Runbook

It is free to fill in online, needs no account, and downloads as a Word document or a PDF. See all IT and projects templates

• Service or system

  For example: Customer payments API

• Procedure name

  For example: Restart the payments worker

• Owning team

  For example: Platform team

• Last reviewed

  For example: 3 August 2030

• When to use this runbook

  Say what alert or symptom sends someone here.

  For example: Use when payments are queued for more than 10 minutes and the dashboard shows the worker as down.

• Access and tools needed

  One per line.

  For example: Read access to the monitoring dashboard Shell access to the production jump host Member of the on-call group

• Checks before you start

  Numbered, one per line.

  For example: 1. Confirm the alert is real: open the Payments dashboard and check the queue size. 2. Check the status page for a provider outage. 3. Tell the incident channel you are starting.

• Steps

  One action per line, exact commands where safe.

  For example: 1. Log in to the jump host. 2. Run the service restart command for the worker. 3. Wait 2 minutes. 4. Check that the queue size is falling. 5. Check three recent payments completed.

• How to confirm it worked

  What you will see when it is fixed.

  For example: Queue under 50 and falling, no new errors for 10 minutes.

• If it does not work (rollback)

  How to undo or fall back.

  For example: Stop the worker, switch the service to the previous release, and escalate to the payments engineer.

• Who to call next

  One row for each contact.

  For example: Payments engineer on call | via the paging tool Platform lead | +00 000 000 0000 Customer support lead, if customers are affected | support channel

• Warnings (optional)optional

  Things that make it worse.

  For example: Never restart both workers at once. Do not clear the queue by hand.

• Afterwards (optional)optional

  For example: Write a note in the incident log with times and what was done. Raise a ticket if the cause is not known.

1. 11. When to use this runbook
2. 22. Access and tools you need
3. 33. Checks before you start
4. 44. Steps
5. 55. How to confirm it worked
6. 66. If it does not work
7. 77. Who to call next
8. 88. Warnings
9. 99. Afterwards

1. 01

   Fill in

   Type your details in the form. The document fills itself in as you type; click any gap to jump to its field.

2. 02

   Check

   Read it through. Gaps you have not filled stay marked, so nothing goes out half done.

3. 03

   Download

   Save it as a Word document to edit further, or as a PDF to send or print.

What details does this template ask for?

The form asks for 13 details, starting with Service or system, Procedure name, Owning team, Last reviewed, When to use this runbook. 2 more are optional.

Can I download this template as Word or PDF?

Yes. When you have filled in the form, save it as a Word document to keep editing, or as a PDF to send or print. It is free and needs no account.

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Most are. Fill in and download them for free as Word or PDF, with no account. A few longer documents are premium: free to fill in, paid once to download, and marked with their price.

Does a security policy make us secure?

No document does that alone. A policy helps when it matches what people really do, so keep it short, explain it to your team and review it every year.

Is a project charter only for large projects?

No. A small project benefits too, because one page that names the goal, the limits and the decision maker prevents most arguments later.

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