Defining an Escalation Plan

  • Article

Before you begin testing, define an escalation plan for the project team to use when problems arise. The escalation plan should address these issues:

  • Where do team members post test failures and other issues? Do they enter both in the incident tracking system or do they enter issues elsewhere, such as at a Web site?

  • What steps do they follow before posting the issue or problem? For example, does the problem need to be reproduced? By whom?

  • What information do they include when posting the issue? Examples are:

    • Contact information (phone number, pager number, and e-mail address for subteam lead and external support)

    • Status of the problem (new or ongoing)

    • Priority and business justification of the problem

    • Sequence of events leading to the problem (include relevant information such as IP addresses and domain name)

    • Causes (known or suspected)

    • Troubleshooting information (traces, diagnostics)

  • How do they notify the design group of the issue or problem?

  • Who reviews and resolves issues?

  • What is the notification hierarchy?