Integration Runbook Example

Monitoring Setup

Effective integration monitoring begins with defining what healthy looks like for each integration flow. Establish baseline metrics for message throughput, processing latency, and error rates during normal operations. Configure CloudWatch alarms with thresholds set at two standard deviations above baseline to catch anomalies without generating excessive false positives.

Implement synthetic monitoring that proactively tests critical integration paths on a scheduled basis. These canary tests send known payloads through the integration pipeline and verify expected outcomes at each stage. When a canary fails, the on-call engineer receives an alert before real traffic is impacted, enabling proactive incident prevention rather than reactive firefighting.

Create a centralized monitoring dashboard that displays the health of all integration flows on a single screen. Use color-coded status indicators and group integrations by business domain so operators can quickly assess overall system health. Include deep-link navigation from the dashboard to detailed metrics and logs for each integration to minimize context-switching during incident investigation.

Incident Response

When an integration incident is detected, the first responder should follow a structured triage process. Step one is to assess impact by checking which business processes and downstream systems are affected. Step two is to classify severity using predefined criteria: Severity 1 for complete outages affecting revenue or compliance, Severity 2 for degraded performance impacting users, and Severity 3 for issues with no immediate business impact.

Document every incident response action in a shared timeline as it happens. This real-time log serves three purposes: it keeps stakeholders informed without requiring synchronous communication, it provides material for the post-incident review, and it creates institutional knowledge that accelerates future incident resolution. Use a standardized template that captures timestamp, action taken, result observed, and next step planned.

Escalation Procedures

Define clear escalation paths based on incident severity and duration. Severity 1 incidents should immediately engage the on-call integration engineer and notify the engineering manager. If not resolved within thirty minutes, escalate to the platform team lead and begin stakeholder communication. At the sixty-minute mark, escalate to the VP of Engineering and activate the incident commander protocol.

Maintain an up-to-date contact roster with primary and backup contacts for every system involved in your integration landscape. Include vendor support contacts with contract numbers and SLA response times. During off-hours incidents, this roster eliminates the scramble to find the right person and ensures that escalations reach someone who can take action.

After every Severity 1 and Severity 2 incident, conduct a blameless post-incident review within five business days. Focus on identifying systemic improvements rather than individual errors. Track action items from these reviews in the monthly ops report and verify completion to prevent recurring incidents. Over time, this continuous improvement loop significantly reduces both incident frequency and resolution time.