Words and Phrases
Incident Escalation (process SO 2.6)
When an Incident Analyst is unable to solve an assigned incident within the target time, the analyst escalates the incident to the Incident Coordinator. The Incident Coordinator determines how the incident can best be resolved by consulting the Incident Analyst and, if needed, other Incident Analysts. If an incident is severe (for example, designated as Priority 1), the appropriate IT managers must be notified so that they can anticipate and prepare for an escalation.
Incidents are escalated when the Incident Investigation and Diagnosis process or Incident Resolution and Recovery process exceeds SLA targets or if these targets are likely not to be met. If the steps to resolve an incident are taking too long or proving too difficult, the Incident Coordinator determines the following:
- Whether an Incident Analyst can be given the necessary resources to solve the incident
- Whether a change needs to be implemented
- Whether a request for service is needed
When an incident is escalated, the escalation should continue up the management chain. Senior managers are notified of the situation so that they can prepare to take any necessary actions, such as allocating additional resources or involving suppliers.
You can see the details of this process in the following figure and table.
The Incident Escalation workflow is illustrated in the following figure:
