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Incident Management

Runbooks

  1. Document Common Incidents:
  2. Create detailed runbooks for common incidents, outlining steps to diagnose and resolve issues.

  3. Include relevant logs, metrics, and dashboards to check, along with troubleshooting steps.

  4. Runbook Format:

  5. Standardize the format of runbooks to ensure consistency.

  6. Include sections such as Incident Description, Symptoms, Immediate Actions, Detailed Steps, Escalation Procedures, and Post-Incident Actions.

  7. Accessible Repository:

  8. Store runbooks in a centralized and easily accessible repository, such as Confluence, Git, or an internal wiki.
  9. Ensure runbooks are version-controlled and regularly updated.

Postmortems

  1. Blameless Postmortems:
  2. Conduct postmortems for all major incidents, focusing on understanding the root cause and improving processes.

  3. Ensure a blameless culture to encourage open and honest discussions.

  4. Root Cause Analysis (RCA):

  5. Perform a thorough RCA to identify the underlying cause of the incident.

  6. Use methods like the 5 Whys, Fishbone Diagram, or Fault Tree Analysis to uncover root causes.

  7. Action Items:

  8. Define actionable items to prevent the recurrence of the incident.
  9. Assign owners and deadlines for each action item and track their completion.

Blameless Culture

  1. Promote Transparency:
  2. Encourage team members to report incidents and near-misses without fear of blame.

  3. Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

  4. Incident Review Meetings:

  5. Hold regular incident review meetings to discuss recent incidents and share learnings.
  6. Use these meetings to identify patterns and areas for improvement.