SRE/Oncall/Schedule

All SRE schedule management at the Foundation is done through On-Call Optimizer, which exports shifts to Splunk On-Call.

How the 24/7 schedule works

In OCO there are three sub-shifts corresponding to the three regions of on-call cover (247 04-12, 247 12-20, 247 20-04). Each of these shifts have members assigned as "assignable" in the Members sections of the shift configurations, denoting the shifts these users are available to be assigned to. Shifts are generated by managers on a quarterly basis (see "Generating shifts for a quarter" below), and On-Call Optimizer composes these shifts into a full 24 hour schedule.

The Swap function offers swaps to other members of the sub-shift only. For the purpose of manual swaps using the assign/take functions and other exchanges of shifts, there is no limitation of members working across shifts.

For SREs

Schedules

Clinic Duty scheduling is managed by the relevant rotation in On-Call Optimizer.

24/7 on-call scheduling is also managed by a different rotation in On-Call Optimizer.

Making changes

When requesting swaps, manually making allocation changes (as a result of offline agreements to swap etc), always make the change in the sub-shift, not in the top-level 247 shift.

For managers

Generating shifts for a quarter

In On-Call Optimizer, for each shift, under the "Assignments" tab, click "Create Custom Assignment". Specify the start date and the number of days to generate shifts for - at present this date should be the end date of the existing shifts and the number of days is 90. The generated shifts will be created and the "Evaluation" tab can be reviewed to determine fairness and explain decisions made.

Once the sub-shift schedules are generated, the new shifts may need to be confirmed in the 247 shift - under "Next shift assignment" on the Assignments tab if you see "needs confirmation", the shift assignment can be reviewed and submitted. The shifts in the 247 top-level shift are pulled from the sub-shifts and generally only need a quick review to ensure that they are consistent with the sub-shifts.

Accounting for a long-term absence/sabbatical

When an IC is out for a longer period, they should be toggled as assignable in the the "Members" section of their shift. This will exclude them from the calculation of shift balances. This ensures fair future scheduling and avoids pile-up behaviour where they can be assigned multiple shifts in quick succession after their absence ends.