A Workflow That Helps Teamwork in a Time of Crisis

Saturday, November 6, 2010
Sometimes we need to prepare workflows that won't be frequently used; i.e., crisis response workflows. Think contingency plan! We need not explain why.

This workflow is for server emergencies.


When this type of crisis happens, sales and public relations employees worry about notifying customers, while engineers are focusing all their attention on the problem itself. It's often the case that a sales rep by chance finds the engineering department in chaos, and timidly asks, "Is there some sort of problem?" To which a distracted engineer replies with technical jargon. So what is the sales rep supposed to tell the customer? What is the webmaster supposed to announce on the website?


With this workflow all involved parties—including sales and PR—can be aware of the problem the moment it is discovered. They can follow the engineers' process in order to make their own announcements. Likewise, engineers can check on what kind of announcements were made by sales and on the website, etc.