Legal

Code of conduct

The DOAP Alliance brings together professionals, employers, platforms, agencies and vendors. This code keeps that room useful and fair for all of them. It applies in every Alliance space: the forum, events, working sessions, committees and working groups, online and in person.

Draft, October 2026. To be adopted by the DOAP Board before launch.

Every member

1. Treat people with respect. Disagree with ideas, not with people. No harassment, discrimination, threats or personal attacks, in any channel, at any event.
2. Be honest. Do not misrepresent who you are, who you work for, your certifications or your results.
3. Protect confidential information. What is shared in a members-only space, a working session or a committee stays there unless the person who shared it says otherwise.
4. Respect privacy. Do not collect, export or use other members’ contact details for anything they did not agree to.
5. Disclose conflicts of interest. If you have a commercial stake in what is being discussed, say so.
6. Keep certification honest. Do not share, sell or reproduce exam content, and do not help anyone cheat.
7. No unsolicited selling. Share what you know; do not use member spaces to pitch.
8. Follow the platforms’ own terms. The Alliance does not ask or permit anyone to break a platform’s rules.

By member type

On top of the code above, each type of member agrees to the following.

DevOps professionals

• Share real experience, including mistakes; it is how the practice improves.
• When you help someone, do not ask for paid work in return unless they ask first.
• Never post a client’s or employer’s data, credentials or screenshots of production that identify them.

Sponsoring organizations

• Do not use the Alliance to recruit aggressively. Job posts go on the job board; no cold outreach to members through member spaces.
• Do not ask for, or use, the member list or any member’s survey answers.
• Sponsoring a member’s seat does not give you a say over what they post or how they vote.

Platform companies

• Do not market against another platform in Alliance spaces. Speak to your own product, not about a competitor’s.
• Do not try to influence the exam, the survey questions or the benchmark results for your platform.
• Answer members’ questions in good faith, and say clearly when you are speaking for your company.

Solution providers

• Do not poach clients or staff through Alliance channels.
• Represent your certified staff accurately. A badge belongs to the person who earned it, not the firm.
• Referrals from the Alliance are introductions, not endorsements; do not present them as either.

Vendors and sponsors

• Advertise only through approved channels and sponsorship placements. No promotions in discussion threads, direct messages or working sessions.
• Discounts and offers must be the same for every member and approved before they run.
• Sponsorship buys visibility, not influence over the standard, the curriculum or any member.

Reporting a problem

If you see or experience a breach, tell any member of the Community & Content Committee. Reports are kept confidential, and nobody is penalized for reporting in good faith.

What happens next

• The Community & Content Committee responds first, usually with a conversation and a reminder of the code.
• Serious or repeated breaches can lead to a warning, a suspension, or removal from the Alliance, decided by the body one level up.
• Members serving on a body can be removed from it for a breach, by the body one level up.
• Certification can be suspended or revoked for exam misconduct, decided by the Certification Committee.

This code of conduct is subject to change. Updates are published on this page, and continued participation in the Alliance means you accept the current version.