How to Build a Playbook Part 4 - Confirm the Plays to Include in the Playbook

This step is important because there may be activities identified during the review with the key players which are being executed, but for which little or no formal documentation is found during the documentation review. It will be difficult to develop plays for tasks or activities where there is no documentation at all. 

This next step, then, should be to review the initial draft list of plays to determine which ones should be removed because there is no documentation. That said, if an activity is being done regularly, an interview with the Responsible individual(s) may provide enough information to at least sketch out the play. That can then be refined and ultimately turned into formal documentation. If such an activity is being done by multiple people, each of them should be interviewed to determine what the best path of execution is. 

As you review the documentation, you will also likely determine that there are documents or sections that are significantly out of date. This is often the case where there is a formal SOP or RIM manual that hasn’t been updated in years. Ultimately, the playbook should describe how the play is being executed today, not what the outdated documents say. 

You may also identify plays that sound good, and that you should be doing, but which you’re actually not doing at present. Those should be removed as well. 

It may be helpful to create a running list of resources that should be reviewed and either updated or retired – after the playbook development process is complete. That is, don’t squander the buy-in and attention you got to build the playbook by getting distracted by the need for updates. Similarly, it may be helpful to create a list of plays that you think are worth adding once you start doing them (and assuming there is or will be documentation for them).  

Update 6/17/2024: I'm moving the schedule and timeline discussion to the final post in the series. 

Next up: Part 5 - determining the technical approach and the tool. 

I teach a workshop on how to build playbooks. You can find more details about the course and approach at https://athroconsulting.com/?page_id=981. 

I also build RIM and IG playbooks for organizations - drop me a note at jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com and let's talk about what that could look like.