Operations Logbook

Be like a ship’s captain and use Operations Logbook! Record every incident and any important event related to your project. Share your stored logs and dig historical data easily with online tools.

What Is an Operations Logbook

Operations Logbook allows you to collect, store, and share data in real time and dig your historical data easily. Traditionally, ship’s captains keep their logbooks (or ship’s logs or captain’s log) in the form of a diary. They provide valuable information about important data and events of a ship. It is similar to a black box on a plane. A ship’s log is a legal document and if some incident happens, it can be used as evidence. The habit of keeping track of everything important can be very useful in software development, too.

Source: Astrolable Sailing: Ship’s log

It is usually the DevOps team that takes care of the Operations Logbook. They record every incident and how the team dealt with it. Maintaining an Operations Logbook for a complex product can be tricky. Writing the data in a diary, like the captains used to do, is not enough. Fortunately, there is a great choice of templates and tools, such as Opralog, j5 Operations Logbook, or eLogger.

Why You Might Want the Operations Logbook

Operations Logbook lets you:

• collect and share your data in real time
• track your team members’ logs
• archive important data
• access historical data easily
• work collaboratively
• eliminate paperwork

Issues the Operations Logbook Solves

• Poor code quality
• "Not my problem" mentality
• Meaningless work
• Unhappy clients
• Toxic team culture
• Knowledge hoarding
• Long Feedback Loops

How to Implement the Operations Logbook

What are the important things you should have in your Operations Logbook? You can write specific guidelines for each project. Every time an incident occurs, do not forget to mention:

• time of the beginning of the incident
• time of the end of the incident
• how serious the incident was
• who was involved in the incident
• what was involved in the incident
• what were the symptoms
• the root cause
• the solution
• is the fix permanent?

Resources for the Operations Logbook

• Smartsheet: Free Incident Report Templates