Key DevOps Best Practices Every Team Should Know

When companies start adopting DevOps, one of the first questions that comes up is: where do we begin? The truth is, not every practice carries the same weight. Some are absolutely essential, while others come in once you’ve built a stable foundation. 

To make things easier, here’s a clear breakdown of DevOps best practices arranged in three levels from the basics you must follow, to the advanced practices that help you grow further.

Tier 1: Foundational DevOps Best Practices to Must Follow

These are the basics. Without them, DevOps will not work smoothly.

1. Version Control Everything

Store code, infrastructure files, and configurations in a version control system like Git. This ensures changes are tracked, older versions can be restored easily, and teamwork becomes more organized. Implementing this is one of the core DevOps best practices.

2. Agile Project Management

Work in small, manageable steps rather than long, rigid plans. Regularly review progress, adapt when things change, and keep the focus on delivering useful results quickly.

3. Cross-Functional Teams

Bring developers, testers, and operations together instead of having them work separately. Shared ownership avoids delays and helps issues get resolved faster.

4. Collaboration & Communication

Use clear communication channels and hold regular sync-ups so teams stay aligned. Open discussions reduce misunderstandings and last-minute surprises.

5. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Define your servers, networks and environments in code. This way, you can recreate systems consistently and avoid manual errors during setup.

6. Continuous Integration & Deployment (CI/CD) Pipelines

Automate how code is built, tested, and released. This makes releases quicker, reduces manual mistakes, and gives teams the confidence to update often. Setting up CI/CD pipelines is a key best DevOps practice.

7. Automated Testing

Run tests automatically whenever code changes. This helps catch bugs early, before they reach customers, saving both time and effort later.

8. Shift Left on Security (DevSecOps)

Security shouldn’t wait until the end. Scan code and check dependencies during development to reduce risks and prevent costly fixes after release. Following DevOps security best practices ensures your applications are protected from the start.

9. Configuration Management

Keep settings and configurations the same across all environments using tools like Ansible or Puppet. This eliminates the classic “it worked on my laptop” problem.

10. Environment Parity

Keep development, staging, and production environments as similar as possible. The closer they are, the fewer deployment surprises you’ll face.

Tier 2: Operational DevOps Best Practices to Strengthen Stability

Once the basics are in place, these practices make your systems more reliable and easier to manage.

1. Monitoring & Logging

Track system health in real time and keep detailed logs. This helps identify problems quickly and gives you the data needed to understand what happened. Implementing DevOps monitoring best practices ensures issues are spotted before they affect users.

2. Rollback & Recovery Plans

Not every deployment goes perfectly. Having a simple rollback plan lets you quickly return to a safe state with minimal downtime if something breaks.

3. Secrets Management

Keep sensitive information like passwords, keys, and tokens in a secure store instead of plain text files. This lowers the risk of accidental leaks and aligns with DevOps security best practices.

4. Microservices & Containerization

Break large applications into smaller services and package them in containers like Docker. This makes them easier to scale, update, and manage independently.

5. Immutable Infrastructure

Instead of fixing servers manually, replace them with new ones created from templates. This keeps systems consistent and avoids hidden errors building up over time.

6. Blue-Green / Canary Deployments

Release changes and new features gradually. For example, roll them out to a small group of users first or run a new version in parallel. This way, If something goes wrong, it’s easy to switch back.

Tier 3: Advanced DevOps Best Practices to Drive Continuous Growth

These are maturity practices. These practices help businesses scale, improve efficiency, and keep evolving over time, showing how DevOps boosts efficiency in SaaS product development.

1. Scalability & High Availability

Design systems that can handle more users as you grow and keep working even if some components fail. This is vital for growing businesses and customer trust.

2. Continuous Feedback Loops

Use insights from monitoring, logs, and user feedback to keep improving your systems. Feedback ensures you don’t just fix issues but also make things better over time. Incorporating monitoring feedback is an advanced DevOps monitoring best practice.

3. Performance Optimization

Regularly review applications and infrastructure to improve speed, reduce costs, and deliver smoother experiences to users.

4. Documentation as Code

Store documentation alongside the code so it updates whenever the system changes. This avoids outdated manuals and keeps information accurate.

5. Culture of Automation & Improvement

Encourage teams to spot repetitive tasks and automate them. Over time, this builds a culture where efficiency and improvement become second nature.

Moving Forward with DevOps Best Practices

Every organization is at a different stage, but DevOps best practices provide a roadmap for all. Focus on what’s essential today, strengthen your systems over time, and add advanced practices when ready. This way, DevOps supports your business instead of becoming a burden.

At Softices, we help businesses adopt these practices step by step building strong foundations, improving stability, and guiding them toward long-term growth with DevOps best practices.