About

This site documents parts of the Spearhead Systems Issue Response process. It is a cut-down version of our internal documentation, used at Spearhead Systems for any incident or service request, and to prepare new employees for on-call responsibilities. It provides information not only on preparation but also what to do during and after.

Few companies seem to talk about their internal processes for dealing with major incidents. We would like to change that by opening up our documentation to the community, in the hopes that it proves useful to others who may want to formalize their own processes. Additionally, it provides an opportunity for others to suggest improvements, which ends up helping everyone.

This documentation is complementary to what is available in our existing wiki.

What is this?#

A collection of pages detailing how to efficiently deal with any incident or service request that might arise, along with information on how to go on-call effectively. It provides lessons learned the hard way, along with training material for getting you up to speed quickly.

Who is this for?#

It is intended for on-call practitioners and those involved in an operational incident or service request response process, or those wishing to enact a formal incident response process. Specifically this is for all of our Technical Support staff.

Why do I need it?#

As a service provider Spearhead Systems deals with service requests on a daily basis. The reason we exist is to deliver a service which in most cases boils down to incidents and service requests. We want to deliver a smooth and seamless experience for resolving our customers issues therefore this documentation is a guideline for how we handle these requests. This documentation will allow you give you a head start on how to deal with issues in a way which leads to the fastest possible recovery time.

What is covered?#

Anything from preparing to go on-call, definitions of severities, incident call etiquette, all the way to how to run a post-mortem, providing a post-mortem template and even a security incident response process.

What is missing?#

Lots, dig in an help us complete the picture. We can migrate most processes from Sharepoint here.

License#

This documentation is provided under the Apache License 2.0. In plain English that means you can use and modify this documentation and use it both commercially and for private use. However, you must include any original copyright notices, and the original LICENSE file.

Whether you are a Spearhead Systems customer or not, we want you to have the ability to use this documentation internally at your own company. You can view the source code for all of this documentation on our GitHub account, feel free to fork the repository and use it as a base for your own internal documentation.