User Guide/Manual - Escalation Matrices Functional and RACI.
January 26, 2018.
User Guide/Manual - Escalation Matrices Functional and RACI.
Content Table
User Guide/Manual - Escalation Matrices Functional and RACI1
Introduction2
Functional Escalation2
RACI Escalation2
Anyone Escalation Model3
Creating Matrices4
Escalation Process Flowchart12
The goal for this document is to serve as explanation for both customers and internal members of Medtrainer on how the Escalation Matrices work. It also serves the purpose of documenting what has been put in a Presentation.
Introduction
Two different escalation matrix models were implemented, with both of them having cases where using one is more practical than the other one. These models are the Functional Escalation and the RACI Escalation.
Functional Escalation
It's the regular way an Incident Report is escalated because when a Report is created, at the end of it, it needs someone who will resolve or escalate it. If that person can't resolve it, the Report will now go to next person in the Escalation Hierarchy until someone resolves it.
The advantage that this method has is that it's simpler and more straight forward and its disadvantage is that not many people are involved in the Report and the only evidence they have is from the person that escalated it.
RACI Escalation
RACI is a Responsibility Assignment model that describes the participation by various roles in completingtasks for a Project or a Process. RACI makes multiple people be involved in the resolution of the process at the same time.
RACI's roles are based on its name:
- R: Responsible
- It's the one who does actions to Resolve the Report.
- A: Accountable
- Overseer of what R does and authorizes Resolution approval requests done by R.
- C: Consulted
- Experts on the matter, they provide assistance.
- I: Informed
- These people are only notified of what it's being done with the Report Resolution.
RACI's roles have different actions within a report:
- R: Responsible
- Resolve (Request review is done by A)
- Open Conversations
- Request Responsible change
- A: Accountable
- Change Responsible
- Open conversations
- Review Resolutions (Reject/Approve)
- C: Consulted
- Answer/Open conversations
- I: Informed
- Receive email notifications
- The advantage that this method has is that due to multiple people being involved, it develops a better communication that leads to a more optimal resolution and its disadvantage is that it could be perceived as something more complex.
Anyone Escalation Model
This particular model escalates the report to everyone and the first one that takes it will be responsible for its resolution. If that person can't resolve it, they can choose to escalate it to whoever they want because the model still stands.
Creating Matrices
Prior to do anything about this process, the settings must be enabled from Support. (Picture 0)
Picture 0
Before creating a report, it's important to mention that if matrices haven't been created beforehand, the system will display an alert mentioning this. So, the most important thing to have is at least one matrix in our list.
First, we go to Incident Reports in Document Center and click on the Escalation Matrices to go to the list of matrices. There we will click on the Create New Matrix button. (Pictures 1 and 2)
Picture 1
Picture 2
The next step will be creating the matrix. We have 4 parameters to create a matrix: Matrix by Incident Type, Matrix by Reporter, Matrix by Location and Matrix by Department. (Picture 3) Selecting the parameter determines the content of the second step as it adapts and shows information related to it:
- By Incident Type displays the list of types that will fall under this matrix. This means that when a report about those incident types is created, the matrix will be assigned to it. (Picture 4)
- By Reporter displays the list of people that will likely be creating reports. This means that when one of these people creates a report, the matrix will be assigned to it. (Picture 5)
- By Location displays the list of locations that will be covered in case there's a report creation. (Picture 6)
- By Department displays the list of departments that will be covered in case there's a report creation. (Picture 7)
Although all 4 options display different information, the action to be done here is exactly the same. The user has to select which incident types, reporters, locations or departments they want to include in the matrix and move them from their general lists to the matrix list.
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6 
Picture 7
After doing this, the next step is selecting who will be part of the escalation process and we will do that by choosing them from a list. We need to select at least 2 people from this list. (Picture 8)
Clicking on the Set Employee levels leads to a modal screen asking us to select the escalation model we prefer for our matrix: Functional, RACI or to Anyone. (Picture 9)
Picture 8
Picture 9 The next step varies depending on the chosen model:
- If we chose the Functional model, the people selected in the previous screen are displayed next to a
number, with 1 as the first person meant to resolve the report. There's also an option to enable a 2 way
escalation. This option allows to escalate upwards and downwards without limitations. For example, if someone with level 2 is going to escalate the report because they couldn't resolve it, they will have the option to escalate it to someone with level 1 or someone with level 10. (Picture 10)
- If we chose the RACI model, the selected people are displayed next to 4 fields where they can be dragged and dropped. Responsible and Accountable can only have one person in them while Consulted
and Informed can have plenty. (Picture 11)
- If we chose the model for Anyone, this step is skipped because of its nature, the report is for the one who takes it first.
Picture 10
Picture 11
The final step on creating a matrix is naming it. After doing this, the user can Save it by clicking on the green button. (Picture 12)
Picture 12
Escalation Process Flowchart