Runbook Cardinality Explosion: When Too Many Runbooks Backfire

Too many runbooks are as bad as too few. The audit that finds and consolidates the long tail of stale runbooks.

Symptom

Engineers cannot find the right runbook. Search returns 5 plausible options.

Runbook usage is low; team relies on tribal knowledge instead.

Audit

Per runbook: when last used, when last updated, who owns.

Stale and unowned runbooks are candidates for retirement.

Consolidate

Three runbooks for similar issues become one. Edge cases become sections of the merged runbook.

Aim: < 50 runbooks for most service teams. Above that, the team cannot navigate.