Dev vs DevOps Engineer Responsibility Checklist

1. Introduction
In modern software delivery, especially under CI/CD and DevSecOps models, both Developers and DevOps Engineers work closely. But when issues arise — like build failures, vulnerability alerts, or deployment crashes — it’s essential to quickly determine: Is it a Dev issue or a DevOps issue? My goal with this is to foster clearer understanding and stronger teamwork, not to divide!

Take a look and let me know your thoughts: How do these responsibilities align in your organization, or what unique shared responsibilities have you found most effective?

2. Developer Responsibilities

These tasks are related to writing, maintaining, and testing the application code:

● Writing business logic in Java, Python, Node.js, etc.
● Creating and maintaining unit/integration tests.
● Debugging failed tests (e.g., JUnit, pytest).
● Fixing compilation errors and runtime exceptions.
● Managing dependencies in pom.xml, requirements.txt, package.json.
● Resolving static analysis issues (Checkstyle, PMD, SonarQube).
● Refactoring duplicated or inefficient code.
● Resolving Git conflicts and merge issues.
● Fixing vulnerable dependencies (Snyk, OWASP DC).
● Improving test coverage (JaCoCo, Cobertura).

3. DevOps Engineer Responsibilities
These tasks focus on CI/CD pipeline creation, infrastructure, security, and automation:

● Configuring CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab, GitHub Actions).
● Creating and managing Dockerfiles and base images.
● Managing Kubernetes deployments (YAML, Helm).
● Provisioning infrastructure (Terraform, AWS CDK, CloudFormation).
● Managing secrets and credentials.
● Handling SSL/TLS, DNS, firewalls, security groups.
● Setting up artifact repositories (Nexus, Artifactory).
● Integrating scanning tools (OWASP DC, SonarQube, Checkmarx).
● Generating and uploading coverage/quality reports.
● Setting up monitoring and alerting (CloudWatch, Prometheus, Grafana).
● Managing deployments, rollbacks, release strategies.

4. Shared Responsibilities (Dev + DevOps Engineer)
Many tasks require collaboration between devs and DevOps:

Task                      Dev                        DevOps Engineer 
SonarQube Scan         Fix issues                   Configure & integrate
OWASP Dependency Check Update vulnerable libraries  Automate scan in pipeline
Snyk                   Interpret & patch            Automate scan, fail builds
Performance Issues     Optimize code                Tune infra: CPU, memory, DB
Deployment Rollback    Test recovery                Configure rollback strategy
Test Coverage          Write tests                  Publish coverage reports
Secure Coding          Follow standards             Enforce policies via tools

5. Troubleshooting Guide: Who Owns What?
Use this guide to quickly identify ownership of various problems:

Problem                  Likely Owner     Explanation
Compilation error        Developer        Java/Python syntax or missing import
Failed unit tests        Developer        Assertion logic or mocking error
PMD/Checkstyle failure   Developer        Code standards not met
Missing dependency       Developer        pom.xml or version mismatch
NullPointerException     Developer        Bug in application logic
SonarQube smell/bug      Developer        Fix required in code
OWASP/Snyk: CVE alert    Developer        Library needs upgrade
Jenkinsfile syntax error DevOps Engineer  Pipeline misconfigured
Docker build fails       DevOps Engineer  Dockerfile or base image issue
K8s deployment fails     DevOps Engineer  YAML error, missing config
Permission denied        DevOps Engineer  IAM/Secrets not configured
CI/CD tool error         DevOps Engineer  Jenkins, GitHub Actions error
Slow performance         Shared           Code + infra tuning needed

6. Best Practices
Use clear stage labels in pipelines to clearly separate roles
Example (Jenkins or GitHub Actions):

● stage: Compile Code      # Developer
● stage: Run Unit Tests    # Developer
● stage: Static Analysis   # Shared
● stage: Build Docker Image # DevOps Engineer 
● stage: Deploy to Staging # DevOps Engineer 
● Set Quality Gates in SonarQube:
o   80%+ test coverage
o   0 critical bugs/vulnerabilities
● Automate Scans but don’t overwhelm developers — prioritize only new/critical issues.
● Document error ownership during postmortems or retrospectives.

7. Summary Table

Task Type                           Who Owns It
Business logic,unit tests           Developer
Static code issues                  Developer
Dependency upgrades                 Developer
Security scans config (OWASP/Snyk)  DevOps Engineer 
Vulnerability fixes (libraries)     Developer
Docker build, Kubernetes deploy     DevOps Engineer 
CI/CD failure (pipeline script)     DevOps Engineer 
Runtime error in app logs           Developer
Test coverage report integration    DevOps Engineer 
Monitoring, rollback configuration  DevOps Engineer 
Application performance tuning      Shared

8. Culture & Collaboration — Dev vs DevOps Engineer

Fostering Collaboration & Communication between Dev and Ops

Shared/Collaborative: DevOps is inherently about this.

Documentation of Processes, Runbooks, Best Practices

Shared/Collaborative: Essential for both teams.

Providing Self-Service Capabilities (e.g., automated Dev environment spin-up)

Primarily: DevOps

Notes: Empowering Dev teams with automation.

Training / Onboarding New Team Members (on tools/processes)

Shared/Collaborative: Sharing knowledge is key.

Final Note:

A DevOps Engineer’s job is not just infra — it includes automation, quality gates, and security integration.
A Developer’s job is not just writing code — it includes responsibility for code health, testing, and fixing scans.

Together, both roles are essential for DevSecOps maturity.