After this training day you can secure Azure Pipelines from project structure through to the production environment. You protect agent pools, service connections and secret variables, control the identities of pipelines and agents, set up approvals and branch checks, and build pipelines with templates so that plain-text secrets and unsafe parameters have no way in. The course suits DevOps engineers and developers who already use Azure DevOps and want to harden their pipelines or prepare for the Applied Skills assessment.
What you’ll take away.
- Structure projects and repositories so that security templates are protected separately
- Secure agent pools, service connections, environments and secret variables
- Manage identities for projects, pipelines and agents, including managed identities
- Configure and verify permissions, approvals and branch checks
- Extend pipelines with nested templates and type-safe parameters
Your training in detail
- Who is it for?
- DevOps engineers, developers and security staff who run or secure Azure Pipelines.
- Prerequisites
- Basic knowledge of Azure DevOps and CI/CD, an understanding of identities and permissions, and experience in the Azure portal, for example creating a Key Vault.
- Format & planning
- Standard length: 1 training day. A different length can be arranged for companies.
Agenda: from understanding to application
Our independently developed agenda proposal. Focus areas, lab environment and scope are agreed before booking.
Project and repository structure for secure pipelines
Protecting pipeline resources: agent pools, secret variables, service connections and environments
Identities: Microsoft-hosted pools, agent identities, service connection scope, managed identities
Setting up and auditing permissions, approvals and branch checks
Templates: nesting, removing plain-text secrets, limiting logging
Using variables and parameters safely, access to Azure Repos and Key Vault
You take over an insecure deployment pipeline, move the security templates into a separate repository, replace plain-text secrets with Key Vault references and enforce approvals before the production environment.
Exams, licences & credentials
The course prepares you for the “Microsoft Applied Skills: Implement security through a pipeline using Azure DevOps” assessment, a hands-on lab on Microsoft Learn. The assessment and any fees are included only if the offer confirms it. The credential is issued by Microsoft. This is not an official Microsoft course unless the offer states otherwise.
Vendor references & review date
Sources checked on 2026-11-10. These sources describe the technology or external exam requirements. They do not imply a partnership with NextNowa.
Your learning content
These objectives describe the training topic. The specific syllabus, dates and trainer are agreed before booking; the written offer is binding.
Frequently asked questions
Does it cover GitHub Actions too?
No. The course deals only with Azure DevOps, using Azure Pipelines and Azure Repos.
How does it relate to AZ-400?
AZ-400 covers DevOps on Microsoft platforms across the board. AZ-2001 goes deeper into pipeline security alone in one day and works well as an add-on.
Does AZ-2001 Implement security through a pipeline using Azure DevOps: securing Azure Pipelines include a certificate?
The course prepares you for the “Microsoft Applied Skills: Implement security through a pipeline using Azure DevOps” assessment, a hands-on lab on Microsoft Learn. The assessment and any fees are included only if the offer confirms it. The credential is issued by Microsoft. This is not an official Microsoft course unless the offer states otherwise.