Coverage

How Hotpot handles unplanned changes to the schedule.

Plans, amirite? They change! If something comes up, you need to be able to throw the pager to a teammate, take it, or, in an emergency, throw it to nobody and let the team sort it out. Hotpot contains a sophisticated coverage process to supplement the Smart Scheduler.

Initiating coverage

Sometimes, you need to temporarily give away your on-call responsibility so that you can deal with something else. No problem! You can find a button or link to initiate coverage on just about every screen in Hotpot. This button or link will be near your name or the person you want to replace.

Some coverage buttons

Some coverage links

These links establish who is being replaced and for what responsibility. Coverage can be initiated by incoming or outgoing individuals or even a third party! Hotpot will help you by disallowing the selection of anyone who cannot accept the responsibility. (e.g., because they are unavailable!)

Claiming coverage

Anyone who meets the criteria for the team's schedule can claim an open assignment at any time by viewing the team's schedule and clicking on the assignment.

Acknowledging coverage

Coverage must be accepted if your schedule requires it before it takes effect. This protects a party from unknowingly being placed on-call or allows that person to get to an appropriate place before taking over responsibility.

Unspecified coverage

At times, getting coverage may require you to do so quickly without knowing who your replacement is. In these situations, you can leave the incoming users unselected, and Hotpot will leave the record unclaimed. Hotpot will use the backstop for delivery notifications if this assignment is currently on-call.