Shadowing

Shadows and observers for schedules.

Shadowing is a role in an on-call schedule that monitors or aids the existing on-calls. It is commonly used for:

• Training new on-calls, where a more experienced person monitors and helps out.

• Monitoring activity, e.g. a department or tech lead being notified alongside the on-call rotation

• Supplementing, e.g. joining the on-call rotation for an hour to help with a change or to preempt noise or alerts related to a task.

Anyone who is shadowing will be notified at the same time as anyone in the schedule and/or stage being shadowed!

Shadowing a stint

It is common for folks new to an on-call rotation to work with a shadow for the first few stints. When your new friend is scheduled for their first stint, navigate to the schedule page and click the plus sign next to observers on the left sidebar. You'll be shown a form:

Adding a new shadow to the schedule.

Here, choose the person from the list that will be shadowing, aka the person who would like to receive a copy of any pages.

Stage

The shadow can be for a particular stage or the whole schedule if left blank.

End time

If unset, the shadow will be in place indefinitely. Setting a date will cause the shadow to end at the time specified. Perfect for a short bit of help!