The shared operating path

1. 01Capture reported pain in observable terms.
2. 02Define affected scope and a healthy comparison.
3. 03Commit evidence at each gate without guessing.
4. 04Narrow candidate fault boundaries.
5. 05Route the next question or action to an accountable owner.
6. 06Separate investigation from authorized controlled change.
7. 07Prove the exit condition and preserve the record.

Incidents cross teams because technical layers and ownership layers do not align perfectly. A customer-facing lead may own impact and communication, a field engineer may own local proof, an SRE may own production safety, and a specialist may interpret one layer. The path is shared so those contributions accumulate rather than restart at every handoff.

A gate is useful only when its answer can change the next step. If every answer produces the same path, the question is decorative. Guide authors should make branch consequences explicit and operators should be able to explain why the current route follows from the evidence already committed.

An alert disappearing or a user stopping reports is not enough. Exit proof should match the original impact, show the affected and healthy scopes, confirm expected behavior across an appropriate window, and record any residual risk or follow-up owner.