AWS Cloud & DevOps Tutorial 0/70 lessons ~6 min read Lesson 63“IAM, VPC, EC2, Lambda, ECS, EKS, Terraform, CI/CD, and AWS operations”

Production Readiness Reviews and Runbooks

TechLearningPro can build VPC, CI, EKS, and lakes—and still ship fragile systems if “ready for production” means a hopeful Slack message. **Production Readiness Reviews (PRRs)** an

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Focus

15 guided sections

Practice signal

Examples included

Career prep

Interview Q&A included

Production Readiness Reviews and Runbooks

AWS Cloud & DevOps Engineering · Lesson 63 · Production Projects and Interview

Lesson Overview

TechLearningPro can build VPC, CI, EKS, and lakes—and still ship fragile systems if “ready for production” means a hopeful Slack message. Production Readiness Reviews (PRRs) and living runbooks force explicit criteria across capacity, security, observability, resilience, support ownership, and release safety. Game days prove the paper. This lesson teaches TechLearningPro’s PRR checklist culture, how it consumes Well-Architected risks and ADRs from lesson 58, how runbooks connect to lessons 59–62, and how to facilitate blameless readiness gates before Projects 1–5.

PRRs are mostly people-time; any chaos lab resources still need Project=tlp-lesson63, budgets, and cleanup. Do not invent AWS “PRR APIs”—this is an operating practice supported by CloudWatch, ASGs, backups, and tickets.

Learning Objectives

Define PRR purpose versus WAR versus change CAB theater.
Build a TechLearningPro PRR checklist covering capacity, security, observability, resilience, support, release.
Require evidence links (dashboards, runbooks, ADRs, scan gates) not opinions.
Write runbooks with symptoms, checks, escalation, rollback.
Plan game days that safely inject failure and capture learning.
Assign service ownership and on-call before go-live.
Integrate supply-chain gates and GitOps rollback proofs.
Integrate host Linux and automation evidence from 59–60.
Set exit criteria: blockers versus waived risks with expiry.
Avoid rubber-stamp PRRs that mint production debt.
Measure readiness by closed blockers and successful game days.
Store PRR packets in git beside ADRs.
Facilitate timeboxed reviews with platform/security/FinOps seats.
Connect to incident management lessons for paging paths.
Prepare interview answers on readiness culture.
Produce a sample PRR for a cloud-native service.
Define SLO/SLI inputs at a practical level for the service.
Ensure backup/restore and DR stubs meet the tier.
Budget any failure-injection labs; cleanup after.
Gate Projects 1–5 on PRR artifacts.

Prerequisites

Well-Architected Reviews and ADRs.
Lessons 59–62 operational skills (Linux, automation, supply chain, EKS GitOps).
Observability and incident habits.
Ability to write Markdown checklists/runbooks in git.

Detailed Core Concepts

What a PRR is

A Production Readiness Review is a structured go-live gate: can this service operate at the required reliability, security, and cost posture with known owners and proven failure drills? It is not a surprise quiz and not a vanity slide deck. Inputs: architecture, ADRs, WAR risks, dashboards, alarms, runbooks, load test notes, supply-chain evidence, IAM diagrams, data classification.

Checklist domains (TechLearningPro)

Capacity — load assumptions, scaling policies, quotas, saturation alerts.
Security — IAM least privilege, secrets, network exposure, scan/sign gates, public access denials.
Observability — golden signals, logs, traces as applicable, actionable alarms (not pages on noise).
Resilience — Multi-AZ, backups, timeouts/retries, degradation modes, rollback.
Support — owner team, on-call, escalation, runbooks, external dependencies contacts.
Release — pipeline gates, change windows, feature flags if used, migration plans.

Runbooks

Runbooks are executable guides for on-call. Quality bar from lesson 59 expands: each severity path lists symptoms → first checks → decision tree → escalate → rollback/mitigation → evidence to attach. Link dashboards by URL. Keep short; deep theory lives in design docs.

Game days

Scheduled failure drills: terminate instance, break dependency, revoke permission, simulate region impairment tabletop. Observe detection time, runbook fitness, and blast radius. Fix gaps before go-live. Never game-day production without controls and approval.

Blockers vs waivers

PRR outcomes: Ship, Ship with waivers (dated, owned), or No-ship. Waivers without expiry become culture rot. Track in the same risk register style as WAR.

Relationship to WAR/ADR

WAR discovers risks; ADR records decisions; PRR asks “is the living system ready given those?” Do not duplicate 200 questions—reuse evidence.

Cadence

New tier-1 services before first prod traffic; major redesigns; periodic re-PRR for critical paths (e.g., exam season). Timebox 90 minutes + follow-up tickets.

Architecture and Design Diagrams

mermaid
flowchart TB
  ADR[ADRs + WAR risks]
  Ev[Evidence pack]
  PRR[Facilitated PRR]
  Block[Blockers / waivers]
  GD[Game day]
  Go[Go-live / no-go]
  RB[Runbooks]

  ADR --> Ev --> PRR --> Block
  RB --> Ev
  PRR --> GD --> Go
  Block --> Go

mermaid
flowchart LR
  Sym[Symptom]
  Check[First checks]
  Decide[Mitigate / rollback]
  Esc[Escalate]
  Sym --> Check --> Decide --> Esc

Technical Explanation

Facilitating a TechLearningPro PRR

Pre-read packet in git: architecture Mermaid, ADR index, dashboard links, pipeline gate table, IAM summary, backup proof, cost estimate labeled illustrative.
Facilitator walks domains; each claim needs a link or demo.
Capture blockers as tickets with owners/dates.
Schedule game day before go-live for tier-1.
Record decision and waiver table in docs/prr/YYYYMMDD-service.md.
No evidence → no green.

Runbook example spine (progress API 5xx)

Symptoms: ALB 5xx, synthetic fail. Checks: CW dashboard → target health → SSM/journal or GitOps sync → dependency latency → recent deploy digest. Mitigate: rollback GitOps/ASG; scale; feature flag. Escalate: platform + data store owner. Evidence: timeline, digests, graphs.

Game day designs

ASG instance terminate: recovery automatic?
IAM deny on task role: alarm and runbook clarity?
Forced bad digest in non-prod: gate/GitOps rollback? Keep blast radius in non-prod first.

Anti-theater

If every PRR ships with 15 permanent waivers, you have a documentation cult. Leadership must support no-go decisions.

Extended depth: TechLearningPro PRR checklist (copy/adapt)

Capacity: peak learner concurrency assumptions documented; ASG/HPA policies reviewed; service quotas checked; load test or reasoned estimate attached.

Security: IAM diagrams; secret storage; SG review; public exposure scan; ECR/pipeline gate evidence from lesson 61; no SSH from 0.0.0.0/0.

Observability: dashboard URL; alarm list with owners; log retention; tracing optional note; synthetic check if tier-1.

Resilience: Multi-AZ story; backup/restore evidence; timeout/retry policy; degradation mode; rollback rehearsal notes.

Support: team name; primary/secondary on-call; escalation to platform/DB; vendor contacts; runbook links in pager.

Release: pipeline stages; who can promote; change window; migration/feature flag plan; supply-chain attestation.

Each line needs a link or N/A with rationale. Blank cells fail the PRR.

Extended depth: game day facilitator script

Brief players on blast radius and stop conditions. Inject one failure at a time. Silent observers note detection clock and runbook friction. Hotwash: what alarm was missing, what runbook step was wrong, what ticket is filed before anyone leaves. Tag any lab inject resources Project=tlp-lesson63 and destroy before the hotwash ends.

Extended depth: mapping lessons 58–62 into PRR evidence

Lesson 58: ADR index and open WAR highs become blocker/waiver candidates.
Lesson 59: host runbooks for EC2-backed services.
Lesson 60: inventory/tag compliance automation as operational evidence.
Lesson 61: scan/sign gate screenshots and exception register.
Lesson 62: GitOps rollback commit SHAs and PDB/upgrade notes.

Project 1 (lesson 64) will be graded partly on whether this packet exists in miniature.

Practical Implementation or Design Walkthrough

Problem

Complete a production readiness review packet for a cloud-native TechLearningPro service (e.g., progress API on ASG or EKS).

Steps

Choose service boundary; tag docs Project=tlp-lesson63.
Fill PRR checklist with links (create stub dashboards/runbooks if needed).
Write/refresh two runbooks (latency/5xx and dependency failure).
Map WAR risks and ADRs into blocker/waiver table.
Design a non-prod game day; execute tabletop or controlled inject with budget.
Record outcomes and tickets.
Facilitate a 45–90 min review with a peer playing security/FinOps.
Decide ship/no-ship with rationale.
Cleanup any chaos resources.
Deliver PRR Markdown + runbooks + game day notes.

Enterprise Real-World Scenarios

Rubber-stamp PRR

Outage week one from missing alarm. Fix: evidence rule; external facilitator.

Runbook wiki rot

Links 404 at 2am. Fix: git runbooks; link check in CI.

Waivers forever

SSH open still waived. Fix: expiry + executive burn-down.

No game day

First failure is prod. Fix: mandatory drill for tier-1.

PRR ≠ WAR reuse

Duplicate 300 questions. Fix: consume WAR/ADR evidence.

Best Practices

Evidence or it did not happen.
Timebox reviews; emit tickets.
Runbooks in git with owners.
Game days before tier-1 go-live.
Waivers dated and owned.
Include FinOps and security seats.
Reuse WAR/ADR artifacts.
Train facilitators.
Page on symptoms humans can act on.
Rollback proven, not theoretical.
Ownership mapped before traffic.
Budget chaos labs.
Store PRR packets versioned.
Measure closed blockers.
No-go is an acceptable outcome.

Common Mistakes and Anti-Patterns

PRR as celebratory slideware.
Runbooks longer than novels.
No on-call named.
Alarms without runbooks.
Prod-only first failure test.
Infinite waivers.
Ignoring cost saturation.
Skipping supply-chain evidence.
Orphan dashboards.
Facilitator also sole implementer without peer challenge.

Troubleshooting and Design Review

Symptom	Cause	Action
No tickets after PRR	Theater	Mandate ticket output
On-call cannot find runbook	Wrong location	Canonical git path + pager link
Game day chaos	Blast radius too big	Non-prod first; tighter inject
Endless PRR scope	Service boundary unclear	Split services
Duplicate WAR questions	No reuse	Map evidence matrix
Leadership override silent	Risk accepted quietly	Write waiver with expiry

Interview Questions and Answers

Q1: PRR purpose? A: Go-live gate with evidence across ops domains. Q2: vs WAR? A: WAR risks/ADRs feed PRR readiness decision. Q3: Runbook quality? A: Symptoms, checks, escalate, rollback. Q4: Game day? A: Scheduled failure drill to validate detection/response. Q5: Waiver? A: Time-bounded accepted risk with owner. Q6: No-go? A: Valid outcome when blockers remain. Q7: Ownership? A: Named team/on-call before traffic. Q8: Evidence examples? A: Dashboards, gate logs, backup restore proof. Q9: Release safety? A: Rollback and pipeline gates proven. Q10: FinOps in PRR? A: Budgets, scaling cost, idle risk. Q11: Security in PRR? A: IAM, exposure, scan/sign evidence. Q12: Metric of success? A: Closed blockers + drill learning. Q13: Where stored? A: Versioned git beside ADRs. Q14: Facilitation tip? A: Ask for links; reject vibes. Q15: Next? A: Project 1 applies PRR to HA three-tier app.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise: PRR for a cloud-native service

Deliverable: PRR Markdown, two runbooks, waiver/blocker table, game day plan/notes, Project=tlp-lesson63 cleanup if any.

Challenge ADR

Require game day pass before tier-1 prod for all new services starting next quarter.

Lab evidence checklist

Checklist filled; peer facilitator notes; tickets filed; budget/cleanup if inject used.

Narrative: no-go saves exam week

PRR found missing RDS restore proof; launch delayed one week; restore drill failed first try; fixed; launch succeeded under load.

Continuity

Next apply everything: Project 1: Highly Available Three-Tier AWS Application.

Extended practice scenario 1 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Confirm AWS Budgets alerts exist for the sandbox; tag every resource Project=tlp-lesson63. Do not proceed without a budget subscriber.

In a timed drill for production readiness reviews and runbooks at TechLearningPro, implement or design the core lab with a partner observing. The observer's job is to stop any step that invents API flags, hardcodes secrets, invents pricing numbers presented as current quotes, or skips budget and cleanup. After the drill, rewrite your ADR in ten lines: context, decision, consequences. Attach evidence: PRR doc, runbooks, blocker tickets, game day notes, tagging proof, and destroy confirmation for any lab resources.

Discuss how production readiness reviews and runbooks connects prior AWS lessons (IAM, VPC, EC2/SSM, CI/CD, observability, FinOps) and upcoming Module 6 projects. List two blockers you would raise on Project 1 before go-live, with owners and dates.

Finally, teach back the lesson overview paragraph from memory, then check against the text. Gaps become flashcards. Premium courses finish when you can operate under time pressure without treating production readiness reviews and runbooks as a mystery.

Extended practice scenario 2 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Document the lesson's primary architecture decision in a ten-line ADR: context, decision, status, consequences.

Extended practice scenario 3 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Map identity paths: who can create/modify the resources in this lesson; which IAM roles are least privilege.

Extended practice scenario 4 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Design observability: CloudWatch metrics/alarms or equivalent signals that prove the control works.

Extended practice scenario 5 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Run or design a negative test: denied access, misconfiguration, or failed dependency—capture evidence.

Extended practice scenario 6 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Estimate cost dimensions for this lesson's activities. Label figures illustrative; verify pricing pages with dates.

Extended practice scenario 7 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Produce a cleanup checklist and execute destroy for any billable lab resources created for this lesson.

Extended practice scenario 8 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Cross-link prior course lessons that this design depends on; list two failure modes inherited from those layers.

Extended practice scenario 9 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Security review: encryption at rest/in transit, public exposure checks, CloudTrail visibility for management events.

Extended practice scenario 10 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Reliability review: failure isolation, rollback, how detection and recovery work under Monday traffic.

Extended practice scenario 11 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Performance review: bottlenecks, scaling limits, or saturation signals relevant to this lesson's topic.

Extended practice scenario 12 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Write a runbook section for on-call: symptoms, first three diagnostic steps, escalation, rollback.

Extended practice scenario 13 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Config/compliance angle: which controls must be true before production promotion.

Extended practice scenario 14 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Multi-account consideration: how this control behaves across sandbox, staging, and production accounts.

Extended practice scenario 15 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Interview drill: explain the lesson topic to a hiring manager in three minutes without inventing APIs.

Extended practice scenario 16 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Pair review: partner stops any invented CLI flags, hardcoded secrets, or fake current prices.

Extended practice scenario 17 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

FinOps continuity from lesson 47: idle resources, data transfer, and when to decommission lab stacks.

Extended practice scenario 18 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

DR continuity from lesson 45: ensure this design does not destroy recoverability during change.

Extended practice scenario 19 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Produce evidence pack: diagrams, configs, test results, cleanup proof.

Extended practice scenario 20 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Challenge constraint: tighter monthly budget—what do you sequence differently?

Extended practice scenario 21 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Challenge constraint: stricter compliance—what evidence gates release?

Extended practice scenario 22 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Challenge constraint: shorter maintenance window—what pre-staging changes?

Extended practice scenario 23 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Teach-back: recite the Lesson Overview paragraph, then check against the text; flashcard gaps.

Extended practice scenario 24 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Dress rehearsal: tabletop under a timer with observer notes.

Extended practice scenario 25 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Final synthesis note: one paragraph connecting this lesson's topic to TechLearningPro production ownership.

Compliance evidence pack for auditors / platform leads

Budget configs, tagging proof (Project=tlp-lesson63), architecture diagram, ADR, negative-test evidence, encryption settings notes, CloudTrail/Config/SSM references where applicable, pricing-page retrieval dates for any dollar claims, cleanup confirmation.

Glossary drill

Define PRR, waiver, game day, runbook, blocker, golden signals from memory.

Budget and cleanup sworn statement

I verified budgets remain enabled with alert subscribers. I deleted or scheduled deletion for orphan lab resources from lesson 63 named ____. I labeled every savings or cost figure with pricing-page retrieval dates or marked it illustrative. Signed ________ date ________.

Interview story to memorize

Craft a 60-second story: you ran a PRR that issued a no-go for missing restore proof, fixed it via game day, then shipped with dated waivers only.

Self-assessment rubric

Area	Weight
Conceptual accuracy and service selection	20%
Working design/lab and reproducibility	25%
Security and least-privilege	20%
Reliability, observability, troubleshooting	20%
Documentation, ADR, cleanup	15%

Final synthesis before summary

PRR mastery is evidence, runbooks, drills, and courage to no-go—not signatures on a PDF.

Extended facilitation script (print for guild leads)

Open with business consequence of exam-week outage. For each domain ask for a URL or demo. End with blocker owners and a scheduled game day. Remind that lesson 58 ADRs and WAR risks are inputs, not optional reading.

Lesson Summary

Production Readiness Reviews and runbooks turn TechLearningPro delivery into an evidence-gated practice: capacity, security, observability, resilience, support, and release—proven with game days, dated waivers, and git-stored packets. Tag Project=tlp-lesson63; cleanup chaos labs. Next: Project 1: Highly Available Three-Tier AWS Application.

Production Readiness Reviews and Runbooks

Production Readiness Reviews and Runbooks

Lesson Overview

Learning Objectives

Prerequisites

Detailed Core Concepts

What a PRR is

Checklist domains (TechLearningPro)

Runbooks

Game days

Blockers vs waivers

Relationship to WAR/ADR

Cadence

Architecture and Design Diagrams

Technical Explanation

Facilitating a TechLearningPro PRR

Runbook example spine (progress API 5xx)

Game day designs

Anti-theater

Extended depth: TechLearningPro PRR checklist (copy/adapt)

Extended depth: game day facilitator script

Extended depth: mapping lessons 58–62 into PRR evidence

Practical Implementation or Design Walkthrough

Problem

Steps

Enterprise Real-World Scenarios

Rubber-stamp PRR

Runbook wiki rot

Waivers forever

No game day

PRR ≠ WAR reuse

Best Practices

Common Mistakes and Anti-Patterns

Troubleshooting and Design Review

Interview Questions and Answers

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise: PRR for a cloud-native service

Challenge ADR

Lab evidence checklist

Narrative: no-go saves exam week

Continuity

Extended practice scenario 1 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 2 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 3 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 4 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 5 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 6 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 7 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 8 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 9 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 10 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 11 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 12 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 13 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 14 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 15 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 16 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 17 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 18 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 19 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 20 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 21 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 22 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 23 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 24 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Extended practice scenario 25 — 63 production readiness reviews and runbooks

Compliance evidence pack for auditors / platform leads

Glossary drill

Budget and cleanup sworn statement

Interview story to memorize

Self-assessment rubric

Final synthesis before summary

Extended facilitation script (print for guild leads)

Lesson Summary

Further Reading