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Fix Fast

The IT Incident Playbook

About the Book

Fix Fast: The IT Incident Playbook equips IT professionals with practical strategies to tackle system failures and boost reliability. You’ll learn to manage stress, classify problems, apply core principles, follow a structured incident lifecycle, and improve through failure analysis. Built from real-world postmortems, this guide blends analytical rigor with human-centered practices. It covers five key areas: People, Problems, Foundational Principles, Incident Management Lifecycle, and Continuous Improvement through Failure Analysis. Whether you’re a sysadmin, SRE, or support engineer, this playbook helps you resolve incidents faster and build stronger systems. Eri Bastos, a 20-year IT veteran, shares proven methods to turn chaos into clarity.

About the Author

Eri Bastos
Eri Bastos

Eri Bastos is a veteran IT professional with over 20 years of experience in system reliability, troubleshooting, and operational excellence. He began his career in Brazil and relocated to Halifax in 2007, where he has designed and refined processes that improved uptime and efficiency across diverse technology environments.

A passionate advocate for continuous learning, Eri has organized peer-led book clubs and structured training sessions focused on practical methodologies—ranging from clear communication and root cause analysis to capacity planning and tabletop exercises. Over the past two years, he distilled these experiences and lessons into this booklet, structuring its content around five core pillars: People, Problems, Foundational Principles, Incident Management Lifecycle, and Continuous Improvement through Failure Analysis.

Driven by real-world incident postmortems and hands-on experimentation, Eri’s approach blends analytical rigor with human-centered practices. With this guide, he aims to empower IT professionals at all levels to tackle system failures confidently, resolve incidents efficiently, and foster a culture of reliability and learning.

Table of Contents

      • Introduction
    • Section I – People
      • Introduction
      • Chapter 1 – Handling the Pressure
      • Chapter 2 – Checking Your Ego
      • Chapter 3 – Ownership
      • Chapter 4 – Navigating Misinformation
      • Conclusion
      • People Section Takeaways
    • Section II – Problems
      • Introduction
      • Chapter 1 – Known Problems
      • Chapter 2 – Complex Systems
      • Chapter 3 – Wicked Problems
      • Chapter 4 – Unknowns
      • Chapter 5 – Intermittent Problems
      • Chapter 6 – User-related Problems
      • Conclusion
      • Problems Section Takeaways
    • Section III – Foundational Principles
      • Introduction
      • Chapter 1 – Communication & Information Gathering
      • Chapter 2 – Information Gathering Techniques
      • Chapter 3 – Escalation
      • Chapter 4 – Leveraging Logs for Troubleshooting
      • Chapter 5 – Avoiding Common Pitfalls
      • Conclusion
      • Foundational Principles Section Takeaways
    • Section IV – Incident Management Lifecycle
      • Introduction
      • Chapter 1 – Prevention
      • Chapter 2 – Response Strategies
      • Chapter 3 – Monitoring
      • Chapter 4 – Backup & Restore
      • Chapter 5 – Postmortem
      • Conclusion
      • Incident Management Lifecycle Takeaways
    • Section V – Continuous Improvement through Failure Analysis
      • Introduction
      • Chapter 1 – Root Cause Analysis
      • Chapter 2 – Iterative Testing
      • Chapter 3 – Fault Tree Analysis
      • Chapter 4 – Reverse Engineering
      • Chapter 5 – OODA Loop
      • Chapter 6 – Divide & Conquer
      • Chapter 7 – Rubber Ducking
      • Chapter 8 – Modelling & Simulation
      • Chapter 9 – Creative Problem-Solving
      • Chapter 10 – The Scientific Method
      • Conclusion
      • Continuous Improvement Takeaways
    • Glossary
    • About the Author

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