Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about OutageReview

General Questions

What is OutageReview?

OutageReview is a SaaS platform for root cause analysis and incident management. Unlike traditional RCA tools that just give you forms to fill out, OutageReview enforces investigation quality through rigor scoring, premature closure warnings, and structured workflows. It's designed for DevOps, IT Operations, and SRE teams that are tired of repeating the same incidents.

Who is OutageReview for?

OutageReview is built for technical teams that take incident response seriously:

  • DevOps and SRE teams managing cloud infrastructure
  • IT Operations teams handling internal systems and services
  • Network Operations Centers tracking outages and service impacts
  • Platform Engineering teams building and maintaining internal platforms
  • Any team tired of shallow post-mortems that don't prevent recurrence

What makes OutageReview different from other incident management tools?

Quality enforcement. OutageReview is the only RCA platform that:

  • Scores investigation quality objectively (0-100)
  • Warns you when trying to close shallow investigations
  • Enforces a 4-layer causation model (Symptom → Immediate → Systemic → Cultural)
  • Uses a 5-phase funnel with completion gates

Most tools let you write whatever you want and close the incident. We make you do the hard work of finding actual root causes.

Do I need to be an RCA expert to use OutageReview?

No. OutageReview includes guided workflows and best-practice coaching at every step. The platform teaches your team how to conduct thorough investigations, whether they're new to RCA or have decades of experience.

How long does it take to set up?

5-10 minutes. Create your organization, invite your team, and start logging incidents. No complex configuration required to get started.

Pricing & Billing

How much does OutageReview cost?

We have three transparent pricing tiers:

  • Basic: $19/month for 1 team member (single user only)
  • Professional: $49/month for up to 10 members (+ $15/seat after)
  • Enterprise: $199/month for up to 25 members (+ $25/seat after)

All prices are per organization, not per user (up to the included seat limit).

Is there a free trial?

Yes! Every new signup gets a 14-day trial of PRO features. No credit card required. Experience the full platform before committing.

What happens after my trial ends?

You'll need to select and pay for a plan to continue using OutageReview. Your data stays intact during the trial period, but you'll need an active subscription to access the platform. Choose from Basic ($19/mo), Professional ($49/mo), or Enterprise ($199/mo) plans.

Can I change plans?

Yes. Upgrade or downgrade anytime. Upgrades take effect immediately. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period.

What payment methods do you accept?

Credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover) via Stripe. Enterprise customers can request invoicing (annual plans only).

Do you offer discounts for annual plans?

Yes! Save approximately 17% (equivalent to 2 months free) when you pay annually:

  • Basic: $190/year (vs $228 if paid monthly)
  • Professional: $490/year (vs $588 if paid monthly)
  • Enterprise: $1,990/year (vs $2,388 if paid monthly)

You can select annual billing during checkout or upgrade to annual billing from your billing settings.

What if I need more seats than my plan includes?

Additional seats are $15/month (PRO) or $25/month (Enterprise) per seat. You can add seats from your billing page anytime.

Can nonprofits or educational institutions get discounts?

We're exploring education and nonprofit pricing. Email [email protected] with details about your organization.

Features & Functionality

What RCA methodologies does OutageReview support?

Five proven methodologies, all in one platform:

  • 5 Whys Analysis - Drill down to root causes with guided questioning
  • Fishbone Diagram (6M) - Organize causes across People, Process, Technology, Materials, Methods, Environment
  • Problem Definition (4H1W) - Structured analysis using What, Where, When, Who, How
  • Toyota A3 Reports - Industry-standard one-page problem-solving format
  • Root Cause Hierarchy (Enterprise) - 4-layer causation model from symptoms to cultural causes

What is the Investigation Rigor Score?

A 0-100 score that objectively measures investigation quality based on:

  • Timeline completeness
  • Root cause depth (symptom vs. immediate vs. systemic vs. cultural)
  • Action assignment and ownership
  • Verification status
  • Methodology usage

Low scores trigger warnings before closing incidents, preventing shallow analysis.

What are Premature Closure Warnings?

Automatic alerts when you try to close an investigation that doesn't meet quality thresholds:

  • No root causes identified
  • No corrective actions created
  • Investigation phases incomplete
  • Rigor score below minimum

You can override warnings (with audit trail), but they ensure your team knows when analysis is shallow.

Can I customize fields and workflows?

Yes. OutageReview includes flexible custom fields:

  • 9 field types (text, number, date, datetime, single/multi-select, email, URL, phone)
  • Field-level permissions by role
  • Required field enforcement
  • Validation rules
  • Archive unused fields while preserving historical data

Can I export my data?

Yes. Incidents can be exported as:

  • PDF reports (A3 format or custom templates)
  • Markdown files
  • Full data export via REST API (available on Pro and Enterprise plans)

Does OutageReview integrate with other tools?

REST API is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. Additional integrations coming in 2026:

  • Q1 2026: Slack, PagerDuty
  • Q2 2026: Jira, ServiceNow, GraphQL API
  • Q3 2026: Datadog, New Relic, Grafana

What's the difference between Basic, PRO, and Enterprise?

Basic ($19/mo):

  • All core RCA tools
  • Investigation quality scoring
  • 1 team member (single user only)
  • Perfect for individuals

PRO ($49/mo):

  • Everything in Basic
  • Investigation rigor scoring
  • Premature closure warnings
  • Fishbone diagrams and 4H1W
  • 5-phase investigation funnel
  • A3 report templates
  • REST API access
  • Up to 10 team members (+ $15/seat)

Enterprise ($199/mo):

  • Everything in PRO
  • 4-Layer Root Cause Hierarchy
  • Executive dashboards and analytics
  • Service availability tracking
  • SLA compliance monitoring
  • Lessons Learned Library (Q1 2026)
  • Change Causation Analytics (Q1 2026)
  • Up to 25 team members (+ $25/seat)

Can I disable features I don't use?

Yes! Every feature can be toggled on/off from your organization settings. Keep the UI clean by disabling features you don't need. Your data is preserved, and re-enabling a feature restores access to previously hidden data.

Is there a mobile app?

Not yet. OutageReview is fully responsive and works on mobile browsers, but a native iOS/Android app is planned for Q2 2026.

Security & Privacy

Is my data secure?

Yes. OutageReview uses industry-standard security practices:

  • Multi-tenant architecture with complete organization isolation
  • Data encryption at rest and in transit (TLS 1.3)
  • Secure authentication with session management and automatic expiration
  • Role-based access control with granular permissions
  • Audit trails for all data changes
  • Regular backups with point-in-time recovery

Where is my data stored?

Data is stored in secure, enterprise-grade data centers with automatic backups and redundancy.

Who can see my organization's data?

Only members of your organization. Each organization's data is completely isolated from other organizations. Platform administrators can access data only for support purposes with your permission.

Do you sell my data?

Never. Your incident data is yours. We don't sell, share, or use it for anything except providing the OutageReview service.

Can I delete my data?

Yes. You can delete individual incidents, or delete your entire organization from your account settings. Deleted data is soft-deleted (preserved for 30 days) then permanently removed.

Are you GDPR compliant?

We follow GDPR principles including data minimization, purpose limitation, and user rights (access, deletion, portability). Full GDPR compliance certification is planned for 2026.

Do you have SOC 2 compliance?

SOC 2 Type II certification is planned for 2026. We currently follow SOC 2 control frameworks.

Can I use OutageReview with sensitive data?

Yes, with appropriate controls. OutageReview supports:

  • Role-based access control
  • Field-level permissions
  • Organization-scoped data isolation
  • Field-level encryption (coming Q3 2026)
  • SAML 2.0 SSO (coming Q3 2026)

For highly sensitive environments, contact us about on-premises deployment options.

Usage & Support

How many incidents can I create?

Unlimited on all plans. There are no incident limits.

How many team members can I have?

  • Basic: 1 team member (single user only)
  • PRO: Up to 10 members included (+ $15/month per additional seat)
  • Enterprise: Up to 25 members included (+ $25/month per additional seat)

What support do you offer?

  • Email support for all plans (response within 24 hours)
  • Priority support for PRO/Enterprise (coming soon)
  • Knowledge base with comprehensive documentation
  • In-app help with contextual guidance
  • Dedicated support for Enterprise (coming soon)

Can I get a demo?

Yes! Email [email protected] to schedule a personalized demo. Or start a free trial and explore on your own.

Do you offer training?

Documentation and in-app guidance are included. Custom training sessions for Enterprise customers are coming in 2026.

What if I need a feature that doesn't exist?

Email your feature request to [email protected]. We prioritize features based on customer demand and strategic fit.

Technical Questions

What browsers are supported?

OutageReview works on all modern browsers:

  • Chrome/Edge (last 2 versions)
  • Firefox (last 2 versions)
  • Safari (last 2 versions)

What's your uptime SLA?

We target 99.9% uptime. Status page coming soon.

Do you have an API?

Yes! REST API access is available on Professional and Enterprise plans. Full API documentation is available at /api-docs.

Can I self-host OutageReview?

Not currently. OutageReview is SaaS-only. On-premises deployment for Enterprise customers is under consideration for late 2026. Email [email protected] if you need this.

How do you handle backups?

Automatic daily backups with point-in-time recovery. Backups are retained for 30 days.

Migration & Import

Can I import existing incidents from other tools?

Not yet, but data import functionality is planned for Q2 2026. For now, you can:

  • Manually create incidents in OutageReview
  • Use custom fields to preserve IDs from your old system
  • Contact [email protected] for bulk import assistance

Can I migrate from Jira/ServiceNow/etc?

Once enhanced import functionality is available (Q2 2026), you'll be able to bulk import via API. For Enterprise customers needing immediate migration, contact [email protected] for assistance.

What if I want to leave OutageReview?

You can export your data anytime:

  • PDF reports for all incidents
  • Markdown files for documentation
  • Full data export via REST API (Pro and Enterprise plans)

We never hold your data hostage. It's yours.

Comparison Questions

How is OutageReview different from PagerDuty?

PagerDuty is focused on alerting, on-call management, and incident coordination during active incidents. OutageReview is focused on post-incident analysis, conducting thorough RCAs with quality enforcement to prevent recurrence.

They're complementary tools. We plan to integrate with PagerDuty in Q1 2026 to automatically create OutageReview investigations from PagerDuty incidents.

How is OutageReview different from Jira?

Jira is a general-purpose project management tool that can be used for incident tracking if you build custom workflows. OutageReview is purpose-built for RCA with:

  • Investigation quality scoring
  • Premature closure prevention
  • Built-in RCA methodologies (5 Whys, Fishbone, A3)
  • Service availability tracking
  • Lessons learned library

You don't have to configure anything, it works out of the box for incident management.

How is OutageReview different from Incident.io / FireHydrant?

Incident.io and FireHydrant excel at during-incident workflows like war rooms, status pages, communication, and escalation. OutageReview focuses on after-incident workflows, with deep RCA, quality enforcement, organizational learning, and preventing recurrence.

Again, they're complementary. Use Incident.io during the fire, then move to OutageReview for thorough post-mortem analysis.

How is OutageReview different from spreadsheets or Google Docs?

Spreadsheets and docs give you total flexibility but zero structure. With OutageReview you get:

  • Enforced investigation rigor
  • Consistent methodology across all incidents
  • Searchable history and trend analysis
  • Team collaboration and notifications
  • Professional reports without formatting work
  • Quality gates that prevent shallow analysis

If your RCAs are in spreadsheets, you're probably not getting the depth you need.

Can I use OutageReview alongside my existing tools?

Absolutely. Many teams use OutageReview as their RCA enforcement layer on top of their existing incident management tools. The REST API (available on Pro and Enterprise plans) makes this integration easier with bidirectional sync capabilities.

Getting Started

How do I start a trial?

  1. Go to outagereview.com
  2. Click "Start Free Trial"
  3. Create your organization
  4. Invite your team
  5. Start logging incidents

No credit card required. 14 days of full PRO features.

What happens during the trial?

You get full access to PRO features for 14 days:

  • Investigation rigor scoring
  • Premature closure warnings
  • Fishbone diagrams and 4H1W analysis
  • 5-phase investigation funnel
  • A3 report templates
  • REST API access
  • Unlimited incidents and up to 10 team members

How do I invite my team?

From your organization settings, enter team member emails and assign roles (Admin, Manager, or Member). They'll receive an invitation email with signup instructions.

Do you offer onboarding assistance?

Documentation and in-app guidance are included for all plans. Enterprise customers can request personalized onboarding sessions (coming soon).

What if I get stuck?

  • Check the in-app help (? icon in the navigation)
  • Browse the API documentation at /api-docs
  • Email [email protected] for assistance (response within 24 hours)

Still have questions?

Email us at [email protected]
We typically respond within 24 hours.