Manage major incidents using the MI playbook

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read
  • Manage major incidents using the MI playbook from the contextual side panel or the Playbook tab of an incident record page. This playbook provides a simple, concise, and task-oriented interface for managing the major incident process.

    Before you begin

    The incident must be proposed as a major incident candidate. For more information, see Propose a major incident.

    The MI playbook must be assigned to Major Incident Management. For more information, see Assign a playbook to Major Incident Management.

    Role required: major_incident_manager or admin

    About this task

    The MI playbook in Service Operations Workspace provides a guided approach to the entire major incident process. It provides a way to visualize business process workflows for major incidents in a simple, concise, and task-oriented view.

    Procedure

    1. Open an incident record that has been proposed as a major incident candidate.
    2. Select the Major Incident Playbooks (Major incident playbook) icon on a contextual side panel to launch the major incident playbook.

      The Major Incident Playbook panel opens on the side panel. The panel includes the following tabs:

      • Current
      • History
    3. On the Current tab, select MI playbook.
      You can view the major incident process steps and your progress along the following steps:
      • Review Situation
      • Communicate
      • Collaborate
      • Adhoc Communications & Collaborations
      • Resolve
      • Create problem
      • Post Incident Review

      List of the major incident process steps to complete found in the MI Playbook

    4. Review the incident information and then promote the major incident.
      1. Select Review Situation.
      2. Review the incident information.
      3. Select Promote to promote the incident to a major incident based on the incident information.
        For more information, see Promote a major incident.
    5. Communicate with stakeholders by composing a communication message, such as email or SMS.
      1. Select Communicate.
      2. On a communication task that you want to complete, select Compose to compose a communication message, such as email or SMS.
      3. Optional: Select the More actions (More action icon) icon for a communication task and then select Manage Recipients to add or manage the recipients for communications.
      For more information, see Compose communications for incidents and major incidents. You can also add or manage recipients for the communications. For more information, see Manage recipients in a communication task.
    6. Collaborate with stakeholders.
      1. Select Collaborate.
      2. Select a collaboration record, and then select one of the following options based on the selected type of collaboration channel:
        • Start - To start a call.
        • Open discussion - To start a chat.
        For more information on how to use these collaboration channels, see Collaborate with stakeholders during a major incident.
    7. Perform unplanned communications and collaborations.
      1. Select Adhoc collaboration and communication.
        This section contains the following collaboration and communication records that are created separately than pre-defined and configured communications and collaboration plans:
      2. Select the one of the following options for unplanned communications and collaboration.
    8. Select Resolve.
      For information on how to resolve a major incident, see, Resolve and close a major incident.
    9. Select Create Problem.
      Note:
      This section is visible in the playbook only if:
      • The incident doesn’t have a problem record associated with it.
      • The Problem Management Best Practice - Madrid - State Model (com.snc.best_practice.problem.madrid.state_model) plugin is activated on the instance.
      • The Create problem from major incident flow is inactive on the instance. This flow is shipped as part of the base system in the Inactive status. Once activated, it creates a problem record automatically when an incident is promoted to a major incident.

      You can also configure if the incident field information is copied automatically to the respective fields in a problem record using the List of attributes (comma-separated) that will be copied from the incident to create a new problem (com.snc.problem.create_from_incident.attributes) system property when a problem record is created. For more information, see Create a problem.

      A problem record is created automatically. You can select View Problem to view the problem record on a separate tab.
    10. Mark the post incident review as complete.
      1. Select Post Incident Review.
      2. Select Mark Complete to end the major incident process in the Playbook side panel.
        You can continue to work on the post incident report review from the Post Incident Report tab on the Incident record page. For more information, see Review and update a post incident report.