existing work management tools
• Migrate or integrate existing test management tools
• Design a license management strategy

Topic 5: Plan Agile with GitHub Projects and Azure Boards

• Introduction to GitHub Projects and Project boards
• Introduction to Azure Boards
• Link GitHub to Azure Boards
• Configure GitHub Projects
• Manage work with GitHub Project boards
• Customize Project views
• Collaborate using team discussions
• Agile Plan and Portfolio Management with Azure Boards

Topic 6: Introduction to source control

• Explore DevOps foundational practices
• What is source control?
• Explore benefits of source control
• Explore best practices for source control

Topic 7: Describe types of source control systems

• Understand centralized source control
• Understand distributed source control
• Explore Git and Team Foundation Version Control
• Examine and choose Git
• Understand objections to using Git
• Describe working with Git locally

Topic 8: Work with Azure Repos and GitHub

• Introduction to Azure Repos
• Introduction to GitHub
• Migrate from TFVC to Git
• Use GIT-TFS
• Develop online with GitHub Codespaces

Topic 9: Structure your Git Repo

• Explore monorepo versus multiple repos
• Implement a change log

Topic 10: Manage Git branches and workflows

• Explore branch workflow types
• Explore feature branch workflow
• Explore Git branch model for continuous delivery
• Explore GitHub flow
• Explore fork workflow
• Version Control with Git in Azure Repos

Topic 11: Collaborate with pull requests in Azure Repos

• Collaborate with pull requests
• Exercise - Azure Repos collaborating with pull requests
• Examine GitHub mobile for pull request approvals

Topic 12: Identify technical debt

• Examine code quality
• Examine complexity and quality metrics
• Introduction to technical debt
• Measure and manage technical debt
• Integrate other code quality tools
• Plan effective code reviews

Topic 13: Explore Git hooks

• Introduction to Git hooks
• Implement Git hooks

Topic 14: Plan foster inner source

• Explore foster inner source
• Implement the fork workflow
• Describe inner source with forks

Topic 15: Manage Git repositories

• Work with large repositories
• Purge repository data
• Manage releases with GitHub Repos
• Automate release notes with GitHub

Topic 16: Explore Azure Pipelines

• Explore the concept of pipelines in DevOps
• Describe Azure Pipelines
• Understand Azure Pipelines key terms

Topic 17: Manage Azure Pipeline agents and pools

• Choose between Microsoft-hosted versus self-hosted agents
• Explore job types
• Introduction to agent pools
• Explore predefined agent pool
• Understand typical situations for agent pools
• Communicate with Azure Pipelines
• Communicate to deploy to target servers
• Examine other considerations
• Describe security of agent pools
• Configure agent pools and understanding pipeline styles

Topic 18: Describe pipelines and concurrency

• Understand parallel jobs
• Estimate parallel jobs
• Describe Azure Pipelines and open-source projects
• Explore Azure Pipelines and Visual Designer
• Describe Azure Pipelines and YAML

Topic 19: Explore continuous integration

• Introduction to continuous integration
• Learn the four pillars of continuous integration
• Explore benefits of continuous integration
• Describe build properties
• Enable Continuous Integration with Azure Pipelines

Topic 20: Implement a pipeline strategy

• Configure agent demands
• Implement multi-agent builds
• Explore source control types supported by Azure Pipeline

Topic 21: Integrate with Azure Pipelines

• Describe the anatomy of a pipeline
• Understand the pipeline structure
• Detail templates
• Explore YAML resources
• Use multiple repositories in your pipeline

Topic 22: Introduction to GitHub Actions

• What are Actions?
• Explore Actions flow
• Understand workflows
• Describe standard workflow syntax elements
• Explore events
• Explore jobs
• Explore runners
• Examine release and test an action

Topic 23: Learn continuous integration with GitHub Actions

• Describe continuous integration with actions
• Examine environment variables
• Share artifacts between jobs
• Examine Workflow badges
• Describe best practices for creating actions
• Mark releases with Git tags
• Create encrypted secrets
• Use secrets in a workflow
• Implement GitHub Actions for CI/CD

Topic 24: Design a container build strategy

• Examine structure of containers
• Work with Docker containers
• Understand Dockerfile core concepts
• Examine multi-stage dockerfiles
• Examine considerations for multiple stage builds
• Explore Azure container-related services
• Deploy Docker containers to Azure App Service web apps

Topic 25: Introduction to continuous delivery

• Explore traditional IT development cycle
• What is continuous delivery?
• Move to continuous delivery
• Understand releases and deployments
• Understand release process versus release

Topic 26: Create a release pipeline

• Describe Azure DevOps release pipeline capabilities
• Explore release pipelines
• Explore artifact sources
• Choose the appropriate artifact source
• Exercise - select an artifact source
• Examine considerations for deployment to stages
• Exercise - set up stages
• Explore build and release tasks
• Explore custom build and release tasks
• Explore release jobs
• Configure Pipelines as Code with YAML

Topic 27: Explore release recommendations

• Understand the delivery cadence and three types of triggers
• Exercise - select your delivery and deployment cadence
• Explore release approvals
• Exercise - set up manual approvals
• Explore release gates
• Use release gates to protect quality
• Control Deployments using Release Gates

Topic 28: Provision and test environments

• Provision and configure target environments
• Exercise - set up service connections
• Configure automated integration and functional test automation
• Understand Shift-left
• Set up and run availability tests
• Explore Azure Load Testing
• Set up and run functional tests

Topic 29: Manage and modularize tasks and templates

• Examine task groups
• Exercise - create and manage task groups
• Explore variables in release pipelines
• Understand variable groups
• Exercise - create and manage variable groups

Topic 30: Automate inspection of health

• Automate inspection of health
• Explore events and notifications
• Explore service hooks
• Exercise - set up service hooks to monitor the pipeline
• Configure Azure DevOps notifications
• Configure GitHub notifications
• Explore how to measure quality of your release process
• Examine release notes and documentation
• Examine considerations for choosing release management tools
• Explore common release management tools

Topic 31: Introduction to deployment patterns

• Explore microservices architecture
• Examine classical deployment patterns
• Understand modern deployment patterns

Topic 32: Implement blue-green deployment and feature toggles

• What is blue-green deployment?
• Explore deployment slots
• Exercise - set up a blue-green deployment
• Introduction to feature toggles
• Describe feature toggle maintenance

Topic 33: Implement canary releases and dark launching

• Explore canary releases
• Examine Traffic Manager
• Understand dark launching

Topic 34: Implement A/B testing and progressive exposure deployment

• What is A/B testing?
• Explore CI-CD with deployment rings
• Exercise - Ring-based deployment

Topic 35: Integrate with identity management systems

• Integrate GitHub with single sign-on (SSO)
• Explore service principals
• Explore Managed Identity

Topic 36: Manage application configuration data

• Rethink application configuration data
• Explore separation of concerns
• Understand external configuration store patterns
• Introduction to Azure App Configuration
• Examine Key-value pairs
• Examine App configuration feature management
• Integrate Azure Key Vault with Azure Pipelines
• Manage secrets, tokens and certificates
• Examine DevOps inner and outer loop
• Integrate Azure Key Vault with Azure DevOps
• Enable Dynamic Configuration and Feature Flags

Topic 37: Explore infrastructure as code and configuration management

• Explore environment deployment
• Examine environment configuration
• Understand imperative versus declarative configuration
• Understand idempotent configuration

Topic 38: Create Azure resources using Azure Resource Manager templates

• Why use Azure Resource Manager templates?
• Explore template components
• Manage dependencies
• Modularize templates
• Manage secrets in templates
• Deployments using Azure Bicep templates

Topic 39: Create Azure resources by using Azure CLI

• What is Azure CLI?
• Work with Azure CLI
• Exercise - Run templates using Azure CLI

Topic 40: Explore Azure Automation with DevOps

• Create automation accounts
• What is a runbook?
• Understand automation shared resources
• Explore runbook gallery
• Examine webhooks
• Explore source control integration
• Explore PowerShell workflows
• Create a workflow
• Explore hybrid management
• Exercise - Create and run a workflow runbook
• Examine checkpoint and parallel processing
• Topic 35 Implement Desired State Configuration (DSC)
• Understand configuration drift
• Explore Desired State Configuration (DSC)
• Explore Azure Automation State configuration (DSC)
• Examine DSC configuration file
• Exercise - Import and compile
• Exercise - Onboard machines for management
• Explore hybrid management
• Implement DSC and Linux Automation on Azure

Topic 41: Implement Bicep

• What is Bicep?
• Install Bicep
• Exercise - Create Bicep templates
• Understand Bicep file structure and syntax
• Exercise - Deploy a Bicep file from Azure Pipelines
• Exercise - Deploy a Bicep file from GitHub workflows

Topic 42: Explore package dependencies

• What is dependency management?
• Describe elements of a dependency management strategy
• Identify dependencies
• Understand source and package componentization
• Decompose your system
• Scan your codebase for dependencies

Topic 43: Understand package management

• Explore packages
• Understand package feeds
• Explore package feed managers
• Explore common public package sources
• Explore self-hosted and SaaS based package sources
• Consume packages
• Introduction to Azure Artifacts
• Publish packages
• Package management with Azure Artifacts

Topic 44: Migrate consolidating and secure artifacts

• Identify existing artifact repositories
• Migrate and integrating artifact repositories
• Secure access to package feeds
• Examine roles
• Examine permissions
• Examine authentication

Topic 45: Implement a versioning strategy

• Understand versioning of artifacts
• Explore semantic versioning
• Examine release views
• Promote packages
• Exercise - Promote a package
• Explore best practices for versioning
• Exercise - Push from the pipeline

Topic 46: Introduction to GitHub Packages

• Publish packages
• Install a package
• Delete and restore a package
• Explore package access control and visibility

Topic 47: Implement tools to track usage and flow

• Understand the inner loop
• Introduction to continuous monitoring
• Explore Azure Monitor and Log Analytics
• Examine Kusto Query Language (KQL)
• Explore Application Insights
• Implement Application Insights
• Exercise - Add Application Insights to an ASP.NET core application
• Monitor application performance with Application Insights

Topic 48: Develop monitor and status dashboards

• Explore Azure Dashboards
• Examine view designer in Azure Monitor
• Explore Azure Monitor workbooks
• Explore Power BI
• Build your own custom application

Topic 49: Share knowledge within teams

• Share acquired knowledge within development teams
• Introduction to Azure DevOps project wikis
• Integrate with Azure Boards
• Share team knowledge using Azure Project Wiki

Topic 50: Design processes to automate application analytics

• Explore rapid responses and augmented search
• Integrate telemetry
• Examine monitoring tools and technologies

Topic 51: Manage alerts, blameless retrospectives and a just culture

• Examine when get a notification
• Explore how to fix it
• Explore smart detection notifications
• Improve performance
• Understand server response time degradation
• Reduce meaningless and non-actionable alerts
• Examine blameless retrospective
• Develop a just culture

Topic 52: Introduction to Secure DevOps

• Describe SQL injection attack
• Understand DevSecOps
• Explore Secure DevOps Pipeline
• Explore key validation points
• Explore continuous security validation
• Understand threat modeling
• Exercise threat modeling

Topic 53: Implement open-source software

• Explore how software is built
• What is open-source software
• Explore corporate concerns with open-source software components
• Introduction to open-source licenses
• Explore common open-source licenses
• Examine license implications and ratings

Topic 54: Software Composition Analysis

• Inspect and validate code bases for compliance
• Explore software composition analysis (SCA)
• Integrate Mend with Azure Pipelines
• Implement GitHub Dependabot alerts and security updates
• Integrate software composition analysis checks into pipelines
• Examine tools for assess package security and license rate
• Interpret alerts from scanner tools
• Implement security and compliance in an Azure Pipeline

Topic 55: Static analyzers

• Explore SonarCloud
• Explore CodeQL in GitHub
• Manage technical debt with SonarCloud and Azure DevOps

Topic 56: OWASP and Dynamic Analyzers

• Plan Implement OWASP Secure Coding Practices
• Explore OWASP ZAP penetration test
• Explore OWASP ZAP results and bugs

Topic 57: Security Monitoring and Governance

• Implement pipeline security
• Explore Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• Examine Microsoft Defender for Cloud usage scenarios
• Explore Azure Policy
• Understand policies
• Explore initiatives
• Explore resource locks
• Explore Azure Blueprints
• Understand Microsoft Defender for Identity

Final Assessment  

• Written Assessment - Short Answer Questions (WA-SAQ)
• Practical Performance (PP)

Promotion Code

Promo or discount cannot be applied to WSQ courses

Minimum Entry Requirement

Knowledge and Skills

• Able to operate using computer functions with minimum Computer Literacy Level 2 based on ICAS Computer Skills Assessment Framework
• Minimum 3 GCE ‘O’ Levels Passes including English or WPL Level 5 (Average of Reading, Listening, Speaking & Writing Scores)

Attitude

• Positive Learning Attitude
• Enthusiastic Learner

Experience

• Minimum of 1 year of working experience.

Target Year Group : 21-65 years old

Minimum Software/Hardware Requirement

Software:

You need to sign up a Azure account (Credit Card is required).

Hardware: Windows and Mac Laptops

About Progressive Wage Model (PWM)

The Progressive Wage Model (PWM) helps to increase wages of workers through upgrading skills and improving productivity. 

Employers must ensure that their Singapore citizen and PR workers meet the PWM training requirements of attaining at least 1 Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) Statement of Attainment, out of the list of approved WSQ training modules.

For more information on PWM, please visit MOM site.

Funding Eligility Criteria

Steps to Apply Skills Future Claim

• The staff will send you an invoice with the fee breakdown.
• Login to the MySkillsFuture portal, select the course you’re enrolling on and enter the course date and schedule.
• Enter the course fee payable by you (including GST) and enter the amount of credit to claim.
• Upload your invoice and click ‘Submit’

SkillsFuture Level-Up Program

The  SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme provides greater structural support for mid-career Singaporeans aged 40 years and above to pursue a substantive skills reboot and stay relevant in a changing economy. For more information, visit SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme

Get Additional Course Fee Support Up to $500 under UTAP

The Union Training Assistance Programme (UTAP) is a training benefit provided to NTUC Union Members with an objective of encouraging them to upgrade with skills training. It is provided to minimize the training cost. If you are a NTUC Union Member then you can get 50% funding (capped at $500 per year) under Union Training Assistance Programme (UTAP).

For more information visit NTUC U Portal – Union Training Assistance Program (UTAP)

Steps to Apply UTAP

• Log in to your U Portal account to submit your UTAP application upon completion of the course.

Note

• SSG subsidy is available for Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents, and Corporates.
• All Singaporeans aged 25 and above can use their SkillsFuture Credit to pay. For more details, visit www.skillsfuture.gov.sg/credit
• An unfunded course fee can be claimed via SkillsFuture Credit or paid in cash.
• UTAP funding for NTUC Union Members is capped at $250 for 39 years and below and at $500 for 40 years and above.
• UTAP support amount will be paid to training provider first and claimed after end of class by learner.

Appeal Process

1. The candidate has the right to disagree with the assessment decision made by the assessor.
2. When giving feedback to the candidate, the assessor must check with the candidate if he agrees with the assessment outcome.
3. If the candidate agrees with the assessment outcome, the assessor & the candidate must sign the Assessment Summary Record.
4. If the candidate disagrees with the assessment outcome, he/she should not sign in the Assessment Summary Record.
5. If the candidate intends to appeal the decision, he/she should first discuss the matter with the assessor/assessment manager.
6. If the candidate is still not satisfied with the decision, the candidate must notify the assessor of the decision to appeal. The assessor will reflect the candidate’s intention in the Feedback Section of the Assessment Summary Record.
7. The assessor will notify the assessor manager about the candidate’s intention to lodge an appeal.
8. The candidate must lodge the appeal within 7 days, giving reasons for appeal 
9. The assessor can help the candidate with writing and lodging the appeal.
10. he assessment manager will collect information from the candidate & assessor and give a final decision.
11. A record of the appeal and any subsequent actions and findings will be made.
12. An Assessment Appeal Panel will be formed to review and give a decision.
13. The outcome of the appeal will be made known to the candidate within 2 weeks from the date the appeal was lodged.
14. The decision of the Assessment Appeal Panel is final and no further appeal will be entertained.
15. Please click the link below to fill up the Candidates Appeal Form.

• Data Scientist
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• AI Product Developer
• Graphics Software Developer
• Multimedia Artist (using AI)
• Bioinformatics Researcher (for GAN-based simulations)
• Financial Modeler (using AI for simulations)
• R&D Specialist in AI
• Robotics Engineer (with AI modeling)
• Game Developer (using GANs for content generation)
• Innovation Manager (in tech firms)
• Computational Scientist

Sanjiv Venkatram:
Sanjiv Venkatram is an accomplished IT strategist and DevOps transformation leader with more than 25 years of experience spanning cloud computing, enterprise architecture, and software delivery automation. A certified Azure Solutions Architect and DevOps Engineer Expert, he has led large-scale cloud migration and CI/CD modernization initiatives for global enterprises across finance, manufacturing, and public sector domains. Sanjiv specializes in aligning technology infrastructure with business strategy, enabling organizations to accelerate delivery cycles and improve operational efficiency through DevOps adoption.

In “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions (AZ-400),” Sanjiv helps learners master the design and implementation of DevOps practices using Microsoft Azure technologies. His sessions focus on automating software delivery pipelines, integrating infrastructure as code, and applying monitoring and governance strategies. By combining hands-on labs with industry case studies, he equips participants with the skills to manage end-to-end DevOps workflows and drive continuous improvement within modern software engineering environments.

Alec Tan Chee Wee: Alec Tan is an experienced IT consultant and solutions architect with over 15 years of expertise in systems integration, cloud technologies, and DevOps implementation. He has successfully managed enterprise deployments using Microsoft Azure, AWS, and hybrid cloud environments, focusing on scalability, performance optimization, and security. Alec holds multiple certifications in Azure Administration and DevOps, and he is recognized for his ability to bridge the gap between software development and infrastructure operations.

In “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions (AZ-400),” Alec provides practical insights into building robust, automated deployment pipelines and continuous integration systems. His sessions guide learners through the use of Azure DevOps tools, GitHub Actions, and container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes. Through hands-on exercises and best practice frameworks, he helps participants design resilient cloud-native DevOps architectures that improve collaboration and accelerate software delivery.

Kishan Raaj: Kishan Raaj is a cloud infrastructure and DevOps engineer with extensive experience in automation, CI/CD pipeline design, and cloud-native application deployment. Over his career, he has worked on enterprise-scale projects integrating Azure DevOps, Terraform, and Docker to streamline software delivery processes. Kishan is skilled in managing large distributed systems and implementing end-to-end automation solutions that enhance reliability and developer productivity.

In “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions (AZ-400),” Kishan focuses on helping learners understand how to architect and automate software delivery using Azure DevOps services. His training covers infrastructure as code, pipeline security, and container lifecycle management. Drawing on real-world implementation experience, he enables participants to design scalable DevOps environments that meet enterprise-level performance and compliance standards.

Quah Chee Yong:  Quah Chee Yong is a DevOps and cloud computing professional with over 15 years of experience in systems engineering, IT infrastructure, and software deploymen automation. He has worked on multiple enterprise digital transformation projects involving Microsoft Azure, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) frameworks. Quah holds certifications in Microsoft Azure and CompTIA Cloud+, and he is an experienced corporate trainer specializing in modern software engineering methodologies.

In “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions (AZ-400),” Quah equips participants with the knowledge to design, implement, and monitor automated DevOps workflows using Azure technologies. His sessions emphasize source control integration, release management, and cloud resource optimization. By combining theory with real-world examples, he helps learners build the confidence to manage DevOps pipelines that support agile delivery and scalable cloud operations.

Truman Ng: Truman Ng is a senior technology consultant and cloud infrastructure expert with over 20 years of experience in IT systems design, automation, and enterprise DevOps deployment. A PMP, ACTA, and Huawei HCIE-certified professional, he has led global teams in implementing DevOps frameworks and cloud-native applications across industries including finance, education, and manufacturing. His expertise lies in integrating development, security, and operations to achieve continuous delivery excellence.

In “Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions (AZ-400),” Truman provides in-depth guidance on architecting and managing DevOps workflows using Microsoft Azure. His sessions cover advanced topics such as pipeline automation, configuration management, and monitoring of distributed systems. Through his practical and systems-oriented teaching approach, he empowers participants to master the full DevOps lifecycle—from planning and coding to deployment and performance optimization—using Azure’s integrated ecosystem.