Responsibilities for Incident Communication Plan

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Responsibilities for Incident Communication Plan

    The Responsibilities for Incident Communication Plan guide ServiceNow customers in identifying and managing contacts based on their roles during the lifecycle of an incident communication plan. This framework helps ensure the right individuals are notified and involved according to their responsibilities, facilitating effective incident resolution and communication.

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    Key Features

    • Contact Responsibilities Types:
      • Default Responsibilities: These contacts are automatically notified when an incident communication plan is created.
      • Other Responsibilities: Additional contacts that can be selected for notification based on the incident context.
    • Contact Definitions: Rules that determine which users are associated with specific contact responsibilities; these can be viewed and modified to tailor notifications.
    • Default Responsibilities include key operational roles:
      • Duty Manager: The senior point of presence who assesses incidents against procedures and decides initial corrective actions.
      • Incident Manager: Coordinates technical resources, evaluates incident impact, and escalates to Duty Director if needed.
      • Duty Director: Handles escalations for critical service issues, approves recovery plans, and manages senior-level communications.
    • Other Responsibilities provide flexibility:
      • Business Director, Communication Manager, Crisis Action Manager, Crisis Action Team Members, Development Personnel, Operations Support Personnel, Service Owner, and Technical Support roles can be added to communication plans as needed.

    Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers

    This structured approach enables customers to:

    • Automatically notify critical responders by default for prompt incident action.
    • Select additional stakeholders based on the incident’s nature to ensure comprehensive communication.
    • Customize contact assignments through contact definitions to suit organizational needs.
    • Clarify roles and responsibilities to improve coordination during incident resolution.

    Related Tasks

    To implement and manage contact responsibilities effectively, customers can:

    • Define new contact responsibilities.
    • Create or modify contact definitions.
    • Add users as contacts or override default assignments.

    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.