# Operational excellence
<a name="operational-excellence"></a>

 The operational excellence pillar includes operational practices and procedures used to manage production workloads. All processes and procedures of operational excellence must be documented, tested, and regularly reviewed. Best practices drive automating planned changes and responses to unexpected operational events. 

**Topics**
+ [Design principles](design-principles-ops.md)
+ [Definitions](definitions-ops.md)
+ [Organization](organization.md)
+ [Prepare](prepare.md)
+ [Operate](operate.md)
+ [Evolve](evolve.md)
+ [Key AWS services](key-aws-services-ops.md)
+ [Resources](resources-ops.md)