Escalation Path

What it is

An escalation path spells out who takes a ticket next, in what order, and under what conditions: for example L1 to L2 support, then to the owning engineering team, then to the on-callOn-CallThe rotation of engineers responsible for responding to urgent issues. engineer for urgent issues.

Why it matters

Without a clear path, escalations go to whoever the support agent knows, which overloads a few engineers and leaves others' areas unowned.

Best practices

1. Map paths to code ownership – Route by product area to the team that owns that code.
2. Set time limits per step – If a tier hasn't responded in time, it moves up automatically.
3. Publish it – Support and engineering should read the same document.

How Decimal helps

Decimal identifies the likely owning area from the code path involved, so escalations land with the right team the first time.