Working practice
Runbook
Step-by-step instructions for operating and fixing a system.
Definition
A practical document describing how to perform routine operations and how to respond to known failures: the commands, the dashboards, the thresholds, and who to wake. It is written for someone competent but unfamiliar, at three in the morning.
Why it matters
Runbooks are the cheapest defence against lock-in and the first thing dropped under delivery pressure. Make them a deliverable with a due date rather than a good intention. A system only one person can operate is a system you are renting from that person.
Related
Read next
Knowledge transfer
Deliberately moving what one person knows into the team.
Read the definition ›Handover
Transferring work and the reasoning behind it.
Read the definition ›On-call rotation
A published schedule of who responds to incidents outside working hours.
Read the definition ›Vendor lock-in
The cost of leaving a supplier, whether or not anyone intended it.
Read the definition ›Next step
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