DevOps Practical Checklist

Created by Cheli

Step-by-step guide to implement DevOps practices in a software project.

22 Items

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Published May 14, 2026

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Checklist Items (22)

Define Project Goals and Requirements

Clarify business objectives, success metrics, and functional/non-functional requirements.

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Identify Key Stakeholders and Their Expectations

List product owners, developers, ops, security, and end‑user representatives.

Set Up Version Control System

Choose a Git hosting service and initialize repositories for source code and IaC.

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Select Repository Hosting (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)

Evaluate features like pull requests, protected branches, and CI integration.

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Define Branching Strategy (e.g., GitFlow, Trunk-Based)

Document how feature, release, and hotfix branches will be used.

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Configure Access Controls and Permissions

Set role‑based access, enforce 2FA, and protect main branches.

Implement Continuous Integration (CI)

Automate building and testing on every code change.

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Choose a CI Platform (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)

Select based on ecosystem, pricing, and scalability needs.

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Configure Build Pipeline Stages

Define steps: checkout, compile, unit test, static analysis, and artifact storage.

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Set Up Automated Test Execution

Run unit, integration, and lint tests; fail fast on errors.

Implement Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CD)

Automate release to staging and production environments safely.

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Select CD Tool (e.g., Argo CD, Spinnaker, AWS CodeDeploy)

Pick a tool that supports your deployment strategy and infrastructure.

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Define Deployment Strategies (Blue/Green, Canary, Rolling)

Choose strategy based on risk tolerance and rollback requirements.

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Implement Automated Rollback Mechanism

Ensure failed deployments trigger automatic rollback to previous version.

Adopt Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Manage servers, networks, and services via version‑controlled definitions.

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Select IaC Framework (Terraform, Pulumi, AWS CDK)

Evaluate language support, state management, and provider coverage.

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Write Modular, Reusable Templates

Break infrastructure into modules (network, compute, database) for reuse.

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Store State Securely and Enable Locking

Use remote backends (e.g., S3 with DynamoDB locking) to prevent conflicts.

Establish Monitoring and Logging

Gain visibility into system health and application performance.

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Choose Monitoring Stack (Prometheus + Grafana, Datadog, New Relic)

Select based on metrics collection, alerting, and dashboard capabilities.

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Set Up Alerting for Critical Metrics

Define thresholds for CPU, memory, latency, and error rates; route to on‑call.

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Implement Centralized Log Aggregation (ELK, Loki, Fluentd)

Collect, index, and search logs from all services in one place.

Integrate Security Practices (DevSecOps)

Shift security left by automating scans and policy checks.

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Add Static Application Security Testing (SAST) to CI

Run tools like SonarQube or Bandit on every pull request.

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Add Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) in Staging

Scan running applications for vulnerabilities with OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite.

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Automate Dependency Vulnerability Scanning

Use Dependabot, Snyk, or Trivy to flag vulnerable libraries.

Create Incident Response and Runbooks

Prepare for outages with documented procedures and clear responsibilities.

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Define Incident Severity Levels and Escalation Paths

Establish SEV1‑SEV4 categories and who to notify at each level.

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Create Standardized Runbook Templates

Include steps for detection, mitigation, communication, and post‑mortem.

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Establish On‑Call Rotation and Escalation Schedule

Use tools like PagerDuty or Opsgenie to manage rotations and notifications.

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