Building DevOps Infrastructure: A Project Manager’s Blueprint for Success

We have all experienced that moment when everything in our project is running smoothly — then boom! Something crashes, and suddenly, all eyes are on us to figure out what went wrong. In these moments, the importance of a well-structured DevOps process becomes crystal clear.

Many of the decisions surrounding DevOps activities are made during the planning stage when a project transitions from ideation to execution. As project managers, we work closely with architects and engineers to ensure that DevOps activities align with the overall project structure. From capturing architecture outlines to defining infrastructure needs, our goal is to make sure DevOps is set up for success right from the start. If you need a refresher on what takes place during the architectural phase, refer to my previous article:?Navigating Software Architecture: A Project Manager’s Blueprint for Success.

Supporting DevOps engineers is a key part of our role. There are times when their work may not seem immediately relevant to the team or the client, but when something critical happens, their contributions become invaluable. It’s our job to advocate for DevOps and ensure their work is integrated into the project long before anyone realizes they need it.

We’ve found that while a Scrum board works well for development activities, DevOps is best managed using a Kanban approach within the same Jira project. This provides a bird’s-eye view of ongoing tasks and prevents their work from being constrained to fixed sprints. We also ensure that before the development team kicks off Sprint 0, the DevOps team gets a two to three-week head start to set up the right infrastructure. This proactive approach helps avoid delays and missed opportunities to establish the correct foundation.

When managing the DevOps portion of any project, we focus on the following areas:

• Infrastructure & Environment Setup
• CI/CD Pipeline Setup
• Monitoring & Logging
• Security & Compliance
• Performance & Reliability
• Backup & Disaster Recovery

The level of effort required for DevOps depends on the type of project, the skill level of the engineering team, and the platforms we are leveraging — whether it’s AWS, Microsoft Azure, or another cloud provider. We make sure these factors are accounted for well in advance so that we don’t run into surprises later. Rather than just handing the team a checklist and hoping for the best, we take a hands-on approach to ensure that every component of DevOps is set up to support the project’s success.

1. Infrastructure & Environment Setup

Setting up the right infrastructure is crucial for scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency. Having separate environments for development, testing, and production prevents conflicts and makes deployments smoother.

• Set up cloud or on-prem infrastructure
• Use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform or CloudFormation
• Configure networking (VPC, subnets, firewalls, security settings)
• Create separate environments for development, staging, and production
• Automate infrastructure provisioning to save time and reduce errors
• Manage containers using tools like Kubernetes or Docker Swarm

2. CI/CD Pipeline Setup

Automating software delivery reduces risks, improves efficiency, and speeds up deployments. Continuous Integration (CI) helps catch bugs early, while Continuous Deployment (CD) ensures quick and smooth releases.

• Set up version control using Git, GitLab, or Bitbucket
• Automate build and compilation processes
• Run automated tests (unit, integration, security)
• Use CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI/CD
• Implement feature flagging and safe deployment strategies
• Plan for rollbacks in case of failed releases

3. Monitoring & Logging

Keeping an eye on system performance and logs helps identify issues before they become problems. Good monitoring reduces downtime and makes troubleshooting faster.

• Use monitoring tools like New Relic or Datadog
• Set up centralized logging with ELK Stack or Splunk
• Configure alerts and notifications with PagerDuty or Slack
• Track system health and performance metrics
• Enable distributed tracing for microservices (Jaeger, OpenTelemetry)

4. Security & Compliance

Security is a top priority for protecting data and ensuring compliance with industry regulations. We make sure best practices are in place to reduce risks and maintain user trust.

• Use role-based access control (RBAC) to manage permissions
• Store sensitive information securely with Vault or AWS Secrets Manager
• Run security scans (SAST, DAST) to find vulnerabilities
• Monitor compliance requirements like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR
• Automate security updates and patches
• Implement a zero-trust security model for better protection

5. Performance & Reliability

Ensuring that applications run smoothly and handle traffic effectively improves user experience and keeps systems stable.

• Run load and stress tests with JMeter or k6
• Set up auto-scaling and load balancing for handling traffic spikes
• Test system resilience with chaos engineering (Gremlin, LitmusChaos)
• Optimize database queries and indexing for better performance
• Use caching and rate-limiting to prevent overload

6. Backup & Disaster Recovery

Having a solid backup and disaster recovery plan ensures business continuity and protects against data loss.

• Set up automated backups with RDS snapshots or S3 versioning
• Create and test a disaster recovery plan
• Use database replication and failover strategies
• Run recovery drills to test system readiness
• Follow data retention policies to meet compliance standards

As project managers, we ensure that these critical areas are always addressed so that our projects have a stable, scalable, and secure infrastructure while keeping the development team agile. By understanding and maintaining these checklists, we can manage our DevOps engineers more effectively, strengthen the projects under our leadership, and create even greater opportunities for success.