Root Cause #009: Higher Ground

Root Cause / Episode 009 / Incident response

Checkout is down, but its support ticket is going places. The Manager asks for a progress update, and Patch tracks the ticket’s latest ascent.

Four-panel comic. An escalated outage ticket becomes a mountaineer, reaching base camp and sending a summit photo while checkout stays down. Brian envies its vacation photos.
Root Cause #009 · Another perfectly normal day in IT.
Panel 1. The Manager asks Brian about the outage while a little paper ticket shoulders a hiking pack. A laptop says CHECKOUT DOWN. The Manager: “The checkout system is still down. Where’s the ticket?” Brian: “It’s been escalated.”

Panel 01 / 04

Panel 2. Patch stands beside a topographic route map showing the ticket passing tents toward a DIRECTOR flag. Patch: “It passed three teams and a director.”

Panel 02 / 04

Panel 3. The Manager sees the ticket at a snowy mountain base camp on her laptop. The Manager: “Has anyone fixed it?” Patch, off panel: “It just reached base camp.”

Panel 03 / 04

Panel 4. Brian looks at a summit photo of the ticket on his phone. The laptop behind him still says CHECKOUT DOWN. Brian: “The ticket has better vacation photos than I do.”

Panel 04 / 04

Read the transcript

Panel 1. The Manager asks Brian about the outage while a little paper ticket shoulders a hiking pack. A laptop says CHECKOUT DOWN. The Manager: “The checkout system is still down. Where’s the ticket?” Brian: “It’s been escalated.”

Panel 2. Patch stands beside a topographic route map showing the ticket passing tents toward a DIRECTOR flag. Patch: “It passed three teams and a director.”

Panel 3. The Manager sees the ticket at a snowy mountain base camp on her laptop. The Manager: “Has anyone fixed it?” Patch, off panel: “It just reached base camp.”

Panel 4. Brian looks at a summit photo of the ticket on his phone. The laptop behind him still says CHECKOUT DOWN. Brian: “The ticket has better vacation photos than I do.”

Meet the regulars

Brian

Solves infrastructure. Still waiting on requirements.

The Manager

Sees the possibility. Occasionally, the scope.

Patch

Helpful. Literal. Technically followed instructions.

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