Ownership models for runbooks and operational checklists
Runbooks decay when ownership is unclear. Choose a model and make it explicit. Ownership is accountability, not authorship.
Three ownership models
- Service owner: the team that owns the service owns its runbooks.
- Rotation owner: the current on-call lead owns updates for the week.
- Domain owner: a platform or reliability team owns shared runbooks.
If a runbook crosses multiple services, pick a primary owner and list secondary contacts. “Everyone owns it” means nobody will fix it.
What every runbook should show
- Primary owner and backup owner
- Last reviewed date
- Escalation path for risky mitigations
Keep ownership visible
If the owner field is missing, the runbook isn’t trusted. Make the owner visible at the top of every document.
Ownership is the cheapest way to keep runbooks accurate.