https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/tip/Compare-runbooks-vs-playbooks-for-IT-process-documentation
Established processes enable a business and its IT staff to document and codify steps and behaviors. This facilitates learning, reviews and evaluation, and helps teams complete tasks correctly and consistently. As IT organizations increasingly rely on automation platforms, it is especially important to maintain formal processes.
Enterprises uses two terms -- playbook and runbook -- to refer to documents that define key processes. In general, business professionals use the term playbook, while IT staff use runbook. Each term denotes subtle differences, although the underlying adherence to process remains identical.
A runbook is a document that contains relevant background information and practical procedures to accomplish IT or DevOps tasks, or address and resolve incidents.
A runbook follows a standardized format to create uniformity and enable staff to quickly find and follow the associated process or task. For example, a runbook can:
Codifying a process into a runbook brings several benefits. New IT staff can learn and follow complex tasks and handle demanding incidents with less formal training. Existing staff can easily review processes for incidents to maintain proficiency. Documented processes also promote consistent responses, ensuring all staff handle the same tasks or incidents in the same way. This reduces errors and oversights while maintaining IT security. Lastly, an IT runbook can solidify an organization's compliance or business continuance posture.
Runbooks can be as general and broad or as specific as a given process demands.
General runbooks focus on routine tasks and daily checks to ensure operations run normally. For example, an organization could maintain a general runbook for the following:
By comparison, more specialized runbooks aim to fix specific issues with servers or applications. Examples include runbooks that:
A playbook is a document that contains all of the workflows, standard operating procedures and corporate cultural values necessary to approach and complete business tasks in an acceptable and consistent manner.
In a broader sense, a playbook can offer a detailed guide to the business, including a company overview, mission and value statement. A well-maintained playbook keeps an enterprise running smoothly and provides backup plans when something goes awry.
Playbooks can take many forms, depending on company size and type.
For example, a playbook for a smaller business might include an organizational chart that shows the company's current reporting structure, an acceptable use policy for business property and company emails. Larger organizations frequently take a more detailed approach, with playbooks that are specific to departments such as HR, public relations, finance and legal.
Playbooks can be helpful for:
Ultimately, there is no clearly defined reason to use the term runbook vs. playbook; business and IT staff frequently use the two interchangeably. And there are other similar terms in the lexicon. For example, the Chef tool for IT automation uses recipes and cookbooks to codify and organize processes.
The differences between the terms are mainly a matter of tradition. The business side tends to use the term playbook because it carries a strong connotation of people and human interactions -- likely reminiscent of the use of plays in sports. By comparison, the term runbook has a strong association with IT, likely traced to the need to run systems and applications in the data center.
In reality, a playbook and runbook are more similar than different. They both require careful thought and planning, and deliver faster and more consistent results that boost the bottom line. They both can exist as Word documents or Wiki pages that require regular updates to reflect business and IT changes. Organizations can implement both runbooks and playbooks within emerging automation platforms to reduce dependence on human interaction.
12 Oct 2020