Verifiability
Every statement in the report is tied to how it was verified. “Done” without “verified by” is an opinion.
Example report
The most common worry before work starts is “I will not understand what was done to my server”. That is why the result is always written up. Below is an anonymised sample: a real structure with a fictional client.
Work report: server stabilisation
What was asked
The server would periodically stop responding and the cause could not be found.
What I found
Three causes, one of them primary: a background job ran longer than the interval at which it was started, so its queue piled up on itself. Two secondary ones: no limits on journals, and an autostart configuration that did not survive a reboot.
What I did
Spread out the schedule and added protection against overlapping runs. Set limits and a working rotation for the journals. Fixed the autostart and verified it with a reboot inside an agreed window.
How I verified it
A day of observation after the change: no missed jobs, run times back to normal, free space stable. The reboot: every service came back on its own.
What I did NOT do
I did not touch the application code and did not change the database version. Both came up along the way but fell outside the agreed scope.
What is left
Backups are being taken, but restoring from them has never been tested. That is a separate task, and a more important one than the remaining loose ends.
How to roll back
The previous configuration files are kept next to the new ones and the revert command is written out. The rollback has been tested.
The report stays with the client along with the access and the configuration. Nothing is left “only in the contractor's head”.
Why this way
A report is not bureaucracy
Independence
Six months later you, or another engineer, will understand why it was done that way. That removes your dependence on me.
Honesty
There is always a “what I did not do” section and a “what is left” section. Work without loose ends exists only in advertising.
Want one for your own infrastructure? It starts with a review of the task.