“You should escalate this issue!”
“Yeah, but to whom?”
If that’s your response to the advice of your colleague, then you should be considering creating a project escalation matrix. I’ll show you what it looks like (and you can use my template).
By the way, I’ve written a long post about escalating project issues, and you should read it if you haven’t done so.
But first … what is an escalation matrix? An escalation matrix defines who you should notify on management level for various types of issues — resource shortages, technical issues, delivery problems etc. Defining an escalation path takes away the uncertainty about who to contact when you’re facing a big obstacle that management can potentially help you with.
Project escalation matrix template
The escalation matrix template contains two pieces of information: the person that should be notified and the type of problem that triggers the escalation. The persons are usually management level guys, either director level or C-suite level. Nothing below, because team leaders or the like don’t have the same level of power.
Download escalation matrix template
