Escalation triage

An escalation records a defect or change item against project work. Its severity, owner and project tell the Delivery Lead what needs attention. The risk register can hold a related concern about future exposure, but the escalation describes a current issue to triage. Keeping both records legible lets a project manager decide whether the issue also changes the likelihood or impact of an open risk.

• Raise. Record a title, project, reporter context and severity for an issue at Open.
• Triage. Confirm the issue is still Open and has severity before the triage action runs.
• Follow. Use the issue status and owner to track work through in progress, Fixed and verification.

The triage workflow moves an eligible Open escalation to Triaged and records an operation receipt. If somebody has already changed the status, or severity is absent, the guard rail blocks that triage and records the failed attempt. The receipt explains what happened to the operation; it does not by itself prove that the issue has been fixed.

Agree who may raise and own escalations, and what each severity means. A Critical issue should be handled consistently across projects rather than chosen to attract attention. Decide how the Delivery Lead hands a triaged issue to the responsible owner. The team should also name who verifies a fix, because Fixed and Verified are separate states in the issue record.

Define when an issue should prompt a reassessment in the risk register. A new defect might increase the likelihood of missing a date, while another issue may remain a local delivery concern. The project manager makes that judgment from the actual issue and the existing risk record.

A tester finds a High severity defect in an active project. The Delivery Lead checks the project, title and severity, then triages the Open escalation. The record moves to Triaged and an operation receipt is available for review. The owner investigates and updates the issue as work advances. If the fix is reported, the status can reach Fixed; the reviewer still checks it before Verified.

If a second triage attempt is made after the first has moved the issue, the guard rail blocks the attempt and records failure. The team sees the current issue state and the receipt rather than assuming a repeated click created another valid triage. When the defect threatens a delivery date, the Risk Owner separately updates the corresponding project risk assessment.

• Open Escalations — Review issues that still need their initial severity check and triage.
• Risk Exception Triage — Find fixed issues that still need verification.

Follow escalation handling and risk review when the issue changes project exposure.