ITSM for Data Engineering: What is a Backout Plan?

A key to a successful backout is to have a plan. In order to limit damage to the business, and your reputation, you need to stay in control of the situation. To do that, the team of engineers need to know what to do and the Service Desk needs to keep the business informed. A backout plan is intended to keep you in control. It is your insurance policy against Murphy’s Law. Creating such a plan is one of the least favorable activities of many technical people. That is why the Change Manager should be accountable for getting it done. It should be included with the rest of change documentation, ready to be used if necessary.

A backout plan typically answers the following questions:

• Under what circumstances will a rollback be required? Or conversely, under what circumstances will the deployment be considered a success?
• What is the time period within which a rollback can take place?
• Which authorizing agent will make the decision to revert?
• Who will perform the rollback and how soon after the decision has been made will the rollback be performed?
• What procedures (manual and automated) will be followed to execute the rollback?
• What other contingency measures or available workarounds should be considered?
• What is the expected time required to perform a reversion?
• What are the communication procedures required in the event of a backout?
• Has the Backout Plan been successfully tested?