Glossary
The words teams use when they talk about on-call, defined plainly and linked to the decisions they belong to.
A
- AcknowledgementA recorded action showing that a responder has taken ownership of an alert or incident, and what it does not prove.
- AlertA signal generated when a system condition matches a configured rule — and why not every alert should page a human.
- Alert fatigueReduced attention and effectiveness caused by repeated, noisy, duplicate, or non-actionable alerts.
- Alert routingThe logic that maps an incoming alert to the service, team, schedule, or escalation path that should handle it.
C
D
E
H
I
M
O
P
- PageAn interruptive notification intended to reach a human responder for action, as distinct from a ticket or a dashboard.
- Paging testA controlled test that verifies signal creation, routing, delivery, acknowledgement, and escalation end to end.
- Primary on-callThe first responder expected to receive and own a page for a given service and coverage window.
R
S
- Secondary on-callA backup responder who receives escalation from, or provides support to, the primary responder.
- SeverityA classification of incident impact and urgency used to guide response, escalation, and communication.
- StandbyTime in which a responder must remain reachable and able to respond, even when no incident is active.
- SuppressionPreventing selected alerts from notifying responders under controlled, time-bounded conditions.