AXELOS, global custodians of ITIL, the world’s most widely adopted service management framework, and IT Revolution, visionaries of the DevOps movement and publishers of The DevOps Handbook, have come together to launch a free online training program, DevOps Awareness Training, in early 2017.  

The aim of this pioneering program is to ensure that every IT professional, across a diverse range of organisations, has access to world-class training based on the principles of DevOps. The goal is to create value for customers with small agile teams who are confident in aculture that fosters learning without the fear of failure. DevOps Awareness Training’s content is based on the newly launched, and much-anticipated DevOps Handbook, co-authored by Gene Kim, founder of IT Revolution and the partnership is enriched by AXELOS' expertise in helping professionals to learn about and apply best practice.

The DevOps movement has shown how strong collaboration and focus on continual improvement in IT helps organizations in leveraging IT to create added business value. DevOps Awareness Training will also open invaluable opportunities for improving the way IT services are provided, thus supporting ITIL’s philosophy of Continual Service Improvement. Gene Kim, founder of IT Revolution has played a major role in steering the DevOps movement, and like other leading figures, such as Patrick Debois, Andrew Clay Shafer, Kevin Behr and Jez Humble, he has nurtured the community and gathered and interpreted examples of novel, emergent, and good practices. IT Revolution’s new publication The DevOps Handbook (co-authored by Kim, Debois, Humble and John Willis) provides a comprehensive insight into the movement.

With this impressive wealth of knowledge behind it, DevOps Awareness Training will combine interactive learning, animation and simulation exercises. Drawing on The DevOps Handbook, on IT Revolution’s previous bestseller The Phoenix Project (over 250,000 copies sold worldwide), and on contributions from trusted DevOps experts, it is reinforced by AXELOS’ knowledge in the field of ITSM as described in ITIL. Responding to the growing need for professionally designed learning modules (based on a standard and continually updated syllabus) that teach IT practitioners about the benefits of DevOps, DevOps Awareness Training will offer a grounding in the principles of DevOps, covering such important topics as its culture, architecture and technical practices.

Presenting at the DevOps Enterprise Summit in San Francisco on November 8, Kaimar Karu, AXELOS’s Head of Product Strategy and Development, said: 

“Both AXELOS and IT Revolution believe that, in today’s world, the focus of DevOps needs to be on collaboration and learning. With DevOps practices still constantly evolving, the time is not yet ripe for a qualification program with formal exams, but it is crucial for IT practitioners from all backgrounds to have a solid understanding and appreciation of the movement’s principles. 

Every ITSM professional can benefit from an improved awareness of DevOps practices. Likewise, professionals in the DevOps community will benefit from leveraging the service mindset and the guiding principles that underpin the ITIL framework, as outlined in the ITIL Practitioner qualification. In the spirit of open collaboration – and in view of the very important need for both communities to expand and sharpen their awareness of the combined power of DevOps and ITIL – we have decided to create a program that is free of charge for practitioners, so absolutely everyone can access it.

The Official DevOps Awareness Training syllabus is flexible and powerful, allowing training providers to develop their own value-add training programs, either as simulations or extended classroom-based courses, which can be accredited against the syllabus. Additional modules, providing in-depth knowledge, can be built as an extension to the core, and the program will be accompanied by an interactive online assessment which helps individuals to better assess the areas where further learning is required. The results of these assessments will also play a vital role in guiding AXELOS and IT Revolution as we create new syllabuses that respond to the real-time needs of IT professionals.”

Gene Kim, founder of IT Revolution and co-author of The DevOps Handbook and The Phoenix Project, said:

“DevOps and Agile are transforming the technology workforce. Of the eight million developers and eight million operations professionals employed globally, a vast majority are at risk of being left behind. Initiatives like these are critical to ensure that technology professionals have the skills needed in the marketplace, and I'm thrilled to be a part of this effort.

DevOps and ITIL should aim to more than peacefully coexist. Without a doubt, ITIL is the most powerful and entrenched orthodoxy in large, complex IT organizations. With over three million certified IT professionals and many (if not most) Fortune 500 companies using ITIL, this represents an unparalleled opportunity to help reach a significant portion of the technology workforce. For these reasons, I’m excited about the partnership between IT Revolution and AXELOS to use The DevOps Handbook as a way to increase DevOps awareness and training.”