Your IT operations have failed. What’s the first step you take to fix it?

Assessing impact is crucial. Consider: Severity: How badly are ops disrupted? Scale: What % of users/systems affected? (Local/Global) Duration: Transient or extended outage? ETA for resolution? Business/Service impact: Lost revenue, prod. delays, rep. damage, risks? Gather facts from monitors, logs, alerts, triage w/ ops team. Prioritize actions based on criticality & urgency. Comm. clearly to stakeholders on status/next steps Perform RCA to ID causes using methods like: 5 Whys Fishbone diags Fault tree analysis Pareto analysis Tips: Have playbooks for common failure scenarios Practice incident resp. via tabletop drills. Foster a culture of blameless postmortems to ID causes. Invest in robust monitoring/alerting to minimize MTTD & MTTR.

Teams require sufficient time to evaluate an issue's impact. As a leader, supporting them during this time is essential as they face external pressure. Depending on the scale of the issue, it can be ???????????????????? ???? ?????????? ???? ?????????????????????? ???? ???????????????????? ?????????? from within the organisation to assist with resolving it. At this point, it is crucial to prioritise resolving the issue over personal ego.

"It's broken", "What's broken..." Instead of having this initial conversation, quickly identify to the best of your ability what is happening so that your initial conversation with management can start knowledgeably. Depending on your organization and the scale of the issue, the team will probably have 1-5 minutes for this initial assessment. "Customers cannot access our website although we can access it internally so it appears the site is fully operational but we have an access issue. Networking, Security, and Web Application teams have all been notified to join the bridge." The initial assessment not only informs your communication but identifies teams or individuals needed to address the issue.

Activate Incident Response Plan: If your organization has an incident response plan in place, activate it. Follow the predefined procedures for handling incidents, including escalation paths, communication protocols, and steps for resolution. Isolate the Issue: If possible, isolate the affected systems or components to prevent further damage or disruption. This might involve disconnecting network segments, disabling problematic services, or isolating affected users.

The first step is to quickly assess the situation to understand the scope and impact of the failure, prioritizing actions to restore critical services immediately.

After assessing the impact, promptly communicate the failure to all relevant stakeholders, including your IT team, management, employees, and customers. Clearly explain the situation, the steps being taken to resolve it, and expected outcomes like downtime or service disruptions. Transparency, honesty, and empathy are crucial in these communications, as is choosing the right channels and tone for each audience. Regular updates on recovery progress are essential to keep stakeholders informed and manage expectations effectively, helping to maintain trust and confidence during the resolution process.

One of the most important things is to have a clear and understandable communication. I have listed some points to be considered. Once the impact is understood, communicating the issue to stakeholders is crucial. This communication should be: Transparent: Share what you know, what you don't know, and what you are doing to find out more. Honest: Acknowledge the problem and its severity. Avoid downplaying the issue. Empathetic: Understand and acknowledge how the failure affects your stakeholders. Appropriate: Use the right channels (emails, phone calls, social media, etc.) and tone for each audience group. For instance, technical details might be relevant for IT staff but not for customers. Remember regular updates!

Remember to: Notify relevant stakeholders ASAP: -Explain what happened, current status, & next steps -Be transparent about scope & potential impact -Provide realistic ETAs for resolution, but avoid overpromising -Show empathy & accountability, avoid blame or excuses -Use appropriate channels: email, SMS, status page, social media Tailor message: technical vs. non-technical Give regular updates, even if no major changes Designate a single POC to ensure consistency Be prepared for questions, respond promptly Real-world tips: Have a crisis comms plan w/approved templates Train spokespersons on messaging & media handling Partner w/ PR/legal on external comms to manage liability Document lessons learned & update comms protocols post-incident

I deal with this on regular basis. The best step is to assess impact and communicate the issue parallely as much as possible. This gives time to understand who is impacted and who can be engaged and what needs to be addressed in the next steps.

Communication is key, especially with key stakeholders. It helps ensure transparency, maintains trust, and facilitates collaborative problem-solving. Stakeholders, including employees, customers, and partners, need timely, accurate information to manage their expectations and minimize disruption. Clear communication helps in aligning recovery efforts and prevents misinformation. By keeping stakeholders informed, organizations can mitigate negative impacts on customer satisfaction and loyalty, safeguarding their reputation. Plus, it helps you stay in compliance with regulatory requirements related to incident reporting. Resilient IT operations management is founded on strong communication.

Identifying the root cause of the failure is crucial. Analyze the data and evidence gathered during the impact assessment using techniques like root cause analysis (RCA), fault tree analysis (FTA), or the five whys method. This detailed investigation should aim to uncover exactly what went wrong, why it occurred, and how similar incidents can be prevented in the future. Approach this step with thoroughness, objectivity, and a collaborative mindset, engaging the necessary expertise to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the problem. Accurately pinpointing the root cause is vital for implementing effective solutions and preventing future failures.

RCA is essential for preventing recurrence. Key steps: -Analyze data from logs, metrics, alerts, & user reports -Alt. RCA techniques: FMEA, Kepner-Tregoe, Barrier Analysis -Trace problem to earliest point of failure -Determine if cause is human error, tech failure, or process gap -Involve relevant SMEs from all departments -Consider contributing factors: recent changes, dependencies -Validate findings w/ evidence & reproducible tests -Document conclusions & recommendations in postmortem report Real-world tips: -Avoid jumping to conclusions or assigning blame -Use timeline to visualize sequence of events -Look for similar past incidents in knowledge base (KEDB) -Consider multiple causes & interactions, not just one -Assign CAPA's and track

Evaluating events that can be correlated usually speeds up the process of identifying the root cause in the vast majority of cases.

While I agree with identifying the root cause, I believe it should follow assessment of the impact because some stakeholders like management would be eager to know the cause of damage. This would facilitate a complete message when communicating to the sponsors...

3 Identify the root cause The next step you need to take is to identify the root cause of the failure. This means finding out what exactly went wrong, why it went wrong, and how it can be prevented from happening again. You need to analyze the data and evidence you collected in the first step, and use techniques like root cause analysis (RCA), fault tree analysis (FTA), or the five whys method to trace the problem back to its source. You need to be thorough, objective, and collaborative, and involve the right people and expertise in the process.

Once the root cause is identified, it's time to implement a solution to rectify the failure and restore IT operations. This could include repairing or replacing hardware, updating software, restoring data from backups, or modifying configurations. Adhere to best practices and standards applicable to your IT environment. Prior to full deployment, thoroughly test and verify the solution to ensure it effectively resolves the issue without introducing new problems. Document the process and outcomes meticulously for future reference, enhancing your response strategy for potential future incidents. This approach not only fixes the immediate issue but also strengthens your IT infrastructure's resilience.

The first troubleshooting is to perform the initial diagnosis to determine the root cause of the issue. Inform relevant stakeholders about the issue, including users who might be affected, management, and IT team members who need to be involved in the resolution.

Steps include: 1. Develop plan based on RCA findings & recommendations 2. Identify tasks, dependencies, & resources needed 3. Assign roles & responsibilities to team members 4. Set timeline & milestones for implementation 5. Test solution in non-prod environments first 6. Verify solution resolves issue & doesn't introduce new problems 7. Update runbooks, KB articles, & other docs Real-world tips: 1. Use change process to review & approve solution 2. Conduct dry runs or tabletops to practice implementation 3. Automate deployment steps wherever possible 4. Monitor system closely post-deployment to catch any issues (test!) 5. Communicate status updates to stakeholders throughout process 6. Recognize/reward efforts in post-incident review

Once the cost-loaded workplan has been approved, then the solution can be implemented. Continuous progress reports must be provided to indicate that the project of fixing the operations is on schedule, ahead or behind schedule.

After resolving the IT operations failure, it’s critical to review and improve your processes and practices. Conduct a post-mortem analysis to extract lessons learned, identify gaps, and pinpoint opportunities for enhancement. Use insights gained to bolster IT performance, reliability, and security. Implement the suggested changes and closely monitor their effectiveness, ensuring continuous improvement. This iterative process of learning from failures and implementing improvements strengthens your IT infrastructure, making it more resilient against future challenges.

Documenting lessons learned is very important because it facilitate continuous improvement. This should include indicating what worked well and what didn't and why.

Implement preventive measures, such as system upgrades, patches, and improved monitoring, to reduce the likelihood of similar failures occurring in the future.

Adopt the methodology of the ITIL framework. Identify & define the exact problem or issue that's bothering the daily operations. Assess the actual impact on business & impacted parties for clear communication with key stakeholders. Work through actively triaging & troubleshooting the issue. Fix the problem by applying a permanent solution which will avoid any kind of recurrence in future instances. This is a simple yet effective approach to run IT operations seamlessly

In addition to structured responses to IT failures, fostering a culture that views such incidents as learning opportunities is crucial. Encourage openness about discussing failures without fear of blame. This approach can proactively identify vulnerabilities and foster a more resilient IT environment. Incorporating regular training sessions on incident response and adopting a continuous improvement mindset can further enhance your team’s readiness and capability. Also, consider engaging with external experts or communities for broader perspectives on best practices and innovative solutions. Ultimately, building a robust, informed, and agile IT team is key to navigating the complexities of IT operations and ensuring long-term success.

Some additional points to consider: A. Lessons learned and continuous improvement 1. Conduct a post-incident review to identify areas for improvement 2. Update processes, documentation, and training based on lessons learned 3. Implement proactive measures to prevent similar incidents B. Vendor management and SLAs 1. Hold vendors accountable for their role in the incident 2. Review/enforce SLAs to ensure vendors meet obligations 3. Consider diversifying vendors to reduce SPOF C. Security and compliance considerations 1. Ensure the incident response plan aligns with security/compliance needs 2. Involve Sec team in incident response to assess and mitigate risks 3. Use the incident as an opportunity to review/improve overall security posture