With All Quiet, setting up on-call schedules, escalations, and rotations is straightforward. Our user-friendly interface removes complexity, guiding you smoothly through creating a workflow that keeps your team alert and responsive while accounting for different time zones and personal overrides.

Here are three common use cases illustrating how teams on All Quiet typically set up their on-call rotations:

Follow-the-sun rotations enable global teams, especially those distributed worldwide, to leverage time zone differences for around-the-clock coverage. This ensures on-call duties are always managed during the local daytime hours of team members, enhancing responsiveness and minimizing overnight work.

  • Setup: Depending on where your team is located, you can set up two (or more) schedules for the same escalation tier within All Quiet. Team members are then assigned to these schedules, with the option to add rotations. Ideally, this setup ensures every team member only works during their local daytime hours.
  • Why: This method leverages time zone differences, minimizing response times to incidents during off-hours in any given region.
  • Benefit: Teams experience less burnout and maintain a higher level of alertness and productivity, as members respond to incidents during their daytime hours.
If you want to skip the definitions, you can check out a hands-on example at the end of this page that guides you step-by-step through the setup.

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Accessing Escalation Policies

To access the escalation management page, simply click on the Escalations option.

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Escalation Tiers

Escalation tiers allow incidents to be escalated to the next level when they are not acknowledged / resolved by the members of the current tier or when a manual escalation is triggered. They also allow you to repeat escalations for users that got already alerted.

Check out our example below for a hands-on use case of setting up various escalation tiers.

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Repeat Escalation Tier

If you want re-alert the on-call members of one tier in case they did not acknowledge / resolve an incident, you can use our repeat escalation tier function. To add a repetition for a specific tier, simply click the label below the tier.

In the overlay, you can set up you repetition rules for the selected tier.

  1. To activate Repeat Escalation Tier, check the box.
  2. Decide when auto-repeat should stop, whether it’s after someone acknowledges the incident or whether auto-repeats should happen until someone Resolves the incident.
  3. Select how often you want to repeat the tier.
  4. Select how long you want to wait in between each repetition.
  5. Save your settings.

In this example, after the initial alert to Tier 1, we chose to repeat the notification twice, with a 5-minute gap between each repetition. This means the alert sequence will be:

  • Tier 1 alert at t=0 min
  • First repetition at t=5 min (if no one acknowledged)
  • Second repetition at t=10 min (if no one acknowledged)

If enabled — and if no one in Tier 1 acknowledges / resolves the incident — auto-escalations to Tier 2 will follow.

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Automatic Escalation

To enable auto-escalations, you first need to add at least a second escalation tier. Without it, the incident will remain within Tier 1, and no further escalation will occur.

Click + Add Escalation Tier and select team members to create the second tier.

Next, to activate the auto-escalations between two tiers, click on the label that says “Then, doesn’t auto-escalate” by default.

The repeat and auto-escalate features can, of course, be combined. This allows you to notify Tier 1 multiple times before automatically escalating the incident if no one acknowledges / resolves it.

In the overlay, you can set up you auto-escalation rules between the selected tiers.

  1. To activate Auto-escalate to next tier, check the box.
  2. Select how long you want to wait after the last scheduled alert in Tier 1 before you auto-escalate to Tier 2. “Last scheduled alert in Tier 1” hereby includes all scheduled repetitions of Tier 1, not only those that actually took place.
  3. Decide when auto-escalations should stop, whether it’s after someone acknowledges the incident or whether auto-escations should happen until someone Resolves the incident.
  4. Select which incident severities you want to auto-escalate. Here, we decided to only auto-escalate Critical incidents.
  5. You may add Time Filters. If added, auto-escalation only take place in the selected times. In the example below, we opted for auto-escalations that happen only during the weekend from Friday afternoon 5 p.m. to Monday morning 8 a.m.
  6. Click Save to activate auto-escalations.

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Auto-Escalations Across Several Teams

Auto-Assign is only available for Pro and Enterprise users.

You want to auto-assign an incident to an additional team? To activate auto-assign, click on the same label that shows your current auto-escalation settings.

In the overlay, you can set up you auto-assign rules between the selected teams.

  1. As you can see, this is the same overlay you would use to activate auto-escalation.
  2. To activate Auto-assign to next selected teams, check the box.
  3. Select how long you want to wait after the last scheduled alert in Tier 1 before you auto-assign to the selected teams. “Last scheduled alert in Tier 1” hereby all scheduled repetitions of Tier 1, not only those that actually took place. Note that the same cadence is used for auto-escalations, if activated.
  4. Decide when auto-assign should stop, whether it’s after someone acknowledges the incident or whether auto-assign should happen until someone Resolves the incident. Note that the same rule is used for auto-escalations, if activated.
  5. Select which incident severities you want to auto-assign. Here, we decided to only auto-assign Critical incidents.
  6. You may add Time Filters. If added, auto-assign only take place in the selected times. In the example below, we opted for to only auto-assign on Saturdays and Sundays.
  7. Select the teams you want to auto-assign to. In case you don’t select the current team (like in the example), we show a little warning.
  8. Click Save to activate auto-assign.

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Impact on Auto-Escalations

As the incident is reassigned to a different team or the primary team asks additional people to help, the Assign action starts auto-escalations in the newly assigned team(s). If the incident is assigned to more than one team, auto-escalations are synchronized between those teams and only stop once an action that marks the incident as acknowleged follows after the Assign action / the incident is resolved.

Here’s a breakdown of how reassigning an incident can impact escalations, with examples:

Example 1 - Change Team of an Incident: Assign Incident from Team A to Team B

  1. Team A: Auto-escalations stop as soon as the incident is not longer within the team.
  2. Team B: Tier 1 members are notified about the newly assigned incident. Auto-escalations begin, regardless of whether the incident was acknowledged by Team A before assigning it to Team B.
  3. Team B:
    • Team B settings: Stop auto-escalations when “Incident is acknowledged”: Auto-Escalations as soon as anyone acknowledges the incident after it was assigned to Team B.
    • Team B settings: Stop auto-escalations when “Incident is resolved”: Auto-escalations are only stopped if they come to an end or the incident is resolved.

Example 2 - Escalate Incident to an Additional Team: Assign Incident from Team A to Team A & B

  • Team A Auto-Escalations: Tier 1 escalates to Tier 2 after 5 minutes
  • Team B Auto-Escalations: Tier 1 escalates to Tier 2 after 2 minutes
  1. Team A: Incident is created, and Team A’s auto-escalations start (t=0 min)
  2. Team A: The incident is assigned to Team A & B. (t=2 min)
  3. Team A & B: At this point, Team B Tier 1 members and all already escalated tiers in Team A are notified about the newly assigned incident (t=2 min). Team B’s auto-escalations begin.
  4. Team B: Auto-escalates to Tier 2, 2 minutes after Tier 1 was notified (t=4min)
  5. Team A: Contrary to Team A’s original auto-escalation plan, auto-escalations now align with the updated escalation timeline. Auto-escalation for Team A also takes place at t=4 min. When multiple teams handle one incident and have different auto-escalation timelines, the system uses the first auto-escalation policy to align all teams. Team A is escalated regardless of whether Team A’ settings stopped auto-escalations before the incident was assigned it to Team B. Adding a new team is treated as if the new Team B represents a new escalation tier, notifying all tiers below in Team A & B.
  6. Team A & B:
    • Both teams stop auto-escalations when “Incident is acknowledged”: Auto-escalations stop as soon as anyone acknowledges the incident after it was assigned to Team A & B.
    • At least one team only stops auto-escalations when “Incident is resolved”: Auto-Escalations in Team A & B are only stopped if they come to an end or the incident is resolved.

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Repeat Escalations

You might want to repeat the escalation tiers to re-alert the on-call members. At the bottom of the page, you will find an element that you can activate by clicking on the label.

Clicking the label opens an overlay.

  1. Checking the box activates repetition of all escalation tiers. Of course, tiers are only repeated if and after all escalations tiers have been reached.
  2. Decide when auto-repeat should stop, whether it’s when the incident is acknowledged or whether auto-repeat should happen until someone Resolves the incident.
  3. You can select how often you’d like to repeat the escalations.
  4. You can select how long you want to wait after the last escalation tier before repeating the escalations. We will use this grace period before restarting the escalations and re-alerting.
  5. Save your settings.

This is an example of how escalations could be repeated.

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Auto Fill-up From Higher Escalation Tiers

We understand that it’s critical to avoid any gaps in your team’s weekly on-call shifts. Therefore, we added an auto fill-up feature that adds on-call team members from higher escalation tiers to lower escalation tiers if there is a gap in one of the lower-tier rotations.

Here’s an example of how it works:

  1. For simplicity, we are looking at a team with two on-call members in two tiers. Here, Tier 2 does not automatically come into play as there’s no automatic escalation activated.
  2. In Tier 1, Sandra is usually on-call 24/7. However, due to a personal override, she’s not on-call for the day.
  3. Tier 2 is our “safety net”, with David on-call 24/7. Since there’s no auto-escalation to Tier 2, he’s usually not informed about incidents automatically.
  4. This is where the auto fill-up feature comes into play. David (Tier 2) fills Sandra’s (Tier 1) vacant spot during her absence. As a temporary Tier 1 member, he is the first to be automatically informed about any incidents. As soon as Sandra is back on-call, she’ll resume her place in Tier 1.
Note that this feature also works for escalations with more than 2 tiers. Just like in the example, we recommend creating an extra tier that is usually not escalated to in addition to your team’s on-call escalations. Make sure that there’s always someone on-call in this “safety net” tier, for example, by adding multiple team members. This way, you can easily protect your on-call rotations against gaps created by vacations and unexpected sick days.

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Schedules

Within the management of escalations, All Quiet allows you to define schedules for each escalation tier. These schedules determine the on-call periods for team members. With schedule customization, you can specify the time of day, such as 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and designate specific weekdays, such as Monday through Friday, for the schedule to be active. This flexibility enables precise control over when team members are available and responsible for incident response within each escalation tier.

To edit the on-call periods of a schedule, simply click on the label located at the top left of the schedule. By clicking on the label, you can access the edit dialogue where you can modify the schedule’s settings. The label will display the current settings, which are set to “everyday” by default, indicating that no specific settings have been defined yet.

In the edit dialogue, you can add as many on-call times as you like for this specific schedule. To start, click + Add On-Call Time

In this example, we want to create a schedule for the weekend, starting on Friday afternoon at 17:00 and ending on Monday morning at 08:00.

  1. As a start time, we set 17:00. Leaving the “until” field empty will be interpreted as “until end of the day”, just like leaving the “From” field empty would be interpreted as “from the start of the day”.
    Select an end time smaller than or equal to the start time to create an overnight schedule that ends the next day.
  2. Additionally, we select the weekdays when the members of the schedule should be on-call from 17:00 - end of the day by checking the corresponding checkbox for Friday.
    Checking no box would mean that the schedule would be active every weekday starting from 17:00
  3. We can see that the schedule is set to be active on Fridays after 17:00. The label updates as you adjust the settings, showing your current setup.
  4. We still need to add the on-call times for Saturday-Monday.
  1. Saturday and Sunday, we want the schedule to be active all day, so we just select the checkboxes for the days and don’t enter any “From” or “Until” values.
  2. Monday, we want the schedule to be active untill 08:00, so we only enter an “Until” time.
  3. The label updates accordingly.
  4. Clicking Save Schedule activates the new schedule settings.
  1. After saving, you will immediately see the current schedule’s settings displayed in natural language format at the top left corner. This provides a clear and easily understandable representation of the saved schedule settings, ensuring visibility and quick reference to the configured on-call periods and weekdays.
  2. Also, if you open your team’s calendar, you will see how the schedule and it’s rotations will take effect.

Check out our example below for a hands-on use case setting up two schedules within an escalation tier.

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Rotations

At All Quiet, Rotations can be added on Schedule level. Rotations ensure fair distribution of on-call responsibilities among team members.

To add rotations to a schedule, simply click on the label located at the top right of the schedule. It always shows the current rotation settings of the schedule, which are set to No Rotation by default.

Clicking on it will open the rotation settings dialogue, allowing you to configure and customize the rotation settings according to your requirements.

First, please select how often your on-call duties should rotate. You can choose between the following options:

  • No Rotation (default)
  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Biweekly
  • Monthly
  • Custom

Next, you need to select your rotation mode, either Explicit or Auto. Below, we’ll explain how both modes work.

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Explicit Rotations

  1. With Explicit rotation mode, you manually define the members of each rotation group in the next step.
  2. We already selected our rotation period - Weekly - in the previous step.
  3. With rotation period weekly, you can also set a Handoff Day and, depending on the schedule, a Handoff Time for the on-call duty. Here, we decide on-call duty should move to the next rotation group every Monday at midnight.
  4. Click Save Rotation to activate your changes.
Moreover, you may add an optional “Effective from” date that specifies from which date onwards this rotation should be used. If you want to start the rotation right away, you don’t need to use that field. Be careful when adding this option whilst adjusting an existing rotation, as the date will have an impact on the rotation. That’s why we recommend checking your team’s calendar after adjusting an existing rotation’s “Effective from” date to see if your settings match your expectations.
  1. We’ve opted for Explicit rotations, so we need to add at least a 2nd Rotation Group to make rotations work.
  2. Click Add Rotation Group to create a new rotation group and add members to it.

After adding a 2nd rotation group,

  1. we can see that one group is on-call (green dot) and the other has time off (red dot) until on-call duties rotate.
  2. Here, we can see our rotation rule and edit it.

You can check your team’s calendar to see how the rotation will affect future on-call responsibilities.

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Auto Rotations

Auto-rotations create rotations for all members of a schedule without having to add rotations groups manually. All users can be added to one single group.

In the example below, we have 5 members in the Tier 1, Schedule 1.

  1. Currently, all Members are on-call.
  2. To add an auto-rotation, click the No Rotation button.

Next, select how often your on-call duties should rotate. You can choose between the following options:

  • No Rotation (default)
  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Biweekly
  • Monthly
  • Custom
  1. Then, opt for Auto as rotation mode. This mode will automatically rotate the group of users in the schedule.
  2. Define the Auto Rotation Group Size. This is the number of persons on-call in each rotation group.
  3. We already selected our rotation period - Weekly - in the last step.
  4. With rotation period weekly, you can also set a Handoff Day and, depending on the schedule, a Handoff Time for the on-call duty. Here, we decide on-call duty should rotate every Monday at midnight.
  5. Click Save Rotation to activate your changes.
  1. As you can see, only 2 members of the group are on-call (green dots), the other’s have time off (red dots).
  2. Next Monday at 00:00, the next 2 members will automatically rotate in for on-call duty. One week after, the next 2…

You can check your team’s calendar to see how the rotation will affect future on-call responsibilities.

If you add new users to a schedule with Auto Rotations, they are automatically included in the rotations. If you remove users, the rotations are automatically adjusted to fill the gaps.

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Team Calendar

To view the calendar of a team and gain an overview of team members’ on-call and off-call periods within each escalation tier, follow this step:

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Access Team Calendar Page

Access the team calendar page: Navigate to the team management section or select the specific team from the menu. Look for the option labeled “Team Calendar”.

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View Team’s Calendar and Schedules

The All Quiet calendar provides a visual representation of the on-call schedules for your teams, ensuring that everyone knows their responsibilities at a glance. Below is a breakdown of the key elements of the calendar interface:

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Monthly Calendar

  1. On-Call Now Indicators: These indicators provide a quick view of which team members are currently on-call. The indicators are color-coded and numbered to correspond with the tier of on-call duty.
  2. Tiers Filter: Use the ‘Tiers’ dropdown to filter the calendar view by on-call tiers. This allows you to focus on specific response levels within your team’s on-call schedule.
  3. Individual Schedule Entries: These entries display the scheduled on-call shifts for each team member. The entries show the name of the on-call individual and the corresponding time period of their shift.
  4. Tier Labeling: Each schedule entry is labeled with a ‘T’ followed by a number to indicate the on-call tier. ‘T1’ corresponds to Tier 1, and ‘T2’ to Tier 2, providing a clear distinction of responsibility levels.
  5. Time Navigation: This section allows you to navigate through different time frames within the calendar—‘Week’ and ‘Month’ views are available. Use the arrows to move backward or forward through the calendar, or click ‘Today’ to return to the current date.

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Weekly Calendar

The weekly view in the All Quiet calendar provides a detailed look at the team’s on-call schedule, with each day of the week displayed as a separate column. This view contrasts with the monthly perspective by offering a granular, day-by-day breakdown of on-call shifts.

  • Daily Details: Unlike the monthly view which summarizes the shifts, the weekly view displays individual shifts for each day, showing precise start and end times.
  • Current Day Highlight: The current day is accentuated with a distinct color, making it stand out for easy identification.
  • Hourly Breakdown: Each column represents a single day broken down by hour, which is more detailed than the monthly calendar.

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Team Member Overrides

Team Administrators can enter the Team > Overrides section to add overrides for all team members. In order to do so, select the team you wan to add an overrride to.

  1. Select Overrides
  2. Click Add Member Override

You can select the duration of the override, the type, the user and, optionally, the covering user. Saved overrides will be visible in your team’s calendar.

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Personal Availability

This section in All Quiet’s documentation focuses on the crucial aspect of managing personal availability, ultimately contributing to a calm and efficient working environment, ensuring smooth coordination and coverage for on-call responsibilities.

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Your Availability

Within the main menu, you will find a link titled “Your Availability” which dynamically indicates your current on-call status by displaying a blinking red or green indicator. By clicking this link, you will be directed to the “Your Availability” page, where you can conveniently view all your upcoming on-call duties across various teams.

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Personal Overrides

To create an individual override, such as a “fill-in” for a colleague on vacation or for your own vacation, you can add online or offline schedules with specified start and end dates where you can chooose who will cover your shifts during this time period. Simply click the “Add personal Override” button in the “Your Availability” section of the web app.

A calendar will appear, allowing you to select the start date and end date. This intuitive process enables you to establish personalized overrides with fixed durations, ensuring accurate representation of your availability during specific periods.

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Vacation Schedule

The screenshot demonstrates an example of an individual vacation schedule (marked as “offline”) spanning three consecutive days. However, it is worth noting that during this period, the user should have been on call, as indicated by the green schedules in the other columns. Additionally, you can observe that the online status changes to “offline” during this scheduled time off. To modify or remove an existing schedule, simply click on the respective schedule and make the necessary adjustments. This straightforward process allows for easy editing or deletion of individual schedules, ensuring accurate representation of availability within the system.

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On-Call Reminder

Stay informed with our automatic on-call reminders. By default, you’ll get an email one day prior to your shift to help you prepare. Prefer not to be reminded? No problem. Just deselect the reminder in your account settings.

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Timezones

Managing time zones in All Quiet is straightforward, ensuring your team’s schedules and rotations are always synced. Here’s how it works:

  • Time Zone Setting: The team’s default time zone is initially set to the creator’s time zone but can be easily adjusted to fit your team’s geographical distribution.
  • Unified Scheduling: Regardless of individual locations, all schedules align with the team’s chosen time zone, making coordination seamless.
  • Flexibility: Update the team’s time zone at any time to reflect changes in team composition or operational needs, keeping everyone in sync effortlessly. This setup ensures seamless team operation across locations, streamlining time zone management and collaboration.

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Example: Setting up an on-call rotation

In this setup, we aim to ensure round-the-clock incident coverage with a focused approach:

  • A team of four splits into two engineers on-call weekly (24/7) and two engineering managers on half-day shifts.
  • Engineers rotate each week for continuous Tier 1 coverage.
  • Engineering managers cover Tier 2 in two 12-hour shifts: 0-12 and 12-24.
  • Auto-escalation: Escalate from Tier 1 to Tier 2 after 10 minutes if nobody acknowledges.
  • If both Tier 1 and 2 miss an incident, the escalation is repeated once after 20 minutes
1

Add first schedule

In your team, go to Schedule & Escalations, click on +Add Escalation Tier 1 & add both engineers to it.

2

Create an auto-rotation for your schedule

We want to add auto-rotations to the first schedule, so we click on the No Rotation label.

3

Edit Rotation

  1. You want on-call duty to rotate weekly.
  2. Duty should rotate automatically.
  3. For each rotation, we want one on-call person.
  4. We want to rotate on-call duty on Mondays at midnight.
  5. Click Save Rotation to activate the auto-rotation.
4

Create a New Tier

You’re done with Escalation Tier 1 and can set up subsequent Escalation Tiers to ensure no incident goes unnoticed.

  1. Under the subsequent Escalation Tier, click on + Add Escalation Tier 2
  2. Choose the members that you want to add to Escalation Tier 2’s first schedule. Remember, in this escalation tier we’ll want to define two schedules since our team members are located in different time zones which ensures they only receive incidents during daytime (i.e., follow-the-sun rotation). So we only add one member, first.
  3. Next, we ensure auto-escalation is set up between Tier 1 and 2. Click on the label between the two tiers.
  4. We want to auto-escalate to Tier 2 (1) after 10 minutes (2) if not acknowledged (3) for all severities (4) and at all times of the week (5). Save the Tier 1 escalation settings (6).
5

Customize Schedules

Now, we need to customize the schedule of the engineering manager to account for their half-day shift.

  1. Click on everyday to edit the schedule & adjust the daily hours to 00:00-12:00.
  2. Add a second schedule for the other engineering manager… … and activate it Mon-Sun from 12:00-24:00.
6

Repeat escalations if no one reacts

If no one acknowledged an incident 20 minutes after escalation to Tier 2, we want to repeat the escalations once.

7

Check your Calendar

We’re done now and can check our on-call rotation directly under Calendar. Also, you’ll always see who is currently on-call in your relevant tiers.

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