Signal Triage

Signal triage is the practice of sorting the stream of signals a project generates — metrics, complaints, drift alerts, budget reports — into buckets that map to a defined action. The core discipline is that escalation triggers are pre-defined: they are set on a schedule or as an agreed threshold before the work starts, not invented reactively when something feels alarming.

A well-triaged signal routes itself. A regulated checkpoint fires on the calendar, not on a metric moving — the review happens on the agreed date whether or not anything looks wrong. A budget breach escalates because it crosses a stakeholder-owned line, not because the number is subjectively large. The triage table says, in advance, "this class of signal goes to this owner at this severity."

The failure mode triage prevents is reactive escalation: pulling the alarm because a chart dipped, while a genuine calendar-bound compliance review quietly slips. Good triage means the boring, scheduled, non-negotiable signals get handled with the same rigor as the dramatic ones.