The present study focuses on the experimental investigation of the precipitation and dislocation induced strain hardening behavior and related microstructural evolution of the heat-treated 17-4 PH stainless steel. Tensile and compression tests were carried out at an ambient temperature, using a nominal strain rate of 1×10-3s-1 to evaluate the precipitation induced flow stress characteristics of the stainless steel grade in correlation with its microstructural attributes. Differential Crussard-Jaoul (C-J) analysis was performed to quantify the role of precipitate in governing the strain hardening rate. It has illustrated the multiple stages of strain hardening depicting the impact of microstructural constituents on the strain hardening behavior. Peak strength and hardening of the H900 condition, caused mainly due to the coherency of precipitates within the lath matrix, can be deduced from the increase in the precipitation-sensitive microstrain and dislocation density. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd