Scheduling
Hotpot's Smart Scheduler manages on-call so you don't have to.
Last updated
Hotpot documentation
Hotpot's Smart Scheduler manages on-call so you don't have to.
Last updated
© 2024 Oilcan, Inc. All rights reserved.
Hotpot manages your on-call schedule, so you don't have to spend time trading shifts, planning holidays, or scrambling when you realize you're on call during a vacation you planned months ago. How does it work?
Hotpot maintains a "certainty window" of a month. For next month, you will know who will be on-call. Hotpot chose the best folks for each stint only one month in advance. Hotpot does not maintain a schedule more than a month out. Instead, you tell Hotpot when you can't be on-call.
This approach avoids the compounding error of round-robin, eases the addition of new on-call friends, and allows Hotpot to keep the schedule balanced over time!
Traditional on-call tools work by building a round-robin schedule. This is predictable! You can look at the schedule and plan a summer vacation. Unfortunately, as soon as people begin trading schedules or people are added or removed from the team, everyone's time on-call shifts. Ruh-roh Raggy, you're on-call now during your vacation!
Additionally, traditional schedules make accommodating life difficult: caretakers, parenting, or appointments. You name it!
Thankfully, Hotpot avoids this problem altogether.
Hotpot's Smart Scheduler handles schedules, so you don't have to!
If you tell Hotpot when you can't be on-call, Hotpot will protect that time and ensure you are only on-call when you can be on-call. This means the team can plan vacations, make plans, and even carve out small periods when they need to do important tasks.
Hotpot maintains a known schedule 1 month into the future. This gives the team plenty of notice if something comes up and allows maximum flexibility.
Note that this and other schedule settings can be modified if you prefer!
Hotpot constantly monitors your schedule. As soon as a stint ends, Hotpot builds the next stint, searching for the best person to satisfy the schedule's needs that week. If any problems arise, the team is immediately notified to resolve the issue.
Hotpot uses a sophisticated, parametric bidding system to choose the best person to be on-call. The factors considered are time spent on-call, most recent on-call stint, and various subtle factors like recent vacations, and more!
Most of the time, they look like a traditional on-call schedule, but with helpful accommodations when folks aren't around. We typically find teams don't have a lot of contention, except during holidays or other busy periods. Hotpot makes those easy, though, by picking the right people.
It tries very hard to be.
The schedule aims to be fair within the requirements set by the schedule. Philosophically, the Smart Scheduler prefers small changes to large changes. For example, if someone is on-call two stints in a row, the scheduler will try very hard not to schedule them again for a while. This may not be possible if others are not available. Thankfully, Hotpot is very concerned about health!
