10 Overlooked DevOps Practices You Need to Know

When discussing top DevOps practices, IT leaders frequently highlight version control, automated deployments via CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code implementations. While these foundational practices are essential, there are numerous other DevOps strategies that often go overlooked but can significantly enhance the frequency, reliability, and security of software delivery. Organizations seeking to optimize their DevOps maturity need to balance refining existing practices with exploring new, high-impact strategies.

Over the years, I’ve compiled a list of 40 DevOps practices covering the full software development lifecycle—from planning and development to release and monitoring. With so many potential areas for improvement, technology leaders face a strategic choice: continue investing in practices they already excel at or broaden their capabilities by adopting overlooked but critical techniques. Chris Mahl, CEO of Pryon, emphasizes that the most effective DevOps practices are rarely the flashy ones. He notes, “It’s the unglamorous work, such as standardizing CI/CD pipelines across teams, implementing consistent observability standards, and treating environment alignment as data architecture.”

For organizations developing custom software at scale, advanced CI/CD practices and robust observability capabilities are often standard. However, recent advancements in AI-assisted coding, low-code platforms, and agentic AI development present a unique opportunity to reassess DevOps priorities. These emerging technologies can amplify the benefits of existing practices while highlighting areas that were previously undervalued. Revisiting DevOps strategies ensures that teams are not just keeping pace with technology but are also optimizing processes for efficiency, security, and resilience.

One frequently overlooked practice is the reexamination of DevOps culture and collaboration. DevOps was originally designed to bridge development and operations, enabling frequent, reliable code releases while upholding operational mandates like performance and security. Nearly two decades later, many of the cultural and operational challenges persist. As Chris Hendrich, associate CTO of AppMod at SADA, explains, “Building true shared ownership is more than putting teams in the same chat room. It requires making production reliability and performance a primary success indicator for development, not solely an operational concern.” Fostering shared accountability ensures teams create more resilient products and strengthens organizational competency in software delivery.