escalations

Escalation is the process of routing an issue, decision, or request to a higher level of authority, expertise, or urgency when it cannot be resolved at the initial level. It is used in many contexts, including customer support, IT service management, project governance, and risk management, to ensure timely resolution and accountability.

Common forms include functional escalation (to a more specialized team), hierarchical escalation (to higher management or policy owners), automatic escalation (triggered by time or metric thresholds), and strategic escalation (to executives for decisions with broad impact). Triggers for escalation include unresolved time bounds, high severity, significant impact, repeated attempts, or customer dissatisfaction.

A typical escalation process involves defining clear escalation paths and roles, specifying service level agreements, maintaining a documented incident or ticket, initiating notifications and escalation logs, transferring ownership to the appropriate party, and conducting a post-incident review.

Best practices include establishing explicit criteria for escalation, avoiding escalation loops, providing complete context and evidence, respecting timelines, keeping stakeholders informed, assigning an owner, and using standard templates. Training and on-call rotations help ensure readiness and consistency in response.

Metrics used to assess escalation practice include escalation rate, mean time to acknowledge or resolve, SLA compliance, and time to expert diagnosis. Risks include over-escalation, which can waste resources, and under-escalation, which can worsen incidents or create regulatory or reputational harm. Related concepts include incident management, change management, and service level management.