Aerialink – Engineering Handoff

Objective

To establish a consistent and streamlined approach for reporting, escalating, and resolving customer-reported issues related to the Aerialink Messaging Platform. This SOP ensures timely resolution, efficient internal coordination, and clear customer communication.

 

Scope

This SOP applies to all Aerialink Operations, Support and Product team members involved in:

• Troubleshooting customer issues related to Aerialink
• Documenting issues in Zendesk
• Escalating unresolved issues to Engineering team

• Ensuring ticket closure and customer updates

Definitions

Term	Definition
Operations Team	First-level technical support responsible for basic issue analysis and initial troubleshooting
Issue	Application functionality that is not performing as intended or falls outside the defined operational scope.
Escalation	The act of involving senior personnel or Engineering when an issue cannot be resolved at Operations Team
Engineering Team (DevOps)	Responsible for in-depth technical investigation and platform-level fixes

Procedure

Initial Troubleshooting

• The Support team troubleshoots the issue and gathers all the necessary information.
• Check the open work items if it is already a known issue and has been reported to the Engineering team - AL Engineering Jira Backlog Dashboard
• If the issue is reproducible or the behavior is inconsistent or needs further clarification, post all the details in the #al-Engineering slack channel
  • If the operations/Engineering team confirms that it is a bug/defect or enhancement or needs further troubleshooting, proceed with escalation following the steps outlined below.

Raise an ALENG Ticket in Zendesk

• Create detailed ALENG ticket with the following:
  • Navigate to the ticket that requires a bug or defect resolution.
  • On the extreme right-hand side of the Zendesk interface, you’ll find the Apps panel.
  • If the Jira app is visible, click on it to begin linking the ticket to a Jira issue.
  • If the Jira app is not visible, click the ‘+’ icon below the Apps panel to add the Jira app to your view.
  • Create a new Jira issue directly from the Zendesk ticket, populating relevant fields like summary, description, and priority.

Key Fields in the Jira Form:

• Project - Set to AL-Engineering (ALENG)
• Issue Type - Select as Bug-to report defects or unexpected behavior.
• Reporter - the person raising the issue.
• Assignee - can be assigned manually or left for auto-assignment based on project rules.
• Summary - enter a concise title describing the bug.
• Description - provide detailed steps to reproduce, expected vs. actual behavior, and any relevant logs or screenshots.
• Action Buttons- Create issue/Cancel.
• Post the JIRA ticket link in the #al-Engineering Slack channel. 

Escalation Protocol

• Escalate immediately to Srikanth if:
  • The issue is critical or blocking
  • There’s ambiguity or uncertainty in diagnosis

Level 2 escalation is Srikanth to report the issue to James Glaser.

Customer Interactions 

• Document the Jira ticket number on the Zendesk support ticket before Inform the customer that issue has been escalated to the Engineering team for further investigation.

If further input from the customer is needed:

• The Operations team coordinates with the customer.
• Gather and relay required information to Engineering (e.g., logs, timestamps, destination numbers).

Ticket Closure

• Once Engineering confirms resolution:
  • Operations verify and validate the fix.
  • Follow Zendesk closure protocol and communicate the outcome to the customer.
  • Ensure that all internal and external tickets are marked as resolved.