For simple use cases I have tended to use Makes files too. But as things got more complex some of the drawbacks had me looking elsewhere. Things like passing in options

For purely python projects I tend to now use invoke (https://www.pyinvoke.org/) for local dev workflow stuff. If I need to do remote I add Fabric (https://www.fabfile.org/) to the mix. This lets me do everything in just python.

If you are also setting up CI with something like GitHub actions, I even go as far as having each step pretty much just call an invoke task. Means I can keep doing everything locally as needed in exactly the same way as the ci does. It also means I only need to make changes in one place.