Severity Index
Severity is the single most argued-about field during an incident. Every team has opinions, and the result is inconsistent scoring that undermines triage, escalation, and postmortem analysis. Tellagen replaces the debate with a configurable severity index that scores incidents based on actual impact data.
Custom fields that encode real impact
Define fields that capture what matters to your organization: affected user count, revenue at risk, service tier, blast radius. These fields can be set manually during the incident or updated automatically via API integrations with your monitoring and business systems.
Formula-based severity scoring
Configure severity formulas that reference your custom fields. When field values change — whether from a responder update or an API push — severity recalculates automatically. The formula is transparent: every team member can see why an incident is SEV-1, not just that someone clicked a dropdown.
Escalation tied to severity changes
Severity transitions can trigger escalation rules: page additional responders, notify leadership channels, or update status pages. Because severity is formula-driven, these triggers fire on real impact changes rather than subjective assessments.
Historical severity analysis
Consistent severity scoring across incidents enables meaningful analysis. Compare severity distributions over time, identify services with recurring high-severity incidents, and track whether process improvements reduce impact. Ad-hoc severity makes this analysis unreliable — formula-based severity makes it useful.
Capabilities
Frequently asked questions
Can we use our existing severity levels?
Yes. Severity levels and their names are fully configurable. Whether you use SEV-1 through SEV-5, P0 through P4, or custom labels, you define the scale that matches your process.
How do API-fed custom fields work?
Tellagen provides API endpoints that accept field value updates. Your monitoring tools, business dashboards, or internal services can push data (like affected user counts or revenue impact) directly into incident custom fields, which then feed the severity formula.
What happens if the formula produces the wrong severity?
Responders can override formula-calculated severity manually. Overrides are logged in the timeline as explicit decisions, preserving the audit trail while giving commanders final authority.