Incident Management Guide & Explanation

As businesses grow and technology evolves, managing incidents effectively becomes crucial to maintaining seamless operations and minimizing downtime. Incident management provides a structured approach to identifying, addressing, and resolving issues, ensuring system reliability and customer satisfaction.

In this article, we’ll cover the following key topics:

• Incident management minimizes downtime and ensures operational stability by providing a structured approach to resolving issues.
• It enhances response times and system reliability, helping organizations maintain seamless performance.
• Different types of incident management offer tailored solutions for various operational needs.
• A clear IT incident management process enables quick identification and resolution of technical issues.
• DevOps incident management integrates speed and efficiency into handling incidents.
• Incident management tools streamline monitoring, tracking, and resolution of problems.
• UptimeRobot’s proactive incident management ensures high system availability and reliability.

What is incident management?

Incident Management is a structured process to restore services to normal as quickly as possible following a disruption. Beyond just reacting to issues, this approach also helps businesses to proactively identify potential issues and implement preventive measures, reducing the likelihood of future disruptions. 

By following effective incident management practices, businesses can not only reduce downtime and mitigate risks but also enhance service reliability and ensure a seamless, uninterrupted experience for their users.

Benefits of incident management

Here are some key benefits of implementing an effective incident management system:

1. Minimized business impact: Effective incident management helps to minimize business impacts by ensuring swift detection and response to issues, preventing them from escalating into full-blown crises.

2. Accelerated incident resolution: Speed is critical when dealing with incidents. While the average company takes 197 days to identify and 69 days to contain a breach, effective incident management shortens these timelines. This reduces financial impact and boosts overall resilience.

3. Enhanced customer satisfaction: Customers appreciate quick resolution during a crisis. Rapidly addressing incidents helps maintain high service quality and ensures that customer expectations are met even during disruptions.

4. Proactive monitoring and improvement: Incident management involves continuous monitoring of systems and processes. By anticipating and preventing future issues, organizations can reduce the likelihood of significant disruptions.

5. Cost efficiency: Organizations that resolve breaches within 30 days can save over $1 million. Effective incident management reduces both the direct costs of breaches and related expenses like downtime and customer impact.

Let us look at a recent real-world example that highlights the importance of effective incident management. On Friday, July 19, a faulty update from CrowdStrike rendered 8.5 million Windows PCs and servers inoperable. The impact was widespread, affecting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, supermarkets, and even Starbucks, whose systems crashed due to the issue. 

By Monday, Delta Airlines had canceled over 600 flights as it struggled to resolve the issue. This incident, as reported by Vault, demonstrates the urgent need for swift incident management to minimize impact across industries.

The types of incident management

Incident management processes can vary depending on organizational needs and the nature of the incident. Organizations may adopt different approaches, including:

1. IT service management process

ITSM process primarily focuses on efficiently managing and delivering IT services. The approach utilizes structured processes, often based on frameworks like ITIL, to systematically handle incidents. The goal is to quickly restore normal service operations and minimize business disruptions. ITSM is generally more reactive, focusing on addressing incidents after they occur.

2. Site reliability engineer process

The SRE process combines software engineering with operations to enhance system reliability. While it manages incidents as they arise, the SRE process places a strong emphasis on prevention. This is achieved through proactive monitoring, automation, and scalability to avoid incidents. The SRE process involves designing robust, resilient systems and continuously measuring and improving reliability.

3. DevOps-inspired incident process

DevOps process merges development and operations to improve software delivery and system reliability. This approach centers on continuous delivery and infrastructure as code, viewing Incidents as opportunities for improvement. The response usually involves fixing the immediate problem and then improving development and deployment processes to prevent similar issues in the future.

4. Reactive incident management

This approach focuses on addressing incidents as they happen. It involves dealing with issues after they have occurred. The main aim is to minimize the impact and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

5. Proactive incident management

This approach involves taking preemptive measures to avoid incidents. It includes activities like risk assessment, continuous monitoring, and preventive maintenance to anticipate and mitigate potential issues before they arise.

IT incident management process: Step by step

To implement an effective IT incident management system, follow these six key steps:

Identification

The first step involves identifying incidents, which can be reported by employees, end-users, or monitoring systems through various channels such as phone, email, SMS, web forms, or live chat. After receiving a report, the service desk team records the incident and determines whether it is an incident or a service request, as they are handled differently.

Logging

Once identified, the incident must be logged in the service desk or help desk system. The ticket should include detailed information such as:

• Name and Contact of the person who reported the incident.
• Date and Time of the incident report.
• Incident Description along with what is not working properly or went down.
• A unique Incident ID for tracking the incident.

Categorization

Incidents should be assigned appropriate categories and subcategories to help in sorting and prioritizing. For instance, an incident categorized as “Network Outage” will be treated with higher urgency due to its significant impact. Proper categorization helps in organizing incidents and identifying recurring patterns.

Prioritizing

After categorization, incidents must be prioritized based on their impact and urgency using a priority matrix. The impact measures the potential damage to the business, while the priority determines the resolution time frame. Incidents are classified as critical, high, medium, or low.

Responding

The response phase involves a series of steps in a specific order to resolve the incident:

1. Initial Diagnosis: Assess the issue and gather the necessary information.
2. Incident Escalation: If needed, escalate to higher-level support.
3. Investigation and Diagnosis: Conduct a thorough investigation to pinpoint the root cause.
4. Resolution and Recovery: Implement solutions to resolve the incident and recover services.

Concluding

After the resolution, follow up with the reporter to confirm that the issue has been fully resolved. This step, known as incident closure, ensures satisfaction with the resolution and completes the incident management process.

“Successful incident management is not just about quick fixes but more about understanding the root cause and preventing recurrence. A systematic approach allows teams to tackle incidents methodically, reducing downtime and enhancing overall resilience.” — Alex, Head of DevOps at UptimeRobot

DevOps incident management process – step by step

Here are the five steps that will help you implement efficient DevOps incident management.

Detection

Incidents are inevitable, so DevOps teams prioritize preparedness. They implement monitoring tools, alert systems, and runbooks to ensure timely detection of issues. Once an incident is identified, it is crucial to record it in a ticketing system to initiate the response process. 

Response

The on-call engineer reviews information from monitoring tools and leads the response. If the issue is complex, a runbook provides guidance, and additional experts may be brought in to assess and escalate the incident as needed.

Resolution

DevOps teams, being familiar with the application or system code, typically resolve incidents quickly. Their deep understanding and advanced preparation allow them to address issues efficiently, often faster than external teams unfamiliar with the code.

Closure/Analysis

Post-incident, the team conducts a review to analyze what happened, share insights, and identify improvements. This helps enhance system resilience and prepares the team for future incidents, ensuring continuous improvement.

Readiness/Improvement

Following resolution and analysis, the team updates runbooks and adjusts monitoring tools based on lessons learned. This ongoing refinement ensures better preparedness for future incidents.

To keep the team sharp and effective, Alex, Head of DevOps at UptimeRobot, advises, “Conduct regular incident response drills to keep your team sharp. Simulating incidents helps ensure that everyone knows their role and can execute the response plan efficiently when a real incident occurs.”

Incident management tools

Effective incident management relies on a range of tools designed to streamline the process from detection to resolution. Here are some of the most common incident management tools:

Monitoring tools

With 54% of organizations encountering downtime incidents lasting at least eight hours, monitoring tools are essential. They help identify outages, trigger alerts, and diagnose incidents. By automating issue detection, these tools reduce operational costs and allow DevOps teams to concentrate on software development. 

Example: UptimeRobot

UptimeRobot is a leading uptime monitoring service designed to keep your websites and services online. It offers a free plan that includes 50 monitors with 5-minute checks. For more advanced features, like frequent checks every 60 seconds and enhanced alerting, the Pro plan starts at $7 per month. UptimeRobot has a G2 score of 4.6/5.

User Review:

“In a matter of seconds, you create a sensor and you are already monitoring your service. In addition, the free version has everything you need, if you are a professional you may need the paid version” – G2 Review

Root cause analysis tools

These tools analyze operational data, including logs from system management, application performance monitoring, and infrastructure monitoring. They help pinpoint the exact location and cause of incidents by understanding system operations and identifying underlying issues.

Example: Splunk

Splunk is a powerful tool for root cause analysis, offering comprehensive data analysis capabilities across IT operations. Splunk’s pricing starts with a free plan that allows limited data ingestion, with enterprise plans that can be customized based on your needs. Splunk has a Capterra rating of 4.6/5.

User Review:
“Splunk has been key in identifying the root causes of major issues by analyzing logs and from that being able to build reports and determine causes of issues” – Capterra Review

AIOps platform

AIOps platforms leverage historical data and logs to enhance decision-making, optimize resource allocation, and accelerate incident response. Organizations using AIOps for incident management have reported up to a 50% reduction in IT costs due to improved efficiency and faster issue resolution.

Example: Moogsoft
Moogsoft offers an AIOps platform that leverages machine learning to analyze IT operations data, providing context for better decision-making and faster incident response. It features a free trial, with pricing tailored to enterprise needs. Moogsoft has a G2 score of 4.5/5.

User Review:
“The way the alerts and situations populated is easy to play around.” – G2 Review

Incident tracking

These tools document incidents throughout their lifecycle, from detection to resolution. They facilitate assigning incidents to appropriate teams, tracking progress, and maintaining a historical record. This data is valuable for identifying patterns, improving procedures, and training new team members.

Example: ServiceNow
ServiceNow provides comprehensive incident tracking and management capabilities. Pricing starts at approximately $100 per user per month, with a free trial available. ServiceNow has a Capterra score of 4.5/5.

User Review:
“I have used ServiceNow on multiple projects, mainly for incident tracking. It has worked very well for our teams.” – Capterra Review

Service desk tools

Service desk tools enable users to submit tickets, communicate with support teams, and track progress. They typically feature request management systems that assist with prioritizing and categorizing incidents, improving the efficiency of incident management. Automating processes can resolve 22% of service desk tickets at virtually no cost, compared to $22 for manual handling.

Example: Zendesk
Zendesk offers a versatile service desk solution that supports ticket management, customer communication, and incident resolution. It has a free trial, with pricing starting at $19 per agent per month. Zendesk has a G2 score of 4.3/5.

User Review:
“We are able to answer and solve so many more problems by using Zendesk Support.” – G2 Review

AI and virtual agent tools

AI and virtual agents are transforming incident management by enhancing prediction, detection, and resolution using insights from past incidents. These virtual agents, like chatbots, offer instant responses and basic troubleshooting, handling up to 80% of common customer service inquiries. This allows human agents to focus on more complex tasks.

Example: IBM Watson
IBM Watson Assistant uses AI to provide virtual agent capabilities, offering instant responses and basic troubleshooting. It integrates with various systems to enhance incident management. Pricing starts at $120 per month, with a free plan available. IBM Watson Assistant has a G2 score of 4.2/5.

User Review:
“The services available on the platform are all incredible and I personally used and loved the chatbot service and text-to-speech service” – G2 Review

Documentation tools

Documentation tools automate the recording of environmental changes and incident details, aiding in postmortem analysis. For example, PowerCLI scripts can be scheduled to capture incidents for deeper analysis. These tools help document incident states and postmortems effectively.

Example: Confluence
Confluence by Atlassian helps document incident details, changes, and postmortem analyses in an organized and accessible manner. It starts at $10 per user per month, with a free plan for small teams. Confluence has a Capterra score of 4.5/5.

User Review:
“Excellent for creating, organizing, and sharing documentation within teams. Helps to serve as a single source of the information project” – G2 Review

How do we handle incident management in UptimeRobot?

UptimeRobot is a leading uptime monitoring service that lets users monitor up to 50 websites for free, with checks every five minutes.

With over 7.5 million monitors used by more than 2.1 million users, UptimeRobot quickly alerts website owners of any downtime, helping prevent revenue loss. The platform offers various monitoring options, such as SSL certification and domain expiration, cron job monitoring, and keyword tracking.

Users can get instant alerts via SMS, email, and integrations with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. UptimeRobot also provides customizable status pages to keep customers informed during outages, ensuring transparency and reliability.

Here’s an overview of our incident management process:

Comprehensive Monitoring

• External Monitoring: We deploy 164 third-party monitors to continuously oversee our systems, adding an extra layer of vigilance. These monitors detect any irregularities. We also use Cloudflare webhooks to receive alerts about DDoS attacks and issues with our load-balanced services, such as down heartbeat servers.
• Internal Monitoring: We utilize Grafana, InfluxDB, and Telegraf for detailed system analytics and custom scripts tailored to our needs. PagerDuty handles critical alerts, while Slack manages less severe incidents.

Alerting and Notification

We categorize our alerting methods based on the severity of the event.

• Critical Incidents: For high-severity incidents, PagerDuty integrates with our monitoring tools to send immediate alerts via phone calls, SMS, or other channels.
• Lower-Severity Events: Less urgent issues are managed through Slack, ensuring efficient communication.

Incident Response Team

• Team Structure: Our DevOps engineer leads incident management, supported by two additional engineers on an “always on-call” basis. For incidents affecting customers, we initiate restoration efforts and notify our Support Team and Head of Product for client communication.

Post-Incident Review

• Continuous Improvement: After resolving an incident, we review the situation to identify improvements and update our backlog to enhance future performance.

This structured approach helps us effectively monitor, respond to, and learn from incidents, ensuring high service reliability and customer satisfaction. 

Register for free with UptimeRobot today and take control of your monitoring needs. Start optimizing your incident management process now!