Monitoring: Escalation Policies

2.1 What is an Escalation Policy?

An escalation policy is a framework that outlines the process of escalating alerts to different team members based on predefined criteria such as the severity of the issue, time taken to resolve, or the response of the initial contact.

2.2 Key Components of Escalation Policies

• Initial Contact: The first person to receive the alert.
• Escalation Levels: Different tiers of escalation based on the urgency of the alert.
• Notification Methods: How the team is notified (e.g., email, SMS, etc.).
• Response Timeframes: Specific time limits for response at each escalation level.

3.1 Define Alert Severity Levels

Start by categorizing alerts into different severity levels such as critical, high, medium, and low.

3.2 Establish Escalation Paths

Determine how alerts will escalate through different team members. This can be represented as a flowchart:

            graph TD;
                A[Alert Received] -->|Critical| B[Notify Team Lead];
                A -->|High| C[Notify On-Call Engineer];
                A -->|Medium| D[Notify Support Team];
                A -->|Low| E[Log for Review];
                B -->|No Response| F[Notify Manager];
                C -->|No Response| F;
                D -->|No Response| F;
            

3.3 Implement Notification Mechanisms

Decide how team members will be alerted. Common methods include:

• Email Notifications
• SMS Alerts
• Push Notifications through monitoring tools

3.4 Test the Escalation Policy

Conduct mock drills to ensure that the escalation process functions as expected. This helps identify any gaps or issues in the policy.

• Regularly review and update escalation policies to adapt to changing team structures or technologies.
• Ensure all team members are trained on the escalation policy and understand their roles.
• Maintain clear documentation of all escalation processes.