1.1 …read this book

If I was being flippant I might say, “with your eyes” but I’m bigger than that so instead I will suggest some ways you might use this material.

This book is organised as a single narrative course centered around the technology that supports DevOps. If you start on page one, read through each page and follow along with all the material, you should end up being proficient with the entire IT System Lifecycle Management.

Don’t have time to follow along from the start? Perhaps you already know enough about networks and fell confident skipping that material. No problem. At the start of each section you will find details of how to create an appropriate environment for that section. These ‘checkpoints’ also mean that if you mess up you can simply throw your environment away, recreate it using the closest checkpoint and continue with the course.

Having difficulty? No problem. Ask for help. Someone in the community may help and since I am in the community I can also help clarify things. If enough people are confused by the material then obviously I messed up and need to rewrite that material to be more clear; it shall be done.

Other books are available with more detailed material. Trying to cover all of the many complex topics under the IT System Lifecycle Management rubric would make this book not only much larger but also less focussed. My solution is to write books to deep-dive into related topics and reference those books from this one where appropriate. This way I hope you will find all the guidance you need either here or in one of the supporting books.

All of these books undergo constant maintenance (hopefully improvement), my only goal is to make the material more clear and more accessible over time.