IT Manager how-to
How to Lead a Major Incident Response
Clear leadership shortens outages.
Quick answer
Clear leadership shortens outages. In short: declare; open; assess, then complete the remaining steps below.
Step by step
Declare the incident and assign roles.
Open a communication channel.
Assess impact and priorities.
Coordinate troubleshooting.
Update stakeholders regularly.
Hold a post-incident review.
Safety reminders for IT managers
- Maintain tested backup and disaster recovery plans
- Enforce strong security practices
- Protect sensitive data and privacy
- Manage team workload to prevent burnout
Key terms
IT strategy · ITSM · SLA · Incident management · Change management · Disaster recovery: see the full IT manager glossary.