Different Roles
-There are several roles for our incident response teams at Spearhead Systems. Certain roles only have one person per incident (e.g. support engineer), whereas other roles can have multiple people (e.g.System/Solution Architects, juniors, etc.). It's all about coming together as a team, working the problem, and getting a solution quickly.
+There are several roles for our incident response teams at Spearhead Systems. Certain roles only have one person per incident (e.g. support engineer), whereas other roles can have multiple people (e.g. Sysadmins, Solution Architects, etc.). It's all about coming together as a team, working the problem, and getting a solution quickly.
Here is a rough outline of our role hierarchy, with each role discussed in more detail on the rest of this page.
-
Team Leader (IC)#
+Team Leader (TL)#
What is it?#
A Team Leader acts as the single source of truth of what is currently happening and what is going to happen during an major incident. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. TL's are also the key elements in a project (boards in DoIT).
Why have one?#
@@ -508,25 +508,27 @@How can I become one?#
Take a look at our Team Leader training guide.
-
Deputy#
+Sysadmin#
What is it?#
-A Deputy is a direct support role for the Incident Commander. This is not a shadow where the person just observes, the Deputy is expected to perform important tasks during an incident.
+A Sysadmin is a direct support role for the Team Leader. This is not a shadow where the person just observes, the Sysadmin is expected to perform important tasks during an incident.
Why have one?#
-It's important for the IC to focus on the problem at hand, rather than worrying about documenting the steps or monitoring timers. The deputy helps to support the IC and keep them focussed on the incident.
+It's important for the TL to focus on the problem at hand, rather than worrying about documenting the steps or monitoring timers. The Sysadmin helps to support the TL and keep them stay focussed on the incident.
What are the responsibilities?#
-The Deputy is expected to:
+The Sysadmin is expected to:
-
-
- Bring up issues to the Incident Commander that may otherwise not be addressed (keeping an eye on timers that have been started, circling back around to missed items from a roll call, etc). -
- Be a "hot standby" Incident Commander, should the primary need to either transition to a SME, or otherwise have to step away from the IC role. -
- Page SME's or other on-call engineers as instructed by the Incident Commander. -
- Manage the incident call, and be prepared to remove people from the call if instructed by the Incident Commander. -
- Liaise with stakeholders and provide status updates on Slack as necessary. +
- Bring up issues to the TL that may otherwise not be addressed (keeping an eye on timers that have been started, circling back around to missed items from a roll call, etc). +
- Be a "hot standby" TL, should the primary need to either transition to a SME, or otherwise have to step away from the TL role. +
- Page SME's or other on-call engineers as instructed by the Team Leader. +
- Manage the incident call, and be prepared to remove people from the call if instructed by the Team Leader. +
- Liaise with stakeholders and provide status updates on DoIT (using worklogs and comments), Slack and email/telefone as necessary.
Who are they?#
-Any Incident Commander can act as a deputy. Deputies need to be trained as an Incident Commander as they may be required to take over command.
+Any Team Leader can act as a Sysadmin. Sysadmins need to be trained as an Team Leader as they may be required to take over command.
How can I become one?#
-Take a look at our Deputy training guide. Deputies also need to be trained as an Incident Commander.
+Take a look at our Sysadmin training guide. Sysadmins also need to be trained as an Team Leaders.
+
TODO:::move scribe responsibilities to TL and Sysadmin +::: or assign this to our juniors?
Scribe#
What is it?#
A Scribe documents the timeline of an incident as it progresses, and makes sure all important decisions and data are captured for later review.
@@ -547,12 +549,13 @@Anyone can act as a scribe during an incident, and are chosen by the Incident Commander at the start of the call. Typically the Deputy will act as the Scribe, but that doesn't necessarily need to happen, and for larger incidents may not be possible.
How can I become one?#
Follow our Scribe training guide, and then notify the Incident Commanders that you would like to be considered for scribing for the next incident.
+TODO::: END move scribe responsibilities to TL and Sysadmin
Subject Matter Expert#
What is it?#
-A Subject Matter Expert (SME), sometimes called a "Resolver", is a domain expert or designated owner of a component or service that is part of the PagerDuty software stack.
+A Subject Matter Expert (SME), sometimes called a "Resolver" or "Architect", is a domain expert or designated owner of a component or service that is part of the Spearhead Systems service delivery concept.
Why have one?#
-The IC and deputy are not all-knowing super beings. When there is a problem with a service, an expert in that service is needed to be able to quickly help identify and fix issues.
+The TL and Sysadmins are not all-knowing super beings. When there is a problem with a service or a particular system, an expert in that service is needed to be able to quickly help identify and fix issues.
What are the responsibilities?#
- Being able to diagnose common problems with the service. @@ -576,8 +579,8 @@
- Post any publicly facing messages regarding the incident (Twitter, StatusPage, etc). -
- Notify the IC of any customers reporting that they are affected by the incident. +
- Post any publicly facing messages regarding the incident (DoIT, Twitter, StatusPage, etc). +
- Notify the TL of any customers reporting that they are affected by the incident.
- Incident Response (O'Reilly)
- Debriefing Facilitation Guide (Etsy)
- US National Incident Management System (NIMS) (FEMA) +
- Every Minute Counts: Leading Heroku's Incident Response (Blake Gentry)
All of the other roles will be actively working on identifying the cause and resolving the issue, we need a role which is focused purely on the customer interaction side of things so that it can be done properly, with the due care and attention it needs.
What are the responsibilities?#
-
-
Who are they?#
Any member of the Support Team can act as a customer liaison.
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html index 1072cfc..bcedaa2 100644 --- a/index.html +++ b/index.html @@ -517,6 +517,7 @@