In environments with multiple teams and external dependencies, what are some effective ways to ensure that escalation processes are being followed correctly? I'm looking for practical examples on how to guarantee that required information is always available, responsibilities are clearly defined, and that escalations don't just depend on informal communication or personal knowledge. Does it really come down to following up with people on platforms like Slack, or are there better systems in place? Would love to hear real-life experiences rather than just theoretical solutions.
1 Answer
In our setup, teams are alerted for issues, but if something seems cross-team, we escalate to an incident commander (IC). It’s then up to the IC to pull in the right folks to manage everything. There's always some tribal knowledge, but we aim to document as much as possible to share it widely across the team.
That makes sense, especially with a dedicated IC. But what do you do if crucial details are missing during the initial escalation, like repro steps or logs? Does the process get stalled until that's all sorted, or does the IC have to dig around to get what they need?