Free Practice Questions for Scaled Agile SAFe-DevOps Exam

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, one of the benefits of DevOps is better alignment between strategy and execution. DevOps is a mindset, culture, and set of technical practices that supports the integration, automation, and collaboration needed to effectively develop and operate a solution. DevOps helps break down organizational silos and develop a Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP) — a high-performance innovation engine capable of delivering market-leading solutions at the speed of business. By aligning strategy and execution, DevOps enables teams to deliver value to customers faster and more reliably, as well as to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs. Therefore, better alignment between strategy and execution is one of the benefits of DevOps.

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, root cause analysis is a technique that helps identify and eliminate the underlying causes of problems or defects in the Solution. Root cause analysis can be used to address impediments to continuous delivery by finding and fixing the root causes of issues such as delays, rework, waste, and errors. Root cause analysis can be performed during various phases of the PI, such as during the Iteration Retrospective, during the management review and problem-solving portion of PI Planning, or during Inspect & Adapt (I&A). However, the most effective time to use root cause analysis is during I&A, which is a significant event held at the end of each PI, where the current state of the Solution is demonstrated and evaluated. Teams then reflect and identify improvement backlog items via a structured problem-solving workshop. The result is a set of improvement backlog items that go into the ART Backlog for the next PI Planning event. Therefore, root cause analysis can help teams address impediments to continuous delivery by improving their performance and quality in the next PI.

Two areas that should be monitored in the Release on Demand aspect to support DevOps and Continuous Delivery are the build status and the deployment cycle time. The build status is the measure of whether the code and components can be successfully compiled, linked, packaged, and verified into deployable binaries. The build status indicates the quality and consistency of the code and the readiness for deployment. Monitoring the build status helps to support the Release on Demand aspect in SAFe by providing valuable information for the following purposes:

To identify and fix any errors or defects that may prevent the code from being deployed or released

To ensure that the code meets the quality standards and security checks, such as static code analysis, code coverage, and code review

To verify that the code and components are integrated and merged correctly into the trunk

To track the progress and status of the features and capabilities that are being developed and delivered

The deployment cycle time is the measure of how long it takes to deploy the code and components from the source control system to the production environment. The deployment cycle time indicates the efficiency and reliability of the deployment process and the speed of delivery. Monitoring the deployment cycle time helps to support the Release on Demand aspect in SAFe by providing valuable information for the following purposes:

To optimize the deployment process and reduce the lead time and variability

To automate the deployment process and eliminate manual steps and errors

To align the deployment process with the market demand and release strategy

To evaluate the impact and value of the deployed features and capabilities 7

After the team maps the steps of the current state value stream during value stream mapping, the next two steps are to measure the performance at each step and calculate the activity ratio. Measuring the performance at each step involves collecting data on cycle time, lead time, process time, wait time, defect rate, and other relevant metrics. This helps to identify the sources of waste, delays, and inefficiencies in the value stream. Calculating the activity ratio involves dividing the total process time by the total lead time and multiplying by 100. This gives the percentage of time that is spent on value-adding activities versus non-value-adding activities. The activity ratio helps to quantify the flow and identify opportunities for improvement

According to the SAFe DevOps Practitioner 6.0 study guide1, when prioritizing improvement items, the steps with short Active Time and high %C&A in the future-state map should be the main focus. Active Time is the amount of time a step spends on performing work, while %C&A is the percentage of capacity utilization of a step. The future-state map shows how the Value Stream will look like after implementing improvements, based on customer feedback and business value. The improvement items are ranked by their impact on flow efficiency, customer satisfaction, and business agility. The steps with short Active Time and high %C&A in the future-state map indicate that they are bottlenecks or waste sources that need to be eliminated or reduced as soon as possible. Therefore, they should be prioritized for improvement actions.

Two security skills that are part of the Continuous Integration aspect are application security and penetration testing. Application security is the practice of protecting the software applications from malicious attacks, unauthorized access, data breaches, and other threats. It involves applying security principles and techniques throughout the software development lifecycle, such as secure coding, code analysis, code review, security testing, and security monitoring. Application security helps to ensure that the software meets the security requirements and standards, and that it does not introduce any vulnerabilities or risks to the system or the users910

Penetration testing is the practice of simulating real-world attacks on the software applications to identify and exploit any security weaknesses or flaws. It involves using various tools and methods to probe, scan, attack, and bypass the security defenses of the software, such as firewalls, encryption, authentication, and authorization. Penetration testing helps to evaluate the security posture and resilience of the software, and to provide recommendations for improvement or remediation. Penetration testing is usually performed by external or independent experts, who have the permission and authorization to conduct the tests

The correct answer is B. Flow Efficiency measures the percentage of time spent on value-added activities in the Value Stream. A Value Stream is a sequence of activities that deliver value to the customer, from concept to cash. Value-added activities are those that directly contribute to the customer value proposition, such as coding, testing, and deploying. Non-value-added activities are those that do not directly contribute to the customer value proposition, such as waiting, handoffs, rework, and approvals. Flow Efficiency is calculated by dividing the total time spent on value-added activities by the total flow time, which is the time elapsed from when a work item enters the Value Stream to when it is delivered to the customer. Flow Efficiency is a metric that helps to identify and eliminate waste and delays in the Value Stream, and to optimize the flow of value to the customer. Flow Efficiency can be improved by applying the principles and practices of DevOps, such as reducing batch size, limiting work in progress, implementing pull systems, managing queue lengths, reducing handoffs, implementing Work in Process (WIP) visualization, and implementing Work in Process (WIP) feedback

One skill that can significantly accelerate mean-time-to-restore by enabling support teams to see issues the way actual end users did is session replay. Session replay is a technique that allows the support team to replay end-user sessions to research incidents and identify problems. Session replay captures the user’s interactions with the application, such as clicks, scrolls, keystrokes, and mouse movements, and reproduces them in a video-like format. Session replay can help the support team to understand the user’s behavior, context, and feedback, as well as to reproduce and diagnose errors, bugs, and performance issues. Session replay can also help the support team to communicate and collaborate with the development team and the stakeholders, by providing visual evidence and data of the incidents. Session replay can significantly accelerate mean-time-to-restore by reducing the time and effort required to investigate and resolve issues, as well as by improving the quality and reliability of the application

The purpose of the blue/green deployment pattern is to deploy between an inactive and active environment. The blue/green deployment pattern is a change management strategy for software releases that reduces the downtime and risk of deploying new versions of software. The blue/green deployment pattern involves having two identical but separate environments: one is the active environment (blue) that serves the user traffic, and the other is the inactive environment (green) that hosts the new version of the software. The deployment process consists of switching the user traffic from the blue environment to the green environment, after verifying that the new version is working properly. The blue environment can then be kept as a backup or updated to become the next green environment. The blue/green deployment pattern has several benefits, such as:

It allows for fast and reliable rollback, in case of any issues or errors in the new version, by simply switching back to the blue environment.

It eliminates the need for complex and error-prone migration scripts, as the green environment can be prepared and tested in advance, without affecting the blue environment.

It enables testing and experimentation of the new version with a subset of users, by directing some user traffic to the green environment, before switching completely.

It facilitates continuous delivery and deployment, by automating the switching process and reducing the transaction cost and risk of moving changes to production