Incident management: How to react correctly to IT faults

A central server fails, orders in the online store come to a standstill or production comes to a halt – situations like these show how important reliable incident management is. After all, every minute a system is down costs not only time and money, but also the trust of your customers. With a clear process, faults can not only be rectified quickly, but also avoided in the long term.

But how does incident management actually work in practice? What steps are necessary to keep your systems stable and your team able to act? In this article, you will learn how to manage incidents efficiently, minimize downtimes and make your IT structures more resilient. Whether for minor problems or major challenges – we provide you with helpful tips to optimize your processes and ensure greater security.

What is incident management? #

Incident management is a process that aims to identify faults quickly and rectify them efficiently. The aim is to restore normal service operations as quickly as possible or to reduce delays to a minimum. A fault is classified as an incident if it fulfills three specific characteristics: It occurs individually and unexpectedly, leads to an unplanned interruption and can be rectified promptly.

ITIL: Importance in IT #

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is an internationally recognized standard for methods and processes in IT service management (ITSM). It supports you in optimally aligning your IT services with the requirements of your customers and business objectives. With the ITIL standards, you not only improve the quality of your services, but also increase the efficiency of your IT department. By introducing and applying ITIL processes, you will learn how to proceed in a more structured way, manage your resources more efficiently and define clear roles and responsibilities within your organization. In addition, ITIL processes enable you to react better to unforeseen downtimes and implement changes without complications. This leads to greater stability, flexibility and customer satisfaction in your IT operations.

Problem Management vs. Incident Management #

Problem Management and Incident Management are often used interchangeably, but they are only closely related and differ in a few key ways.

A problem is generally the result of several occurrences and often leads to a standstill in business operations that lasts until the underlying cause is resolved. An incident, on the other hand, describes a single, spontaneous event that causes an unplanned interruption. Incidents can usually be resolved quickly so that operations can be restored promptly. This fundamental distinction is also reflected in the tasks of problem and incident management:

• Problem management in IT focuses on identifying the fundamental causes of a problem and resolving them permanently. A key objective is to prevent future recurrences of the same problems through precise analysis and preventative measures.

• Incident management, on the other hand, aims to resolve faults quickly and efficiently in order to minimize short-term interruptions to operations as quickly as possible.

Both approaches are essential for effective service management, but proceed differently: Problem management thinks long-term and strategically, while incident management focuses on a quick, operational response.

The advantages of incident management #

Anyone who depends on reliable IT structures should consider the topic of incident management. After all, a system failure that is not rectified quickly can have far-reaching consequences. Imagine the checkout process in an online store not working or production in a manufacturing plant coming to a standstill. Such incidents not only have a negative impact on sales or operations, but also on the trust of your customers. A well-positioned incident management system offers numerous advantages that go far beyond mere damage limitation.

• Fast and targeted problem solving: A clearly structured incident management process allows you to quickly identify and rectify faults, minimizing downtime.
• Consistent service quality: With a uniform approach, you ensure that all employees work to the same standards. This ensures a reliable and consistent quality of service that your users can expect at all times.
• Focus on the essentials: By prioritizing critical incidents, you ensure that the most urgent problems are dealt with first. This prevents less important tasks from blocking progress on urgent incidents.
• Long-term optimization: The systematic recording and evaluation of incidents gives you valuable insights into recurring problems. You can address these in a targeted manner and solve them in the long term, thereby constantly improving the efficiency of your entire system.

The basic steps in the incident management process #

Whether it’s cyber attacks, system failures or other unforeseen disruptions – clearly structured incident management not only minimizes the damage, but also ensures that the affected systems return to normal operation as quickly as possible. How exactly this happens varies from company to company, but a proven response plan always includes the following five steps:

1. Identification #

An incident can occur at any time and in any phase – and affect any of your systems. The earlier you know about an incident, the better you can minimize the impact and initiate countermeasures. When you detect an incident, it is important to record all relevant information first. This not only serves as documentation, but also enables you to classify the incident correctly later and process it efficiently. Make sure you record the following data in full:

• Name or ID: To uniquely identify the incident.
• Description: What exactly happened? Summarize the problem precisely.
• Date and time: When was the incident detected?
• Responsible person: Who is responsible for the investigation or resolution?

2. Containment #

To deal with the incident effectively, it is crucial to identify the full extent of the problem. Only when you know how far-reaching the incident is can you take targeted action. At the same time, it is essential to get the situation under control before it gets worse. This means you need to contain incidents to prevent further damage.

This often comes down to temporary workarounds and quick measures to contain the problem. Examples include deactivating an application, restricting authorizations or restarting servers. In some cases, one of these immediate measures is even enough to solve the problem completely.

But technology alone is not everything. Open communication with those affected is essential, especially at times like these. Transparency creates trust, which is essential to stabilize the situation and reduce possible uncertainties. A well-thought-out communication plan is worth its weight in gold here, as it ensures that you convey clear and consistent messages in the heat of the moment.

3. Prioritization #

Once you have identified what is behind the incident, you can prioritize it. This is a crucial step, as not every incident requires the same level of attention – and not all resources can be deployed everywhere immediately.

It is best to have already thought in advance about the priority that different incidents have for your company. Such preparation enables you to compare incidents sensibly and take targeted action. An important point of reference here is that incident management focuses on the short-term consequences. For this reason, incidents that have a strong immediate impact should always be given priority.

It can also be helpful to consider the workload that an incident entails. Ask yourself: Can we cope with this workload at the moment? If not, it often makes sense to prioritize the incident lower until you have sufficient capacity and support again.

4. Reaction #

Once you have analyzed the incident and identified the cause, the next crucial step begins. You implement a long-term solution to ensure that the incident is completely resolved. This is not just about superficially eliminating the problem. It is much more important to really understand the incident and thoroughly analyze the underlying causes.

The aim is to correct the cause in such a way that similar incidents are ruled out in the future. Instead of simply restoring the system to its original state, optimize it. It becomes better and safer than it was before. Every incident becomes an opportunity to further develop and strengthen your system.

5. Conclusion #

The final phase is dedicated to documenting the incident in a comprehensive incident log. This creates a valuable knowledge resource that you can access at any time – whether to use information for a similar incident in the future or to analyze the case in more detail at a later date. A post-mortem analysis also gives you the opportunity to reflect on the entire incident handling process at this point. Together with your team, you can discuss what worked well, what challenges there were and how you can proceed even more effectively in the future.

Best practices for effective incident management #

Identifying problems, finding solutions, resuming operations quickly – in theory, this sounds simple. But in practice, structured processes and clear procedures make all the difference, especially in critical moments. Our best practices show you how to get the most out of your incident management.

• Act quickly: Develop processes to identify incidents as early as possible, ideally before they affect operations. If possible, use a security incident and event management system to support you in this.
• Order and structure: Clearly defined responsibilities, transparent escalation management and well-documented processes prevent stress from gaining the upper hand – especially in critical situations.
• Strengthen the team: Regular training ensures that everyone knows what to do in an emergency. Also create a knowledge database so that your team can independently refer to past solutions.
• Use automation: Why waste valuable time on repetitive tasks? Automate where you can – from notifications to to-do lists. This not only saves time, but also reduces human error.
• Ensure communication: A central platform where all information and updates are bundled keeps everyone on the same page. Misunderstandings and information gaps don’t stand a chance.
• Continuous process optimization: Good incident management is never finished. After every incident, you should analyze the processes and – where necessary – optimize them. Learn from mistakes and adapt to changing circumstances.
• The right tool: A powerful incident management tool not only provides an overview of all processes, but also helps you to manage processes efficiently and resolve incidents more quickly.

Tool to support your incident management #

Finding the right incident management software is no easy task – after all, the emergency management service market offers a lot of choice. The key question is: do you need software that is tailored precisely to incident management or do you want more flexibility for individual customization? Should the tool perhaps also include other IT processes such as a ticketing system or a bugtracker ? And don’t forget: How high can the budget be? Does it have to be a free solution or is there room for investment?

The SeaTable no-code platform is a solid and flexible solution. It offers a ready-made response plan as a template that is specifically geared towards incident management. However, this free template is just the beginning – thanks to the modular principle, you can combine all available templates as you wish and thus develop a customized solution that only contains the functions you really need. No unnecessary extras, but exactly what helps you in your daily work. This means you don’t have to stick to rigid, predefined processes, but can continuously optimize and flexibly adapt your workflows.

If you would like to use SeaTable to set up your incident management efficiently, register for free with your e-mail address.

FAQs on Incident Management #

TAGS: IT Processes