What is an escalation in project management?
Project Mastery:
In the vast majority of cases, the project manager is in total control of the project. He has the ability to act and react within his scope of responsibility in the face of current imponderables that may arise.
However, in certain circumstances, they are led to recognise the limits of their role: because they do not have the required experience or the power to manage an exceptional situation, because a problem has a serious impact on the smooth running of the project and the client relationship may suffer as a result, because they need external support to get through an emerging or actual crisis, etc.
Dealing with the unexpected:
In Delivery, and despite all the measures that can be taken during the project framing, you are never safe from the unexpected and you have to know how to react.
Escalation Process:
This is the purpose of the escalation process, which determines the chain of information and involvement of the company’s stakeholders to address an exceptional event, whether it is a problem or a risk.
Agility:
Escalation is a bottom-up process, that rises in successive stages to more responsibility, capacity for action or expertise. The higher the level, the more complex and/or impactful the problem being addressed.
There are 2 main types of escalation, which work together and synchronously, so that internal mobilization is complete and coordinated:
- Hierarchical Escalation
- Functional Escalation
On a customer’s e-commerce site, a major payment incident has been detected that generates a crisis situation. This incident is a high risk as it may involve a financial loss that may be attributable to the service provider.
The Project Manager must react and escalate the topic internally quickly.
To do this, it will activate:
- -> his Manager, who will himself activate
- -> Service Liner Manager or Country Manager, which will activate
- -> General Directorate of Area, which will ultimately relay to the
- -> Group General Management.
Each will contribute to the chain of transmission of information within the company’s hierarchical structure, from the bottom up, to:
1. Bring the problem and its potential impacts to the attention of the organization’s stakeholders
2. Operationally involve the levels of the organization – immediately or in advance – in addressing the problem.
A customer’s e-commerce site, recently put into production by the service provider, worked well for the next two days. However, it then broke down, resulting in a significant loss of revenue for the client and exposing it to a lot of risk when it comes to engagement.
The Project Manager must react and escalate the topic internally quickly. It will therefore activate:
- -> the Project or Programme Director, who will activate
- -> the referring Delivery Manager, who in turn will activate
- -> the Delivery Head of the zone in question, which will activate
- -> the Group’s Head of Delivery Excellence.
The entire Delivery business chain will be aware of the problem and the risks, will be kept informed of progress in terms of resolution, and will intervene directly and operationally if necessary.
In the event of a major risk or problem involving the company’s responsibility, project managers are asked to immediately alert their N+1 supervisor as well as their referent Delivery Manager.
Mirror effect
The mirror effect occurs when clients follow a similar process, structured or unstructured, to quickly relay the project’s uncertainties within their organization.
This phenomenon can lead to an amplification of problems, often accompanied by various considerations such as the professionalism of the teams, the hypotheses of causal analysis, possible penalties or questioning of contractual commitments.
It is essential that every link in the chain of command at the service provider is able to interact with the customer’s correspondents, based on up-to-date, factual, and actionable information.
For a manager, nothing is more concerning than discovering a major problem by the customer without having been informed beforehand.
Anticipating escalation
Escalation can be anticipated through Risk Management, Project Governance and Quality Management, by being an integral part of key scoping documents.
Depending on the level of escalation, the persons to be contacted as well as their titles and contact details will be specified.
It is important to consider that the escalation process is specific when it comes to Data Privacy and Cyber Security.
Do
✔️ An escalation must be justified, and based on reliable and factual information.
✔️ A face-to-face exchange within the project team precedes the escalation, to collect and cross-check useful information.
✔️ An escalation must be intelligible and have the right granularity of information, to be immediately assimilated by the recipient(s).
✔️ You have to respect the escalation levels, address your hierarchical N+1 and your functional N+1.
✔️ Keep a cool head and take a step back to structure your thoughts.
✔️ Stem the escalation where possible, either by resolving the problem or eliminating the risk.
Don'ts
❌ Do not analyze before escalating a risk or issue.
❌ Do not have a direct exchange between the project manager and the team, and be content with relayed, subjective or only written remarks.
❌ Don’t drown the recipient(s) in details, macro-considerations or hypothetical digressions.
❌ Don’t alert all over the place, don’t bypass your N+1, don’t involve people who are not concerned, don’t generate counterproductive noise.
❌ Don’t react in the heat of the moment, confuse speed with haste.
❌ Don’t make the pass-through to the next level of escalating: the process is not an end in itself.
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