AMER: Create Rotating Crew Schedule for Support Managers
This is to track the work and any iterative ideas/improvements (as we find necessary) with scheduling Support Managers (AMER) with AMER Support Response Crew.
Scheduling DRI: @izzyfee
Participating Managers:
Resources to help define / build schedule:
- AMER Support Response Crew schedule (will build managers schedule into this).
- Support Manager - AMER pagerduty schedule (to minimize impact to the Manager scheduled to be on-call for a given week).
- Support - Time Off Calendar (to avoid days/weeks when a manager is on PTO - at least for the first month of the schedule build-out).
Criteria:
- Build into the existing Crew schedule (as noted above).
- Rotate by day(s), not by full week.
- Rotate around days each week so managers can engage with different crews (each crew day is generally the same crew).
- Manager crew involvement to begin week of March 22.
Ideas:
- Manually build out the schedule for the next 60 days using the resources above.
- Setup a sign-up for managers 1-2 weeks in advance (thanks for the idea @rspainhower).
- Come up with a scheduling pattern, such as:
Daily rotation (every manager 1 day / week):
| Week | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Izzy | Mike | Rebecca | James | Ronnie |
| Week 2 | Mike | Rebecca | James | Ronnie | Izzy |
| Week 3 | Rebecca | James | Ronnie | Izzy | Mike |
| Week 4 | James | Ronnie | Izzy | Mike | Rebecca |
| Week 5 | Ronnie | Izzy | Mike | Rebecca | James |
Considerations with daily rotation:
- In many weeks, someone will likely have to do more than one day of crew (to cover for those out on PTO).
- Because of above, swapping days might get a little hectic.
- Someone will also have to take up double duty with managing on-call + crew.
Split week rotation (2 managers / week):
| Week | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Izzy | Izzy | Rebecca (AM) / Izzy (PM) | Rebecca | Rebecca |
| Week 2 | Mike | Mike | James (AM) / Mike (PM) | James | James |
| Week 3 | Ronnie | Ronnie | Ronnie (AM) / Izzy (PM) | Izzy | Izzy |
| Week 4 | Rebecca | Rebecca | Rebecca (AM) / Mike (PM) | Mike | Mike |
| Week 5 | James | James | James (AM) / Ronnie (PM) | Ronnie | Ronnie |
Summary:
- Two managers per week with split Wednesdays (prioritizing EST/EDT for AM and PST/PDT for PM on Wed).
- We have a better chance of avoiding having the manager on-call from being on crew in this scenario.
- Swaps might still get a little hectic, but maybe easier?
Or, if we go with the sign-up route, things to consider:
- Looks like crew schedule is set out 2 weeks at a time, perhaps we should follow the same.
- How?
- Remind each manager to add their name in rows 4 and 11 under the day you want in the actual Crew schedule.
- Use an issue to initiate/manage the sign-up process?
- Automate (in some way) reminders every 2 weeks.
Side question: How does the current crew schedule get updated? Is there any automation built-in with how the current schedule and past schedule sheets are updated? (@lbot or @lyle).
- Some managers will need to sign-up for 2+ days depending on team availability.
- Every manager (unless on PTO) must sign up for at least one day each week, but be prepared to help cover 2-3 days.
I'm inclined to try out the split week rotation because I think there will be many times where we'll all end up doing more than a day in a week anyway. If anyone else has other thoughts, please don't hesitate to add them in.
I don't want to "overthink" this (should be a simple solution), but I tend to do a big brain dump of ideas when I approach things initially, which often helps develop the right direction to go. :)
Thoughts are welcome - otherwise I'll start working on iteration 1 of this next week (split week trial) so we are ready to go by March 22.