When a crisis occurs, it is not always easy to know what to communicate, to whom, and which actions to launch. Crisis templates let you prepare all this in advance: the crisis can then be declared in a few seconds, from the appropriate template.
Crisis templates are managed from the main Organization tab, then Templates (Crisis section). Only Owners can create, edit, duplicate or delete a template.
Template content
A crisis template includes:
- a name (for example Payment service outage or Cyberattack)
- a status message: the initial notification of the crisis and its updates
- a closure message: the summary of the crisis resolution
- a list of actions to carry out during the crisis
- notification rules (see Crises)
- possibly crisis types (see below)
Messages and dynamic fields
Status and closure messages are written in advance, and can contain dynamic fields: for example Start time, Impacted services, Root cause, ... To insert a field, type / or @ in the message, or click on an existing field. Each field has a name, a description (which guides the person filling it in) and a type: Text, Long text or Date.
When declaring the crisis (or updating its status, or resolving it), you only need to fill in these fields: the message is generated automatically.
Actions
Template actions can be chosen from suggested actions (Inform stakeholders, Mitigate the problem, Identify the root cause, Escalate to the tech lead, Communicate the ETA to customers, Plan the post-mortem) or be custom. For each action, you define:
- its name and description, with their possible translations (suggested automatically)
- whether it is required or optional
- whether it runs in parallel with the previous ones or after the previous one
- possibly a field to fill in to be able to close the action
- the associated resources
- the position responsible for the action, the alert method of the position holder (email, SMS, voice call, push notification or Microsoft Teams) and the alert repeat interval
Astry warns you if a position is not held by any member of a team, or if some position holders have not configured the chosen alert method.
Note: A template can be duplicated to quickly create a variant.
Crisis types
Crisis types are custom labels (for example Security incident, Outage, Natural disaster) used to categorize your crisis templates. They help the person declaring a crisis choose the right template. A template can be associated with zero, one or several types.
Crisis types are managed from the main Organization tab, then Types (Crisis section), and are reserved for Owners.
Note: Crisis types are a beta feature. Contact Astry support to enable it for your organization. Other crisis template options are also available in beta on request: fields filled in automatically when declaring from the mobile app, automatic translation, and field-filling actions.