The act of passing an incident or problem to a higher level of authority or technical expertise. Functional escalation moves it to a specialist (Tier 1 to Tier 2); Hierarchical escalation moves it to management (for decision making/resources).
Escalation ensures that complex issues get the right attention. However, too much escalation indicates a lack of capability or knowledge at the frontline.
We try to flatten the escalation path. By using Swarming (collaborative support) instead of Tiers, we bring the expert to the problem immediately. Additionally, by giving teams full ownership of their services (DevOps), there is no one else to escalate to—you fix what you build.