✅ DevOps Audit Checklist

A comprehensive yet practical framework for reviewing infrastructure, processes, and security posture. Suitable for SaaS, LiveOps, or cloud environments (AWS/Azure/GCP). Use this as a self-audit tool or team governance guide.

🏗️ 1. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Objective: Ensure all infrastructure is reproducible, version-controlled, and compliant.

All infrastructure is defined using IaC (Terraform, Pulumi, OpenTofu, CloudFormation, Bicep)
IaC modules are versioned and tagged in Git
State files are stored securely (e.g., S3 + DynamoDB lock, Azure Blob)
Policy-as-code (OPA/Sentinel) enforces guardrails on deployments
Secrets and credentials are excluded from IaC repositories
Code review and approvals are mandatory for infrastructure changes
Drift detection and automated remediation are in place (Terraform Cloud, Atlantis, Spacelift)

🧰 2. CI/CD Pipelines

Objective: Ensure pipelines are reliable, secure, and standardized.

All pipelines are defined as code (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkinsfiles, etc.)
Build stages include linting, testing, security scans, and artefact signing
Pipelines use managed identities or OIDC tokens (no static keys)
Deployment steps are automated and version-controlled
Rollback strategy is defined (blue-green/canary)
Secrets injected securely from a secret manager
Pipeline failures trigger alerts with clear logging and traceability
PR validation includes IaC plan output and approval workflow

☁️ 3. Cloud Governance (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Objective: Maintain visibility, cost efficiency, and compliance.

Multi-account / multi-subscription structure in place (e.g., org units)
Cost monitoring dashboards exist (AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Mgmt)
Idle resources are automatically identified and terminated
Least privilege IAM roles are enforced (no admin wildcards)
Centralized logging enabled (CloudTrail, Activity Logs)
Encryption at rest and in transit enabled for all services
Automated tagging policy (owner, environment, cost center)
Regular security posture reviews (AWS Trusted Advisor, Azure Defender)

🔒 4. Security & Secrets Management

Objective: Eliminate credential sprawl and enforce secure practices.

Secrets managed centrally (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault)
Secrets never stored in source control or CI/CD configs
Role-based access controls implemented
Secret rotation policy automated
Dependency scanning for known CVEs (Snyk, Dependabot)
Container images scanned (Trivy, Grype)
SSH key management automated or federated
Zero-trust principles applied where possible

🧱 5. Containerization & Orchestration

Objective: Ensure reliability, scalability, and observability of workloads.

All services containerized (Docker, OCI images)
Image builds use minimal base images (distroless, Alpine)
Kubernetes manifests or Helm charts are version-controlled
Resource requests and limits defined for all Pods
Probes (liveness/readiness/startup) configured
Namespace and network policies applied
Autoscaling enabled (HPA/VPA)
Cluster access controlled via RBAC and OIDC
Cluster certificates rotated regularly
Logging and metrics aggregated (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK)

🧠 6. Observability & Incident Management

Objective: Maintain situational awareness and rapid recovery capability.

Unified monitoring dashboard (Grafana, Datadog, CloudWatch, Azure Monitor)
Application traces collected (OpenTelemetry, X-Ray, Jaeger)
Log retention policy defined and automated
On-call rotation and alerting system in place (PagerDuty, OpsGenie)
SLA/SLO/SLI metrics tracked and reviewed regularly
Post-incident RCA process defined and documented
Blameless postmortems held after major incidents
Synthetic monitoring for external endpoints

🔄 7. Backup, DR, and Business Continuity

Objective: Guarantee data integrity and service recovery.

Backups are automated, encrypted, and verified
DR plan documented and tested at least annually
RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) targets defined
Infrastructure can be re-deployed from code + backups
Cross-region replication enabled for critical workloads

🧩 8. Development Practices

Objective: Promote collaboration, consistency, and continuous improvement.

Branching strategy enforced (GitFlow, Trunk-based)
Code review and merge protection enabled
Pre-commit hooks for formatting and linting
Automated testing integrated in CI
Documentation lives with code (README.md)
Team retrospectives include DevOps improvement items

🔁 9. Automation & Scripting

Objective: Reduce manual toil and standardize repetitive tasks.

Common ops tasks scripted (bash, Python, Go)
Scheduled jobs automated (cron, Lambda, Azure Functions)
Infrastructure bootstrapping automated via IaC + scripts
Self-healing alerts where possible
Config management (Ansible, Chef, Puppet) applied consistently

📊 10. Reporting & Metrics

Objective: Measure DevOps effectiveness and communicate progress.

Track DORA metrics: Deployment frequency, Lead time for changes, Mean time to recovery (MTTR), Change failure rate
Monthly dashboard review of incidents and performance
Cost and uptime metrics reported to leadership
Continuous improvement initiatives logged and reviewed

🧾 11. Compliance & Governance

Objective: Align DevOps with organizational and regulatory requirements.

Data handling aligns with GDPR, ISO27001, PCI-DSS, etc.
Access reviews conducted quarterly
Change management documentation automated via Git commits
Logs retained per compliance policy
Evidence collection automated for audits

🧭 12. Cultural Health Check

Objective: Measure team maturity and collaboration.

Devs and Ops share responsibility for uptime
Psychological safety encourages open problem-solving
Regular knowledge-sharing sessions held
Technical debt tracked and prioritized
Tooling supports autonomy, not silos

How to use this checklist:

Review each section quarterly or during major infrastructure changes
Score each item (Pass/Fail/Partial/N/A)
Document findings and create action items for gaps
Track progress over time to measure DevOps maturity

DevOps Audit Checklist – Comprehensive Infrastructure Review Framework