Incident Priority Framework

Hourglass Essentials Pvt Ltd - IT Operations

CRITICAL RULE

Anything affecting all/most customers or business operations immediately: CALL Roger or Management immediately. Do not wait. Do not watch messages. Pick up the phone and call.

🔴CRITICAL - CALL IMMEDIATELY

Action: Phone call within 5 minutes

Complete System Failures

  • E-commerce platform down (Shopify/Magento outage)
  • Payment gateway failure preventing transactions
  • Order processing system completely offline
  • WMS system unavailable blocking fulfillment
  • Website completely inaccessible
  • CRM system down preventing order management

Data/Security Breaches

  • Suspected security breach or unauthorized access
  • Customer data exposure
  • Payment information compromise
  • System intrusion detected

Business-Critical Errors

  • Mass order failures affecting multiple customers
  • Pricing errors causing incorrect billing
  • Inventory synchronization failure affecting all orders
  • Email system failure blocking communications
  • Integration breaks affecting all transactions

Revenue Impact

  • Payment collection failures across all orders
  • Checkout process broken for all customers
  • Bulk order system malfunction during high-volume
  • Critical client portal completely down

🟠HIGH PRIORITY - MESSAGE URGENTLY

Action: Message with full details within 15 minutes

Single Client Impact

  • Specific corporate store malfunction
  • VIP client order processing issue
  • Critical client deadline at risk
  • Approval workflow failure for specific account

Partial System Degradation

  • Slow performance affecting operations
  • Intermittent payment failures
  • Specific integration errors (single system)
  • Report generation failures
  • Email delivery delays

Data Issues

  • Order information discrepancies
  • Inventory synchronization errors (specific products)
  • Customer data inconsistencies
  • Invoice generation problems

🔵MEDIUM PRIORITY - DOCUMENT & REPORT

Action: Document and report in next standup/review

Non-Critical Errors

  • Visual display issues on website
  • Non-essential feature malfunction
  • Report formatting problems
  • Minor workflow delays
  • Template rendering issues

Enhancement Requests

  • Performance optimization opportunities
  • Feature improvement suggestions
  • Process streamlining ideas

Incident Response Flowchart

graph TD A[Issue Detected] --> B{Affects All/Most
Customers?} B -->|YES| C[🔴 CRITICAL] B -->|NO| D{VIP Client or
Revenue Impact?} C --> E[📞 CALL IMMEDIATELY
Roger/Management] E --> F{System Down
Completely?} F -->|YES| G[Emergency Response Protocol] F -->|NO| H[Rapid Assessment] D -->|YES| I[🟠 HIGH PRIORITY] D -->|NO| J{Has Simple
Workaround?} I --> K[💬 MESSAGE URGENTLY
Full Details] K --> L[Implement Workaround] L --> M[Monitor & Resolve] J -->|NO| I J -->|YES| N[🔵 MEDIUM PRIORITY] N --> O[📝 DOCUMENT ISSUE] O --> P[Report in Next Review] G --> Q[All Hands Response] H --> R[Targeted Fix Deployment] M --> S[Post-Incident Review] P --> S Q --> S R --> S style C fill:#ff4757,stroke:#ff2f3e,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff style E fill:#ff4757,stroke:#ff2f3e,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff style I fill:#ffa502,stroke:#ff7f50,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff style K fill:#ffa502,stroke:#ff7f50,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff style N fill:#3498db,stroke:#2980b9,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff style O fill:#3498db,stroke:#2980b9,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff style G fill:#e74c3c,stroke:#c0392b,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff style Q fill:#e74c3c,stroke:#c0392b,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff

Decision Framework for Team

📞 CALL IMMEDIATELY IF:

  • Issue affects 10+ customers simultaneously
  • Revenue collection is blocked
  • Customer cannot place orders at all
  • Security/data breach suspected
  • Complete system outage
  • Issue during peak hours affecting operations

💬 MESSAGE URGENTLY IF:

  • Single VIP/critical client affected
  • Workaround exists but cumbersome
  • Issue will escalate within 4 hours
  • Affects specific business function
  • Not entire operation but significant impact

📝 DOCUMENT FOR REVIEW IF:

  • Cosmetic/minor functionality issue
  • Enhancement request
  • Issue has simple workaround
  • Can wait until next business review
  • No immediate customer impact