On-Call Handoff Checklist
Use this at every shift change, and especially when the outgoing responder is handing over an active risk, a temporary mitigation, or a suppressed alert.
Placeholders
Everything in [square brackets] is a decision your team has to make. Replace all of them before you circulate the document.
Most handoffs fail quietly: the pager moves, the context does not. The incoming responder discovers a temporary mitigation at 02:40, or re-investigates an alert the previous responder had already muted for a known reason.
What this template covers
Three parts — what the outgoing responder must transfer, what the incoming responder must verify before accepting, and a short written summary that survives the conversation.
How to use it
Keep it in the channel where the handoff happens, not in a wiki nobody opens at 09:00. The written summary matters most: if the handoff conversation is missed, the summary is what the incoming responder still has.
Related
Template
On-Call Handoff Checklist
A handoff should transfer risk and context, not merely the pager.
Outgoing responder
- Active incidents and current owner
- Degraded or unstable services
- Recent deployments, migrations, or configuration changes
- Temporary mitigations or manual workarounds
- Alerts currently suppressed, muted, or known to be noisy
- Open support/customer issues with operational risk
- Upcoming maintenance, launches, or high-traffic events
- Access or tooling problems discovered during the shift
- Follow-up actions that still need an owner
- Personal coverage changes or constraints already agreed
Incoming responder
- Verified phone/SMS/push/email delivery settings
- Confirmed access to dashboards, logs, cloud consoles, and runbooks
- Reviewed current risks and active incidents
- Confirmed primary/secondary schedule state
- Asked for clarification on temporary mitigations
- Confirmed next planned change or maintenance window
- Acknowledged the handoff in the agreed channel
Handoff summary
- Shift window: [time range/time zone]
- Outgoing: [name]
- Incoming: [name]
- Active risk level: [low/medium/high]
- Most important thing to know: [summary]