Incident Communication Plans Not Attaching

[JakeCownie]

Hi,

I am seeing a weird issue when trying to utilize communication plans for major incidents and I am wondering if anyone has an idea of where I can look.  I have created a record in comm_plan_definition that has only one condition - Major Incident State = Accepted.  However, when I create a major incident (either directly creating it as major or promoting it from a regular incident) it does not correctly attach a new communication plan to the incident with the tasks I have defined.  I built a business rule that forces the creation of a plan on the incident_alert table when the major incident state changes to accepted, but I would like to understand why it is not working out of the box.  If anyone has any information about what mechanisms in the background control the creation of these plans or thoughts on places I should look it would be much appreciated. 

[Itallo Brandão]

Hi Jake,

The issue is likely that Communication Plans typically don't attach directly to the Incident record itself, but to an intermediate record called Incident Alert (incident_alert).

Here is the OOB flow:

1. Major Incident State changes to Accepted.

2. A system Business Rule triggers and creates an incident_alert record linked to that Incident.

3. Then, the logic evaluates your Communication Plan Definitions against that new Alert record, not the Incident directly.

If you check the incident_alert table, I suspect you won't find a record created for your Major Incident. That is the missing link. If that record isn't being created (usually controlled by "Major Incident Trigger Rules" or the "Create Incident Alert" BR), the Comm Plan logic never gets a chance to run.

Your custom BR works because it forces that creation, but I'd recommend debugging why the standard incident_alert creation isn't firing first.

If this helps you trace the missing link, please mark it as Accepted Solution.

Best regards, Brandão.

[Matthew_13]

Hi Buddy,

There is OOTB logic that creates communication plans for Major Incidents so if its not attaching it usually means the definition never qualifies or the trigger isnt firing when you think it is. A few places I’d check first:

• Make sure the communication plan definition is tied to the correct table. In many MI setups the evaluation happens from incident_alert, not directly from incident, so a condition on Major Incident State = Accepted on the incident record may never be evaluated by the engine.

• Confirm the definition is active and doesn’t have any additional qualifiers domain, service, assignment group that would prevent it from matching.

• Validate the actual field/value being used. Major Incident State can differ from the standard state field and sometimes the internal value isnt exactly “Accepted.”

• Check how the MI is created. Promotion vs. creating it as major can update fields in a different order, and the comm plan evaluation may run before the state flips to Accepted.

• Look for thhe OOTB trigger that instantiates plans — typically a business rule/flow/script tied to incident or incident_alert that evaluates comm_plan_definition and creates the plan + tasks. If that trigger isnt firing or is scoped to a different table/event, nothing will attach.

The fact that your custom BR on incident_alert works suggests the instance may be using an alert driven path for MI communications which would explain why the OOTB definition on the incident itself isnt being picked up.

@JakeCownie If help you answer, Please mark Solution Accepted. Thanks Kindly

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @JakeCownie ,

Check whether you have configured as per SN documentation.

Configure a communication plan in Major Incident Management • Zurich IT Service Management • Docs | ...