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Incident Communication Plans

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • What a communication plan is
  • Who SNWR updates, and how often
  • How communication tasks remind the team
  • How to set up SNWR’s plan

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: Running a Major Incident in the Workspace. You learned how the major incident manager runs a major incident with a timeline, a team, child incidents and tasks.

1 “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

During the email outage, the team is busy fixing it.

  • Nobody updates Anita for an hour.
  • Mumbai staff keep calling the desk: “Is email back yet?”
  • Beth hears about it from a customer.

🎯 The problem: When updates depend on memory, they get forgotten in the rush.

👉 The fix: set up a communication plan that reminds the team who to update, and when.

2 What is a communication plan?

Key term: Communication plan

A plan attached to an incident that says who to update, how and how often.

Key term: Communication task

A reminder to send one update, like “Update leaders at 10:30”.

Key term: Contact

A person or group on the plan, like Anita or all Mumbai HQ staff.

SNWR's major incident communication plan. Leaders, Anita Rao and Beth Anglin: an email update every 30 minutes, plus a call if it lasts more than 2 hours. Affected staff, everyone at SNWR Mumbai HQ: a short notice at the start, then every hour, and a final all-clear. Service Desk agents: the latest status to read out to callers, updated every 30 minutes.
Figure 1. Who hears what, and how often.

3 A good update

  • What’s broken: “SNWR Email is down at Mumbai HQ.”
  • What we’re doing: “We’re moving email to a backup server.”
  • What you can do: “Use Teams chat for now.”
  • Next update: “By 11:00.”

💡 Good to know: Always give the time of the next update, even if nothing has changed. Silence makes people worry.

⚠️ Heads up: Keep technical details out of staff updates. Say what it means for them.

4 Let’s try it: set up SNWR’s plan

  1. In the All menu, search Communication Plan and open the plan definitions (part of incident communication management).
  2. Create a plan named SNWR Major Incident Updates, for major incidents.
  3. Add contacts: Anita Rao and Beth Anglin (leaders), and the Mumbai HQ staff.
  4. Add communication tasks: leaders every 30 minutes, staff at the start and every hour.
  5. Accept a test major incident and check the plan and tasks are added.

5 Quick recap

  • A communication plan says who to update, how and how often
  • Communication tasks remind the team when an update is due
  • SNWR updates leaders every 30 minutes, staff every hour
  • A good update says what’s broken, what we’re doing, what you can do and when the next update is
  • Keep staff updates simple

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 How often does Anita get updates in a SNWR major incident? Show answer

Every 30 minutes.

2 What reminds the team that an update is due? Show answer

A communication task.

3 What should every update end with? Show answer

The time of the next update.

4 Should staff updates include server names? Show answer

No. Say what it means for them.

Nice work! SNWR’s leaders and staff are always kept informed. 🎉
Next up: Closing and Reviewing a Major Incident

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