97 Things Every SRE Should Know

Chapter 38. Unpacking the On-Call Divide

Jason Hand

Microsoft

Disagreements about just who should be responsible for the on-call role have always been a cornerstone irritation of my professional career. The arguments are all valid and the reasoning is sound. Yet despite all the logical and fair points, engaging in the debate remains a contentious effort.

Predictably, once everyone has had an opportunity to share their points and personal stories, a truce is made, relenting that the answer to the question of who should be on call for a digital service is, “It depends.”

It depends on a multitude of scenarios and considerations, all of which are unique not only to industries but across businesses and teams within organizations. Countless flavors of on call exist because the scenarios in which on call is a necessity are limitless.

But here’s the thing: the olive branch statement, “it depends,” doesn’t really solve or end the debate, nor does it get to the heart of why the argument persists. When you unpack the rationale behind strongly held feelings and opinions on the subject, you have to ask why we feel the need to continue to raise the question of who should be on call. What problem is that solving?

Regardless of which side of the DevOps bimodal view of the world you fall in, how systems are designed, built, and operated vary greatly, but most people agree on two important points: ...