Responsibilities for Incident Communication Plan

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Responsibilities for Incident Communication Plan

    This guide outlines how to manage contact responsibilities within Incident Communication Plans in ServiceNow. It helps you identify key contacts, understand their roles, and determine who gets notified throughout the communication plan’s lifecycle. The responsibilities enable effective coordination and escalation during incident resolution.

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    Key Responsibilities

    There are two categories of contact responsibilities used in incident communication plans:

    • Default Responsibilities: Contacts automatically notified when an incident communication plan is created.
    • Other Responsibilities: Additional contacts who can be selected for notification based on the incident’s needs.

    You can configure these responsibilities and associated users through contact definitions and override rules.

    Default Responsibilities

    By default, the following roles are notified for every incident communication plan and are critical for incident resolution coordination:

    • Duty Manager: The senior point of presence monitoring incidents, responsible for initial assessment, corrective actions, and escalating to the Incident Manager as needed.
    • Incident Manager: A senior technician who manages all technical resources, assesses incident severity, and escalates to the Duty Director if required.
    • Duty Director: The escalation authority for critical services, approving recovery plans and managing senior-level communications.

    Other Responsibilities

    Additional roles can be added to incident communication plans to tailor notifications and involvement as needed:

    • Business Director: A business leader involved in incident response.
    • Communication Manager: Handles business-facing communication during incidents.
    • Crisis Action Manager: Oversees and is accountable for managing the incident communication plan.
    • Crisis Action Team Member: Department heads nominated to participate in incident response.
    • Development Personnel: Staff involved in troubleshooting and resolving incidents.
    • Operations Support Personnel: Second or third-level support personnel engaged in incident resolution.
    • Service Owner: Service managers responsible for services affected by the incident.
    • Technical Support: Advanced technical support personnel assisting in incident resolution.

    Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers

    ServiceNow customers can leverage these predefined and customizable responsibilities to ensure the right stakeholders are notified and engaged during incident communication plans. Managing contact responsibilities effectively supports timely escalation, coordinated response, and clear communication throughout incident resolution.

    To implement and tailor these responsibilities, administrators can define contact responsibilities, create contact definitions, override defaults if needed, and add users as contacts to fit their organizational incident management processes.

    Contact responsibilities helps you to identify contacts by their responsibilities and to understand what you can expect from the user throughout the life cycle of the communication plan.

    There are two types of responsibilities available for use with incident communication plans:
    • Default Responsibilities: Contacts who are notified by default.
    • Other Responsibilities: Contacts who can be selected for notification.

    Use contact definitions to view and modify the rules that determine the specific users associated with contact responsibilities.

    Default Responsibilities

    By default, contacts with the following responsibilities are notified when an incident communication plan is created:
    • Duty Manager
    • Incident Manager
    • Duty Director

    These roles are involved with resolving the source incident or original event that the incident communication plan relates to. They are seen as key contacts for the incident communication plan.

    The following sections describe typical operational roles for these responsibilities.
    Table 1. Contact Administration Default Responsibilities
    Responsibility Description
    Duty Manager The senior point of presence in the monitoring environment at the time an incident occurs. The Duty Manager assesses the incident against standard operating procedures, escalation triggers, and personal knowledge and experience, to take corrective actions. To clarify the urgency and impact of an incident, the Duty Manager can contact the Incident Manager for advice.
    Incident Manager A senior technician, accountable for coordinating and managing all technical resources required to resolve incidents. After being notified by the Duty Manager of a serious incident, the Incident Manager assesses the seriousness and associated business impact. Based on this assessment, the Incident Manager decides whether to escalate the incident to the Duty Director. The Incident Manager may escalate to the Duty Director to gain access to resources outside of the department, if necessary.
    Duty Director The escalation point for all issues that affect critical services. The Duty Director works in partnership with the business directors in the organization to approve recovery plans developed by the Incident Manager. The Duty Director also manages the senior level communications for the source incident.

    Other Responsibilities

    Incident Communications Management provides the following additional responsibilities that can be added to incident communication plans. You can also create contact responsibilities, as needed. The associated users receive notifications about the incident communication plan.
    Table 2. Contact Administration Other Responsibilities
    Responsibility Description
    Business Director Director within the business who is identified as a potential contact when an incident communication plan occurs.
    Communication Manager Business-facing role in the event communication is required in an incident communication plan.
    Crisis Action Manager Overall responsibility and accountability for managing incident communication plans.
    Crisis Action Team Member Nominated department heads who are involved when an incident communication plan occurs.
    Development personnel Development personnel involved in the troubleshooting and resolving an incident communication plan.
    Operations support personnel Personnel involved in the second or third level of support in troubleshooting and resolving an incident communication plan.
    Service Owner Service owner or manager who is identified as a potential contact when an incident communication plan relates to one or more of their services.
    Technical Support Second or third level technical support personnel involved in troubleshooting and resolving an incident communication plan.