on-call-handoff-checklist

name	on-call-handoff-checklist
enabled	true
description	Use when performing on call handoff checklist — structured on-call rotation handoff checklist ensuring effective context transfer between outgoing and incoming on-call engineers. Covers active incidents, known issues, recent deployments, pending alerts, escalation contacts, and environment health summary to minimize knowledge gaps during rotation transitions.
required_connections	[{"prefix":"slack","label":"Slack (for handoff notes)"}]
config_fields	[{"key":"outgoing_engineer","label":"Outgoing On-Call Engineer","required":true,"placeholder":"e.g., Alice Johnson"},{"key":"incoming_engineer","label":"Incoming On-Call Engineer","required":true,"placeholder":"e.g., Bob Smith"},{"key":"rotation_name","label":"Rotation/Team Name","required":false,"placeholder":"e.g., Platform Team Primary"}]
features	["INCIDENT"]

On-Call Handoff Checklist

Rotation: {{ rotation_name }} Outgoing: {{ outgoing_engineer }} | Incoming: {{ incoming_engineer }}

Pre-Handoff Preparation (Outgoing Engineer)

Complete these items before the handoff meeting:

• Review all incidents from your rotation
• Document any ongoing or recently resolved issues
• Note any recent deployments or config changes
• Check for pending maintenance windows
• Verify alerting and monitoring tools are functioning
• Prepare summary of on-call experience (noisy alerts, false positives)

Handoff Meeting Agenda (15-30 min)

1. Active Incidents and Open Issues

Issue	Status	Severity	Notes	Tracking
fill in	open/monitoring	SEV level	context	ticket link

2. Recently Resolved Incidents

Issue	Resolved	Root Cause	Follow-up Needed
fill in	date/time	brief description	yes/no + details

3. Recent Deployments and Changes

Change	When	Service	Risk Level	Rollback Plan
fill in	date/time	service	low/med/high	how to rollback

4. Known Flaky Alerts

Alert	Frequency	Action	Notes
fill in	how often	acknowledge/investigate/ignore	context

5. Upcoming Maintenance Windows

Window	When	Impact	Owner
fill in	date/time	expected impact	who is driving

6. Environment Health Summary

• Production: healthy / degraded / issues
• Staging: healthy / degraded / issues
• Key metrics: any concerning trends
• Capacity: any resources approaching limits

7. Escalation Contacts

Situation	Contact	Method
Database issues	name	phone/slack
Network/infra	name	phone/slack
Security	name	phone/slack
Management escalation	name	phone/slack
Vendor support	vendor	support portal/phone

Incoming Engineer Verification

• Confirm PagerDuty/OpsGenie/on-call tool shows you as active on-call
• Verify phone notifications are working (send test page)
• Confirm access to all required dashboards and runbooks
• Review escalation policy and confirm you know how to escalate
• Verify VPN/remote access is working
• Confirm laptop is charged and available for off-hours response

Post-Handoff Actions

Outgoing Engineer

• Post handoff summary to team Slack channel
• Remain available for questions for 2 hours after handoff
• File tickets for any on-call improvement suggestions

Incoming Engineer

• Acknowledge handoff in Slack channel
• Review linked runbooks for any active issues
• Set personal reminder for upcoming maintenance windows
• Check alert dashboards for current state

On-Call Health Metrics to Share

• Total pages received during rotation: ___
• After-hours pages: ___
• False positive alerts: ___
• Average time to acknowledge: ___
• Incidents that required escalation: ___
• Sleep interruptions: ___

These metrics help the team identify on-call burden and improve alert quality over time.

Counter-Rationalizations

Shortcut	Counter	Why
"We can skip some steps for this case"	Adapt the workflow steps, don't skip them	Skipped steps are where incidents and oversights originate
"The user seems to already know what to do"	Complete all workflow phases with the user	The workflow catches blind spots that experience alone misses
"This is a minor case, full process is overkill"	Scale the process down, don't turn it off	Minor cases become major when unstructured; the process scales, not disappears
"I'll fill in the details later"	Complete each section before moving on	Deferred details are forgotten; real-time capture is more accurate
"The template output isn't necessary"	Always produce the structured output format	Structured output enables comparison, audit trails, and handoff to other teams