Escalation process

What constitutes a “crisis?”

We don’t have the resources or/and team’s confidence to successfully deliver the project and immediate senior intervention is required.

What is the Andon Cord?

The Andon Cord is a Lean manufacturing principle and tool used to notify management and other team members of a quality, client or process problem that needs immediate attention.

Where and how to flag issues?

Slack command for /andon in any Slack channel which then notifies the core leadership team.

• Project team down tools

• Core leadership establish who is best placed to own the resolution

Who can flag an issue?

Anyone!

The first 24 hrs after an issue is identified

• Description of issues using the following template. A new risk card should be added to ‘project oversight’ where this is linked from and updated as our knowledge of the root cause of the problem develops.

• Personal overall accountable for the account on the project oversight board is responsible for leading the investigation of the issue (see project oversight board if unsure)

• Add next steps to be the issues template within 24 hours of the issue being identified. This should include

  • ETA for completion and who is responsible for each action

• Share issues template and discuss potential commercial impact with Commercial or Managing Director

• Delivery Manager to facilitate a meeting with the team to share plan for the upcoming day(s)

• Managing or Commercial Director to support delivery team with comms to client, if required

During resolution

• Daily call with accountable account lead + Managing Director

• Delivery Manager to send end of day update to the client, if required

• Any changes with regards to commercial impact reported in real-time in the issue template

At which point is this process no longer required?

When all members of the resolution team agree that the project is no longer in “crisis” mode and we are safe to resume to normal project mode.

Post resolution

• Team retrospective to unpick root causes and learnings for next project

• Any company-wide learning’s are shared and documented