AZ-400 Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions Exam

Design and implement traceability and flow of work

Design and implement a structure for the flow of work, including GitHub Flow

The goal of a flow of work structure is to create a clear and consistent way for teams to develop and deliver code. A well-defined branching strategy uses feature branches, pull requests, and a protected main branch to keep changes organized. Developers should start each new task by creating a branch off of main, ensuring that the main branch remains stable.

GitHub Flow is a lightweight workflow that emphasizes continuous delivery through simple steps. It involves:

• Creating a feature branch for each task
• Committing changes locally and pushing to the remote repository
• Opening a pull request (PR) for review
• Merging to main once the PR passes checks and gets approvals

This approach supports continuous delivery by making sure every change is reviewed and tested before it’s merged. Teams benefit from faster feedback, easier rollbacks, and better collaboration when they follow the same flow.

Design and implement a strategy for feedback cycles, including notifications and GitHub issues

Effective feedback cycles help teams catch problems early and keep everyone informed about code quality and progress. Automated alerts and notifications ensure that developers know immediately when a build fails or tests break. By integrating with tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or email, notifications become a seamless part of the daily workflow.

GitHub Issues serve as a central place to record bugs, feature requests, and discussion points. Each issue can be:

• Linked to commits and pull requests
• Tagged with labels to show status or priority
• Assigned to team members for accountability

Using GitHub issues for feedback creates a transparent record of work and discussion. This strategy improves collaboration because everyone can see what’s been requested, what’s in progress, and what’s done.

Design and implement integration for tracking work, including GitHub projects, Azure Boards, and repositories

Bringing together work tracking tools gives teams a unified view of tasks and code changes. Azure Boards offers a backlog, sprint planning, and customizable work items that link directly to commits and pull requests. By connecting repositories to Azure Boards, developers can see which code changes resolve specific work items.

GitHub Projects provide a Kanban-style board right in the repository, letting teams automate workflows through custom rules. Common features include:

• Drag-and-drop cards for issues and pull requests
• Automated column changes when PRs are merged
• Custom fields to track effort or status

This integration leads to end-to-end traceability and real-time visibility. Teams can easily track progress from planning to deployment without switching tools.

Design and implement source, bug, and quality traceability

Traceability ensures that every code change, bug report, and test outcome is linked together for clear audit trails. Source traceability connects commits and pull requests back to work items or user stories. This practice uses commit messages that mention issue numbers and uses branch names that reflect the task being worked on.

Bug traceability links work items to failures in code or in automated tests, making it easier to find the root cause. Quality traceability ties together:

• Automated test results
• Code coverage metrics
• Build and deployment status

By maintaining these links, teams get full visibility into how code quality evolves over time. This approach supports compliance, faster debugging, and continuous improvement.

Conclusion

In this section, we covered how to set up a structure for the flow of work using GitHub Flow to ensure code is always reviewed and deployable. We then discussed a strategy for feedback cycles, leveraging notifications and GitHub Issues to keep communication clear and timely. Next, we explored integrations for tracking work with GitHub Projects and Azure Boards, which provide a unified view of progress and link tasks to code. Finally, we explained traceability for source, bugs, and quality, showing how linking work items, commits, and test results creates a transparent and auditable development process. Together, these practices help teams deliver reliable software more efficiently and with greater confidence.