Best practices for managing on-call schedules

On-call schedules are an essential component of the response process in Jira Service Management. They ensure that the right people are available at the right time to respond to critical alerts and maintain smooth operations. In this article, you can find the best practices for leveraging on-call schedule management in Jira Service Management.

Managing across timezones and teams

Organizations often span across different timezones and geolocations, requiring efficient on-call schedule management. As an organization admin, you can create a different team to manage each operational unit in your organization and enable operations for these teams to manage their schedules effectively. Read more about operations.

Jira Service Management’s on-call scheduling feature allows you to create multiple schedules and multiple rotations under each of these operations, enabling you to accommodate various escalation levels, people groups, and services. By organizing schedules based on specific criteria, such as timezones or geographical regions, you can ensure seamless coverage and prompt response across different locations. Read how on-call schedules work.

Create multiple scheduling scenarios

Use flexible on-call scheduling scenarios to accommodate different operational needs. For example, you can create continuous response periods by setting up 24/7 coverage with rotating shifts, or you can create weekly schedules allowing organizations to be on-call based on specific weekdays or weekends. Meanwhile, custom schedules offer the highest level of flexibility by allowing teams to create their own shifts and time intervals. Read how to create daily, weekly, and custom schedules.

Leverage “No one” as participant type

The No one participant type is an invaluable resource for time periods that do not require on-call coverage. By adding the No one participant to a rotation, you can designate specific intervals where no individual is on-call. Despite this, urgent alerts received during No one's on-call period are not neglected. Through escalation policies or routing rules, Jira Service Management intelligently redirects critical alerts to the appropriate person, ensuring uninterrupted incident response.

Use “Overrides” for unexpected changes

In a dynamic operational environment, unexpected changes can occur, such as team member unavailability or schedule adjustments. Jira Service Management’s override feature enables you to efficiently handle these situations. Overrides allow you to temporarily replace an on-call person or adjust the schedule for a specific time period. This way, you can ensure that alerts are promptly addressed even during unforeseen circumstances, minimizing disruptions and maintaining operational continuity. Read how to create an override.