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by Mark Roy Long | Updated Aug. 5, 2022 – First published on May 18, 2022
Image source: Getty Images
Consistency is a necessity when performing information technology (IT) tasks at your small business. Whether it’s installing a software patch or responding to a server failure, IT procedures must be well documented to produce desired outcomes.
IT runbooks are the best method to achieve this consistency. We’ll go over runbook basics, the differences between runbooks and playbooks, and how to create a runbook, so you can begin using this tool at your small business.
Each IT runbook documents an approved process, and IT system administrators and operators use runbooks, collected in catalogs, to ensure routines such as starting, supervising, debugging, and stopping a system are standardized.
With a runbook, whether a process is performed daily or once a year, an experienced employee and a new hire will complete it the same way.
Typical runbook catalogs address:
Runbooks are part of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) protocols. The ITIL framework consists of best practices and checklists to integrate IT activities with overall business procedures and objectives.
Runbooks incorporate information from ITIL processes such as knowledge management and contribute to problem management.
Runbook automation (RBA) via IT management software allows you to create runbooks and perform them automatically, with human intervention occurring only at predetermined points.
This runbook combines automated tasks with human analysis. Image source: Author
A runbook catalog is like a cookbook: Each one is a collection of processes that includes lists of resources and procedures to produce predetermined outcomes, whether it’s monitoring system performance or cooking an omelet.
Runbooks are often confused with playbooks — some IT professionals use the terms synonymously — but there are significant differences. While runbooks define individual processes, playbooks deal with overarching responses to larger issues or events and may incorporate multiple runbooks and personnel within them.
The security incident response playbook below includes runbook documentation, but its workflow has a wider scope than the runbook alone.
This security incident playbook incorporates relevant runbook documentation within its workflow. Image source: Author
If a runbook catalog is comparable to a cookbook, a playbook is like a guide to hosting different social events: a cocktail party, a wedding reception, or a formal dinner.
Each event includes food items — hors d’oeuvres, a wedding cake, entrees, and desserts — but the recipes, instead of standing alone, are part of a larger workflow: creating a guest list, formulating a menu, choosing music, and more, to create a unified social experience.
Runbooks come in two categories: general procedures and specialized procedures for specific events, service requests, or assets. Both types of runbooks may be:
General runbooks include routine IT department activities such as a help agent responding to low-level IT tickets or a network administrator performing pre-scheduled tasks in your IT management software:
Documenting routine procedures makes new IT employee onboarding more efficient and promotes process consistency no matter who is performing tasks.
Specialized runbooks document processes for more complex service requests or unplanned events, such as different disaster recovery scenarios. A detailed runbook for each situation reduces downtime and produces optimal results.
Specialized runbook topics include:
The worst time to create a specialized runbook is in response to a critical event. Be proactive to avoid the loss of time and money.
As you work through the five steps below to create your runbooks, keep the five As in mind:
Careful planning is required to produce high-quality runbooks that provide the most help for day-to-day tasks and unexpected critical events.
Considerations include:
Each runbook must be comprehensive yet focused, and uniform content organization allows IT personnel to access information without delay.
Gather the necessary information for your runbook before you begin writing to streamline the writing process.
Information to generate includes:
A runbook template aids the research process because you’ll know up front what you need. You also avoid a start-and-stop writing process due to repeatedly backtracking to find yet another piece of critical information.
Documenting procedures may not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but completing the previous two steps will make the process more efficient when you’re ready to write.
Two helpful hints include:
Another way to achieve clarity is to pair a technical writer with an IT subject matter expert (SME) instead of using only IT personnel to produce runbooks.
Everyone wants their first draft of a document to be the final version. Instead, conduct rigorous testing of completed runbooks to identify missing, incorrect, extraneous, or unclear content.
Two groups to use for testing are:
Collect feedback from those outside the runbook’s operator procedures, such as upper-level supervisors and others who participate in authorization or communication processes.
Change is a constant inside IT departments and systems, so periodically evaluate and update your runbooks to maintain their applicability.
Two times to do this include:
Store your runbook documentation in a centralized repository for easy updating and so everyone uses the same versions.
Runbooks ensure consistent, high-quality IT service delivery, whether it’s a routine help desk ticket or an unexpected system failure. Producing runbooks is also a proactive strategy to minimize the loss of time and money due to critical events.
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Mark Roy Long is a technology journalist and workflow expert writing for The Ascent and The Motley Fool.
We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.
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Keeping on top of critical documents and managing business data are some of the most important things your company can do. If you have installed a document management system, we’ve got some tips to help you run it effectively.
Implementing a document management system (DMS) is a great first step to keeping your business documents organized. However, you’ll need to adhere to some document management best practices to maintain effective document management, and we’ll show you how.
The good news is that many of the leading document management software solutions make it easy to keep track of your documents and ensure your business is compliant with local legislation. That doesn’t mean there’s no effort on your part, and below are the top document management best practices to help you get started.
Document management system best practices include accurate indexing and filing of electronic documents, creating a document access hierarchy and carrying our regular audits.
The best business document management system is the one that’s easy to use and full of features to make your life easier. Such features include automations, file versioning, collaboration options and robust security for your files.
Some of the document management best practices featured below may seem obvious. Thankfully, that means they’re easy to understand and implement; you need only ensure you remain consistent with them to have a continuously robust document management system in place. Let’s go through them.
The first step your business needs to take is identifying which document management system is right for you. While many of the options are similar, they’re not the same, and choosing one that doesn’t meet your needs can be a waste of time and money.
If your business creates a lot of new documents that you need to collaborate on, then something like Microsoft SharePoint or Egnyte are good options, as both offer Office 365 integration. Alternatively, if you simply need a space to store and manage contracts, DocuWare is a terrific option that also allows you to digitally sign your documents.
To ensure your documents are easily accessible, it’s vital that you index each new document and folder accurately, thus creating a consistent file structure. Prior to creating your DMS, we recommend that you make clear folder structures and create a list of categories for each document type.
Clear indexing makes it much easier to find documents when searching, and far easier for different departments to manage documents within their section of the business. When using a document management solution like M-Files, you can also label documents with tags and other forms of metadata, ensuring each document is in its proper place within your DMS.
If you’re migrating from physical documents to electronic documents, it’s good practice to make digital copies of your paper documents. It may be a daunting task, but scanning documents and transferring them to an electronic digital management system ensures that sensitive documents remain safe and accessible.
Paper documents are much easier to lose, and a physical filing cabinet doesn’t have the same level of security that the best document management software provides. So moving everything over not only makes filing more efficient, it also gives far more robust protection for each document.
Not every person in your business needs to have access to every document that lives in your document management system. There will be sensitive documents — like employee contracts and performance records — that must remain confidential. Thankfully, with today’s document management software you can grant access permissions to users of your choice.
When setting up your document management system, take time to identify which senior members of staff and departments need to access specific documents. They’ll also be able to control access for their own team members, and choose which of them can access, edit and share documents.
Automations are something every business should add to their document management workflow. They make business life easier and also help you remain consistent in managing your documents and business processes.
Depending on the document management software you’re using, you can send automated notifications when a document is created or edited. You can also set automated document approval workflows for certain documents, as well as set up automated invoicing if your business works with external clients.
If you’re using an efficient document management system, you can expect to have more automation options available, and it’s a good idea to make use of them.
Assuming you want to move away from physical documents and filing cabinets, you have two options when it comes to using a document management system: on-premise and cloud storage.
On-premise document management software allows you to control your documents from a server within your business. Cloud storage means your documents exist on third-party servers — which some users don’t like.
However, cloud storage gives you an added layer of protection should your hardware get damaged or stolen, as you’re still able to access your documents in the cloud. Cloud-based software also makes it much easier to collaborate with different users, especially within remote teams, improving overall business efficiency.
If you’re looking for a space to manage documents as well as other file types, check out our top online cloud storage providers for documents.
If your business constantly updates documents, having effective version control in place is a must. File versioning means you can access previous versions of documents, and restore them if needed.
It also lets you give some users only the ability to view documents and other users the ability to view, comment and change the edited versions. Doing this means you can effectively collaborate on a document and ensure a document isn’t changed without the proper authorization.
Although it’s much easier to manage business documents with an electronic document management system, it’s still good practice to do regular audits of your documents to mitigate against potential process failures or breaches.
You can do audits internally and externally. For the former, it’s good to do audits every three to six months, while an external audit can be conducted annually.
Not only does auditing allow you to learn what documents you have in place, it also means you can understand if your business is being compliant with sector regulations. Many professional sectors will enforce an external audit, so it’s good to keep on top of everything, rather than panic when the time comes for your business to be put under the microscope.
It’s a good idea to learn what types of documents you need to keep in the document management system for a certain period of time. For example, in the financial industry, regulatory requirements state that certain documents must remain on record for a period of seven years. Before deleting a document, double-check to see if it’s against regulations to do so.
Sticking to these document management best practices will help you keep your document management system in the best shape possible. If you have signed up for a new document management system, it’s best to put the above tips in place as soon as possible, to ensure you can keep on top of your documents and business processes.
While all the above tips are important, we suggest you prioritize folder and file structure, version control and selective user permissions, as these are the core of efficient document management.
It’s also worth trying out different document management solutions before committing to one long term. This way your business can identify which solution is best for its needs and provides the best user experience, which is important considering you’ll likely be using it every (working) day.
While still at it, read our document management vs content management guide to understand which product better suits your needs.
What do you think the best practices are for efficient document management? Is there a business document management system you recommend? Which software do you currently use for managing documents? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading.
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Developing applications using open source components provides the architectural building blocks to accelerate digital transformation. But as it matures in the enterprise, IT leaders need to grasp the mindset shift that goes beyond the “open source is free” mantra and recognise the role it plays in modern enterprise architectures and the enterprise support and service-level agreements, which are very different from traditional commercial software contracts. This difference can jar with the procurement processes that organisations are accustomed to.
Andrew Davidson, senior vice-president, cloud products at MongoDB, believes that any piece of critical software needs to be built on open source components. “It gives people freedom, flexibility,” he said, “and open source tools are kind of more intuitive.”
However, raw open source code, pulled from public source code repositories such as GitHub, tends to come “as is”, with no warranty. From a support perspective, there are no obligations from either side, said Peter Zaitsev, CEO at Percona. “Things happen based on goodwill relationships and negotiations,” he added. “If you want any guarantees – help and support, bugs fixed, old versions maintained, and so on – this all comes with commercial agreements with companies or individual developers.”
The first misconception is the question of “free software”. For many software developers, their first experience of a new open source tool or component is when they take on board the code within a project and try it out. This “try before you buy” model enables enterprises to deploy proof-of-concept applications. Because there is no commercial licence fee, businesses can continue to run the free version in production and scale up the deployment.
But all the support for the open source used must be managed in-house, where developers reach out to the wider open source community to help them solve particular issues.
Shaun O’Meara, field CTO at Mirantis, said: “People sometimes get very religious about open source software. We’re in the game to make money.”
In his experience, organisations need to select a partner business in order to make the best use of open source software. From a Mirantis perspective, he said: “We provide indemnification, guarantees and handle integration. This is a balancing act between offering the choice that comes from using open source with a managed service and guide rails.
“Open source companies build businesses around providing these value-added services on top of the freely available code. Some, like MongoDB, have gone further, commercialising the product as SaaS [software as a service].”
Beyond offering an open source helpdesk, Davidson believes open source businesses have fundamentally different DNA compared with traditional software companies. “In a commercial software company, customers are responsible for getting the software going,” he said.
When MongoDB started out, the company became the tier 3 support for customers, providing technical updates to the product, said Davidson. But with its Altas software as a service open source data platform, MongoDB is now the first line of support – tier 1.
Although there are a large number of companies commercialising open source with managed services for the enterprise, many widely used open source components are not maintained in this way. Components such as SSH are managed either through committees or a federation of major users, who pull together to fix problems quickly.
“We all need open source standard core building blocks, managed by the federation of users,” said Davidson. When something such as Heartbleed exploits a serious vulnerability, “the entire industry works non-stop to patch the critical component”, he said.
This is how OpenSSH was fixed following revelations of the Heartbleed exploit. Similarly, the community pulled together to patch the Meltdown and Spectre processor vulnerabilities.
Davidson described the way these critical components are developed, maintained and patched as analogous to riding a bike. “You have so many eyes on something,” he said. “But if no one is driving the development of the component forward, just like when someone stops pedalling a bike, the process that keeps open source going falls over.”
Driven by the digitisation trend, software development skills are in high demand, and developers increasingly turn to open source tools and components as their preferred method for building new applications. Amanda Brock, CEO at OpenUK, said that rather than trying to stop software developers using open source, “understand the market you are in and where it makes sense to use open source code”. She added: “Every company needs a policy on open source software. It is not a business model. There is a contract that goes with the software.”
When organisations stipulate open source as part of a request for proposals, Brock warned that the tender process may end up as “a tick-box exercise”. Here the winning tender may go to a firm that says it complies with the OSI model for open source, but it may lack the expertise to support a third-party open source component long-term.
The future for software is increasingly open source. Software developers draw on open source tools and components to help them deliver highly functional software with greater agility. Using open source means they do not have to reinvent the wheel and can instead focus on writing innovative software for the business.
As more open source components become embedded in enterprise IT, the IT leadership team will need to assess whether the free open source code is good enough or whether a managed service or open source SaaS product fits the business’s requirements. Whatever route is taken, support for the component – either through the open source community or a third party – needs to be in place to cover the lifespan of the software-based product that makes use of it.
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