Interrupt Duty#

An important element of ReleaseDuty is shielding the rest of the team from interrupts as best as possible. The idea is that no single person should be overwhelmed by interrupts, and by taking turns being held responsible for them (via ReleaseDuty), we can minimize the risk of burn out.

Interrupts could be anything from a simple ~10min ci-configuration request, to larger requests that need to be triaged, to full scale emergencies.

Run Book#

This run book can help everyone figure out how to field requests and when to escalate.

For InterruptDuty#

  1. Upon receiving an interrupt (either request or emergency), create a JIRA ticket to track it.

    1. If it fits nicely in one of our epics, add the appropriate epic link (otherwise assign it to Issues Without Epics).

    2. Ensure ticket has the interruptduty label attached.

    3. Ensure ticket has a priority.
      1. If request is urgent, assign priority Highest.

      2. If unsure, work with other stakeholders on the team to determine it.

    4. Determine if interrupt has a deadline and set Due Date field accordingly.

    5. Ensure additional context (bugs, issues, etc) are linked from the description.
      1. If no bug or issue exist and discussion with external stakeholders may be required, consider filing a bug / issue (or ask requester to do so).

  2. If interrupt is low / medium priority, no further action is required.

    1. If useful, raise the interrupt at appropriate meeting(s) or directly with stakeholders on the team.

  3. If interrupt is high priority (but not highest) or has a hard deadline within 3 months:

    1. Move the ticket to the Next column.

    2. Work to find an owner for it.

    3. These interrupts should be in the Next column and should be on someone’s radar to tackle soon.

    4. These are not necessarily the responsibility of InterruptDuty to fix.

  4. If interrupt is highest priority:

    1. These interrupts are in the Expedite swim lane and should have an assignee responsible for working on it ASAP.

    2. If person on InterruptDuty is capable of handling request, they should be assignee.

    3. Otherwise, they should work closely with assignee to provide support / cross-train to better handle request in the future

For everyone else#

  1. If you notice a general request in a channel, CC InterruptDuty by mentioning the relduty keyword.

  2. If you are pinged directly (whether in channel, DM, e-mail, bug, etc):

  1. If it is small (less than 2 hours) and you have the time, knowledge and desire to handle it, feel free to just handle it.

  2. Otherwise, redirect request to InterruptDuty.