Use runbooks for standard activities such as deployment

Controlled changes are essential for consistent deployment of new functionality and maintenance of workloads. By utilizing runbooks, teams can ensure that changes are executed in a predictable manner, minimizing risks associated with uncontrolled modifications.

Best Practices

Develop Comprehensive Runbooks

• Create detailed runbooks for each standard activity, clearly defining the steps required for deployment, patching, and modifications.
• Incorporate necessary information such as dependencies, potential impacts, and rollback procedures to ensure that team members can follow them effectively.
• Regularly review and update runbooks to reflect changes in the operating environment or software to maintain accuracy and effectiveness.

Standardize the Change Management Process

• Establish a clear process for change management that includes runbooks as a part of the workflow to manage transitions seamlessly.
• Utilize version control for runbooks to track changes over time and facilitate collaboration among team members.
• Implement a review and approval process for changes in runbooks to ensure they are thoroughly vetted before deployment.

Automate Where Possible

• Leverage automation tools to execute runbooks automatically where feasible, reducing human error and speeding up deployment processes.
• Implement Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) practices to streamline the deployment process and ensure consistency.
• Monitor the execution of automated runbooks to provide immediate feedback and enable troubleshooting when issues arise.

Train and Empower Your Team

• Provide training sessions for team members on how to effectively use and implement runbooks, emphasizing their importance for reliability.
• Encourage a culture of ownership where team members feel empowered to update and improve runbooks based on their experiences.
• Establish a feedback mechanism to gather insights from team members on runbooks and make iterative improvements based on those insights.

Monitor and Review Outcomes

• Set up monitoring and logging to review the outcomes of changes made through runbooks, enabling the identification of issues and areas for improvement.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews to analyze the effectiveness of the runbook and address any problems encountered during execution.
• Track success metrics related to reliability and efficiency to quantify the impact of implementing runbooks in the change management process.

Questions to ask your team

• Are your runbooks documented and easily accessible to the team?
• How often are your runbooks reviewed and updated to ensure they reflect the current processes?
• Do you have a version control system in place for your runbooks?
• Are the team members trained on how to use the runbooks effectively?
• Have you conducted regular drills or testing to validate that the runbooks work as intended?
• Is there a process for logging and addressing issues encountered while using the runbooks?

Who should be doing this?

DevOps Engineer

• Create and maintain runbooks for standard deployment activities.
• Ensure runbooks are up-to-date with the latest procedures and best practices.
• Execute runbooks to deploy applications and manage changes in a controlled manner.
• Monitor deployment processes and troubleshoot issues as they arise.

System Administrator

• Review and approve runbooks for deployment and operational changes.
• Ensure the operating environment is properly configured to execute runbooks.
• Assist in the execution of runbooks, especially in critical environments.
• Perform regular audits of runbooks to ensure compliance with organizational policies.

Release Manager

• Coordinate changes and deployments across teams using runbooks.
• Communicate deployment schedules and outcomes to stakeholders.
• Manage version control of runbooks to track changes over time.
• Gather feedback from teams to improve runbook effectiveness and update procedures.

Quality Assurance Engineer

• Test deployment runbooks to ensure they function as intended without issues.
• Provide feedback on the runbook procedures for continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with DevOps and Release Management to ensure quality standards are met during deployment.
• Document any discrepancies or problems encountered during runbook execution for future reference.

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Deployment Runbook Template: A standardized document outlining the steps required for deploying workloads. It includes pre-deployment checks, deployment instructions, post-deployment validation, and rollback procedures to ensure reliability during deployments.
• Change Management Policy: A formal policy defining the process for implementing changes within the organization. It outlines the approval process for changes, the role of runbooks in deployments, and the need for controlled change management to maintain reliability.
• Runbook Playbook: A comprehensive guide that details all standard activities using runbooks. It provides practical examples of how to manage deployments, patching, and system modifications while ensuring consistency and reliability.
• Change Deployment Checklist: A checklist used during deployment that ensures all necessary steps are completed. It covers items such as verifying the runbook, confirming pre-deployment conditions, executing the deployment, and conducting post-deployment tests.
• Change Implementation Dashboard: A dashboard displaying real-time metrics and statuses related to recent changes implemented via runbooks. It allows monitoring of deployments, successful patching operations, and any issues that arose during changes.

Cloud Services

AWS

• AWS Systems Manager: AWS Systems Manager allows you to automate operational tasks and manage the deployment and change management of applications and resources using runbooks.
• AWS CodeDeploy: AWS CodeDeploy automates the process of application deployment and can integrate with runbooks to ensure changes to workloads are controlled and predictable.
• AWS CloudFormation: AWS CloudFormation enables you to create and manage resources using templates, which can serve as runbooks for infrastructure deployment and changes.

Azure

• Azure Automation: Azure Automation provides the capability to create runbooks that automate the deployment and management of resources, ensuring controlled and predictable changes.
• Azure DevOps: Azure DevOps offers pipelines that can be configured as runbooks to automate deployments and changes in a controlled manner.
• Azure Resource Manager: Azure Resource Manager uses templates to deploy resources in a predictable manner, similar to runbooks, ensuring a controlled change process.

Google Cloud Platform

• Google Cloud Deployment Manager: Google Cloud Deployment Manager allows you to create templates that serve as runbooks for your deployments, ensuring consistent and controlled changes.
• Google Cloud Build: Google Cloud Build automates the building and deployment of your applications and can utilize runbooks for executing standard deployment practices.
• Google Cloud Run: Google Cloud Run can be used in conjunction with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows to help maintain controlled changes in workload deployments.

Question: How do you implement change?
Pillar: Reliability (Code: REL)