Interview Questions for DevOps Project Managers

DevOps careers are in demand since the software development and project management methodology offers measurable benefits like faster and more efficient software delivery. Get a DevOps job as a project manager of a software development team, and you can look forward to a lucrative salary and a bright future. This tutorial features questions that can help you prep for your DevOps interview so you can secure that prestigious project management position.

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Project manager interview questions

While the demand for DevOps project managers is high, so is the competition. Apply for this type of DevOps job, and you will likely be competing against many other qualified project management candidates.

Education, certifications, and experience can help you stand out from the competition in the quest to advance your DevOps career, and so can acing your DevOps interview. Here are some of the most common interview questions you might face when being interviewed for a DevOps job as a project manager. Use the provided answers along with additional research on your own to make a positive first impression on employers, get hired, and advance your DevOps career.

SEE: Top Online DevOps Courses from TechRepublic Academy

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a methodology used in the software development and IT industry. It combines and automates the work of development and operations teams and relies on collaboration, shared responsibility, continuous integration, testing, and Agile and Lean practices to promote speedy and secure software delivery.

How can DevOps benefit software development?

DevOps improves communication and collaboration between software development and IT operations teams. In doing so, it allows for continuous delivery, quicker bug fixes, increased innovation, improved efficiency, fewer deployment failures, enhanced security, lower costs, stable operating environments, higher-quality software, and accelerated development cycles. By combining the efforts of software development and operations departments, DevOps can also boost team agility. All of these benefits are a big reason why DevOps is so popular nowadays.

Describe your leadership style.

To answer this question, you should study the different leadership styles (democratic, coaching, visionary, affiliative, pacesetter, directive, etc.) and choose the one that best defines you. List specific examples of why you fit that leadership style as a project manager too.

While you do not want to stretch the truth, know that your employer is likely seeking a DevOps project manager that uses a specific leadership style, as it may work better for that particular organization or project. Fit what they are looking for in terms of your leadership characteristics, and you can increase your chances of getting hired.

What was the last DevOps project you completed?

Begin answering this question by listing the DevOps project’s primary goal and the team size. List the steps you took to achieve the goal, along with the project management approaches employed. You can discuss specifics on team collaboration methods, project wins and losses, how you overcame obstacles, and lessons learned for improvement in future DevOps projects.

You can win extra points by including detailed metrics in your answer. This can give the interviewer a crystal-clear picture of what happened. It can also show that you are detail-oriented and prepared, which are two characteristics project managers should have.

Describe your top DevOps achievement in a project management role

The best way to answer this question is to pick a project that succeeded in as many ways as possible. This can display your value as a project manager and show the interviewer that you can help improve their organization in more than one way.

While meeting deadlines and budgets are examples of success, try picking an achievement that had a tangible impact on the organization’s culture or implemented change. When listing these achievements or successes, include details on how you positively impacted the team’s productivity, collaboration, etc., through your project management or leadership style.

SEE: Top DevOps Career Paths

What was one of your most significant setbacks during a DevOps project?

How project managers handle setbacks and obstacles will determine whether a DevOps project fails or succeeds. Be prepared for this question by having multiple examples of past project setbacks and how you overcame them.

The STAR method can help you answer this question clearly and concisely:

• Situation: Start by describing the situation’s details and what went wrong.
• Task: Describe the task that was necessary to fix the situation.
• Action: Describe the action you took to solve the issue.
• Result: Describe the final result and what you learned from the entire process.

What are the core differences between DevOps and the Agile methodology?

Although DevOps and Agile both feature smaller release cycles, DevOps’ offer instant feedback. DevOps employs Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD), while Agile employs Scrum and Kanban practices. DevOps features agility in development and operations; Agile features it in just development. DevOps gets self-feedback through monitoring tools; Agile gets feedback via customers. And DevOps places importance on time and quality; Agile stresses time and deadlines.

Describe automation testing.

Automation testing or test automation is a method for testing software. It automates tedious manual tasks to help you test applications or systems. Automation testing creates test scripts via separate testing tools. Those scripts can be run frequently without the need for human interaction.

How could automation testing help you in a project management role?

Automation testing allows for parallel and unattended execution. It lets software development teams minimize human error, improve accuracy, and quickly test massive test matrices. Those benefits can save time and money, helping me as a project manager to ensure that I meet deadlines and come in under budget.

What are DevOps’ key performance indicators (KPIs)?

The KPIs in DevOps are:

• Change failure rate.
• Change lead time.
• Change volume.
• Deployment failure.<//li>
• Deployment frequency.
• Efficiency.
• Mean time between failures.
• Mean time to detection.
• Mean time to recovery.
• Performance.
• Pipeline adoption.

Do you know what CAMS stands for?

CAMS is a model or set of core values used by DevOps engineers. It stands for Culture, Automation, Measurement, and Sharing.

What is a DevOps postmortem meeting?

A DevOps postmortem is a meeting you have after an incident or at the end of a project. It is where teams come together to assess what went wrong and what can be done to avoid issues in the future.

Additional DevOps Project Manager Interview Questions

The questions listed above are just a sampling of what you may be asked during your DevOps project manager interview. Here are some more that you should be prepared to answer to get your desired DevOps job:

• What made you choose DevOps?
• As a project manager, what is your favorite DevOps benefit?
• What are your DevOps certifications? Do you plan to get any more?
• Do you have any experience in this industry?
• What project management software have you used in the past?
• What DevOps tools are you familiar with?
• What are your preferred team collaboration methods?
• What is continuous integration?
• What is continuous testing?
• What is version control?
• What are the phases of the DevOps lifecycle?

SEE: How to Become a DevOps Engineer