Originally sourced from devops.com. Published August 2018.
Why Pre-Conference Training Matters at DevOps World | Jenkins World
DevOps World | Jenkins World has established itself as one of the most important annual DevOps conferences, drawing practitioners, architects, and engineering leaders who want to stay current with the pace of modern software delivery. Beyond the keynotes, vendor expo, and networking sessions, one of the most practical reasons to attend is the pre-conference training and certification programme.
Think of pre-conference training as preparation before the main event: it gives you the conceptual grounding and hands-on skills to extract maximum value from the sessions that follow, and to apply what you learn immediately back at work.
The 2018 edition of the conference reflected broader industry trends. Forrester had designated 2018 the “Year of DevOps,” citing survey data showing that roughly half of respondents had already implemented DevOps practices and were planning to expand them. Continuous learning is the natural counterpart to continuous delivery — and that is exactly what the training programme was designed to support.
Free Jenkins Certification Exam Voucher
One of the most tangible perks of attending training at DevOps World | Jenkins World 2018 was a complimentary certification exam voucher — valued at $150 — for either of the following exams:
- Certified Jenkins Engineer (CJE)
- Certified CloudBees Jenkins Platform Engineer (CCJPE)
Attendees could choose to sit the exam on-site at the conference (on a first-come, first-served basis) or redeem the voucher at a later date. Training sessions were available as add-ons to a full conference pass, with half-day, one-day, and two-day formats offered during the registration process.
Featured Training Courses
The following five courses were highlighted as recommended training options for DevOps World | Jenkins World 2018 attendees.
DevOps Leader Certification Training
Successful DevOps transformation requires more than tooling — it demands leadership. This course was designed for practitioners in both tactical and strategic roles: anyone who helps design, influence, implement, or drive the cultural shift that underpins DevOps adoption. Whether you are an engineering manager, a delivery lead, or an architect with organisational influence, this course aimed to elevate your ability to lead DevOps change effectively.
Value Stream Mapping for DevOps
Led by Mike Orzen — a Lean thought leader and author — this session focused on applying value stream mapping principles to DevOps workflows. Value stream mapping is a technique borrowed from Lean manufacturing that helps teams visualise every step in their software delivery process, identify bottlenecks and waste, and redesign the flow to deliver more value to end users faster. This course was particularly suited to teams looking for a structured, analytical approach to process improvement rather than ad-hoc optimisation.
Jenkins Fundamentals
The foundational Jenkins course was aimed at engineers who wanted to build or deepen their knowledge of Jenkins before sitting either the CJE or CCJPE certification exam. Topics covered best practices for using Jenkins to support a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) lifecycle, including pipeline creation, build management, and integration patterns. This was the recommended starting point for anyone new to Jenkins or seeking a structured review before certification.
CloudBees Core Fundamentals
Building on Jenkins Fundamentals, this course introduced the CloudBees Core product suite — the enterprise offering that extends Jenkins with additional features for scalability, security, and governance. Attendees learned how to leverage CloudBees Core to scale continuous delivery across large organisations, covering key proprietary features that go beyond what open-source Jenkins provides out of the box. This course was the logical progression for engineers who had completed Jenkins Fundamentals and were working in or moving toward enterprise Jenkins environments.
CloudBees Core on Kubernetes
By 2018, Kubernetes had become the dominant container orchestration platform, and running CI/CD infrastructure on Kubernetes was an emerging best practice for cloud-native teams. This hands-on course walked attendees through deploying and operating CloudBees Core on a Kubernetes cluster, covering both public and private cloud configurations. The goal was to equip teams with an elastic, scalable CI/CD platform that could grow with their workloads. The course included a hands-on installation component, giving participants practical experience rather than purely theoretical instruction.
Who Should Consider This Training Path
The 2018 training programme at DevOps World | Jenkins World was structured to serve a range of experience levels and roles:
- New Jenkins users — Start with Jenkins Fundamentals, then progress to CloudBees Core Fundamentals.
- Engineers targeting certification — Jenkins Fundamentals directly prepares you for the CJE and CCJPE exams.
- Cloud-native infrastructure engineers — CloudBees Core on Kubernetes is the most relevant track.
- Engineering managers and delivery leads — DevOps Leader Certification Training and Value Stream Mapping address organisational and process concerns rather than tooling.
- Teams modernising their delivery pipeline — Value Stream Mapping offers a structured methodology for identifying and eliminating bottlenecks.
Key Takeaway
Pre-conference training at events like DevOps World | Jenkins World serves a dual purpose: it accelerates learning before the main sessions begin, and it delivers lasting value through certification credentials that are recognised across the industry. The inclusion of a free $150 certification exam voucher made attending training a particularly strong return on investment for engineers planning to pursue Jenkins certification in 2018.
For the most current training offerings and certification paths from CloudBees, refer directly to the CloudBees website, as course names, formats, and voucher programmes change between conference years.