@@ -16,6 +16,26 @@ The Tier-2 SME on-call program enhances incident response by establishing a seco
- Escalation rules for your domain
- Documentation and runbooks
## Escalation Criteria
The Tier-1 Engineering On-Call (EOC) will perform initial triage and use available documentation before escalating to Tier-2 SMEs. However, timely escalation is encouraged when domain expertise is clearly needed, especially for critical incidents. The following guidelines help determine when escalation is appropriate:
### By Severity Level
-**S1/S2 Incidents**: These typically require escalation when the Tier-1 team cannot resolve them independently. Due to their critical nature, Tier-2 SMEs should expect to be paged for these incidents when domain-specific expertise is needed.
-**S3/S4 Incidents**: These typically do not require escalation to Tier-2 SMEs during off-hours. However, Tier-1 may escalate S3/S4 incidents in specific circumstances:
- When the customer impact is unclear and requires domain expertise to assess
- When there's uncertainty about whether the issue might develop into a higher severity incident
- When multiple lower-severity incidents combined create a potentially broader impact
### Customer Impact Assessment
The primary consideration for escalation is actual or potential customer impact, regardless of the initial severity classification:
- If an incident has clear customer impact that Tier-1 cannot mitigate, escalation is appropriate even if initially classified as lower severity
- If Tier-1 needs help determining whether errors or unusual behavior in a service will affect customers, they may consult with Tier-2 SMEs
