Sankofa/docs/runbooks/ESCALATION_PROCEDURES.md

Escalation Procedures

Overview

This document defines escalation procedures for incidents, support requests, and operational issues in the Sankofa Phoenix platform.

Escalation Levels

Level 1: On-Call Engineer

• Response Time: Immediate (P0/P1) or < 1 hour (P2/P3)
• Responsibilities:
  • Initial incident triage
  • Basic troubleshooting
  • Service restart/recovery
  • Status updates

Level 2: Team Lead / Senior Engineer

• Response Time: < 15 minutes (P0/P1) or < 2 hours (P2/P3)
• Responsibilities:
  • Complex troubleshooting
  • Architecture decisions
  • Code review for hotfixes
  • Customer communication

Level 3: Engineering Manager

• Response Time: < 30 minutes (P0) or < 4 hours (P1)
• Responsibilities:
  • Resource allocation
  • Cross-team coordination
  • Business impact assessment
  • Executive communication

Level 4: CTO / VP Engineering

• Response Time: < 1 hour (P0 only)
• Responsibilities:
  • Strategic decisions
  • Customer escalation
  • Public communication
  • Resource approval

Escalation Triggers

Automatic Escalation

• P0 incident not resolved in 30 minutes
• P1 incident not resolved in 2 hours
• Multiple services affected simultaneously
• Data loss or security breach detected

Manual Escalation

• On-call engineer requests assistance
• Customer escalates to management
• Issue requires expertise not available at current level
• Business impact exceeds threshold

Escalation Matrix

Severity	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
P0	Immediate	15 min	30 min	1 hour
P1	15 min	30 min	2 hours	4 hours
P2	1 hour	2 hours	24 hours	N/A
P3	4 hours	24 hours	1 week	N/A

Escalation Process

Step 1: Initial Assessment

1. On-call engineer receives alert/notification
2. Assess severity and impact
3. Begin investigation
4. Document findings

Step 2: Escalation Decision

Escalate if:

• Issue not resolved within SLA
• Additional expertise needed
• Customer impact is severe
• Business impact is high
• Security concern

Do NOT escalate if:

• Issue is being actively worked on
• Resolution is in progress
• Impact is minimal
• Standard procedure can resolve

Step 3: Escalation Execution

1. Notify next level:

   • Create escalation ticket
   • Update incident channel
   • Call/Slack next level contact
   • Provide context and current status

2. Handoff information:

   • Incident summary
   • Current status
   • Actions taken
   • Relevant logs/metrics
   • Customer impact

3. Update tracking:

   • Update incident system
   • Update status page
   • Document escalation reason

Step 4: Escalation Resolution

1. Escalated engineer takes ownership
2. On-call engineer provides support
3. Regular status updates
4. Resolution and post-mortem

Communication Channels

Internal Communication

• Slack/Teams: #incident-YYYY-MM-DD-<name>
• PagerDuty/Opsgenie: Automatic escalation
• Email: For non-urgent escalations
• Phone: For P0 incidents

External Communication

• Status Page: Public updates
• Customer Notifications: For affected customers
• Support Tickets: Update existing tickets

Contact Information

On-Call Rotation

• Primary: [Contact Info]
• Secondary: [Contact Info]
• Schedule: [Link to schedule]

Escalation Contacts

• Team Lead: [Contact Info]
• Engineering Manager: [Contact Info]
• CTO: [Contact Info]
• VP Engineering: [Contact Info]

Support Contacts

• Support Team Lead: [Contact Info]
• Customer Success: [Contact Info]

Escalation Scenarios

Scenario 1: P0 Service Outage

1. Detection: Monitoring alert
2. Level 1: On-call engineer investigates (5 min)
3. Escalation: If not resolved in 15 min → Level 2
4. Level 2: Team lead coordinates (15 min)
5. Escalation: If not resolved in 30 min → Level 3
6. Level 3: Engineering manager allocates resources
7. Resolution: Service restored
8. Post-Mortem: Within 24 hours

Scenario 2: Security Breach

1. Detection: Security alert or anomaly
2. Immediate: Escalate to Level 3 (bypass Level 1/2)
3. Level 3: Engineering manager + Security team
4. Escalation: If data breach → Level 4
5. Level 4: CTO + Legal + PR
6. Resolution: Contain, investigate, remediate
7. Post-Mortem: Within 48 hours

Scenario 3: Data Loss

1. Detection: Backup failure or data corruption
2. Immediate: Escalate to Level 2
3. Level 2: Team lead + Database team
4. Escalation: If cannot recover → Level 3
5. Level 3: Engineering manager + Customer Success
6. Resolution: Restore from backup or data recovery
7. Post-Mortem: Within 24 hours

Scenario 4: Performance Degradation

1. Detection: Performance metrics exceed thresholds
2. Level 1: On-call engineer investigates (1 hour)
3. Escalation: If not resolved → Level 2
4. Level 2: Team lead + Performance team
5. Resolution: Optimize or scale resources
6. Post-Mortem: If P1/P0, within 48 hours

Customer Escalation

Customer Escalation Process

1. Support receives customer escalation
2. Assess severity:
   • Technical issue → Engineering
   • Billing issue → Finance
   • Account issue → Customer Success
3. Notify appropriate team
4. Provide customer updates every 2 hours (P0/P1)
5. Resolve and follow up

Customer Escalation Contacts

• Support Escalation: support-escalation@sankofa.nexus
• Technical Escalation: tech-escalation@sankofa.nexus
• Executive Escalation: executive-escalation@sankofa.nexus

Escalation Metrics

Tracking

• Escalation Rate: % of incidents escalated
• Escalation Time: Time to escalate
• Resolution Time: Time to resolve after escalation
• Customer Satisfaction: Post-incident surveys

Goals

• P0 Escalation: < 5% of P0 incidents
• P1 Escalation: < 10% of P1 incidents
• Escalation Time: < SLA threshold
• Resolution Time: < 2x normal resolution time

Best Practices

Do's

• ✅ Escalate early if unsure
• ✅ Provide complete context
• ✅ Document all actions
• ✅ Communicate frequently
• ✅ Learn from escalations

Don'ts

• ❌ Escalate without trying
• ❌ Escalate without context
• ❌ Skip levels unnecessarily
• ❌ Ignore customer escalations
• ❌ Forget to update status

Review and Improvement

Monthly Review

• Review escalation patterns
• Identify common causes
• Update procedures
• Train team on improvements

Quarterly Review

• Analyze escalation metrics
• Update contact information
• Review and update SLAs
• Improve documentation