The On-Call Handoff Note That Fits in Five Lines

On-call shifts in the technology industry begin with a short note from the previous shift, typically no longer than five lines. This note, called an on-call handoff note, is crucial for understanding any ongoing issues before taking action. The note should be concise and informative, covering key points such as current status, alerts, changes made during the shift, potential issues, and any open questions.

An example of a filled-in on-call handoff note can be found for a fictional "bus-times" app. In this example, no issues are currently open. The team experienced high latency and restarted a cache node, which resolved the latency issue by 2:30 AM. The team also muted an alert regarding a down cache node until further notice and is monitoring the timetable import process, which ran for 40 minutes last night.

The disk space is at 81%, and the team asks why the cache node keeps restarting, suggesting the cache team may have the answer.

To ensure the note remains effective, it is essential to avoid labeling issues as transient without investigating further. The SRE Workbook warns against this practice, as it can lead to the same problem being paged to the next on-call engineer. If the cause remains unknown, the note should indicate "cause unknown" on the Ask line. Writing the note immediately after the shift ends, while the details are still fresh in mind, is crucial, as waiting until the next morning may result in guesswork.

In the context of DevGrid Staffing LLC, a company that specializes in IT staffing, the importance of a clear and concise handoff note is evident. The company aims to hire SRE and DevOps professionals who can be trusted with handling pagers effectively. By opening a recent handoff message and refining it into the five-line format, team members can assess whether any essential information was missing.