Incident Management Policy

Learn about incident management policy in the context of ITIL 4, with clear explanations, everyday examples and tips you can use with a real IT team.

Contribute to the cybersecurity survey asking the questions others didn't dare to... Click here

Helps layout expectations and guidance around the Incident Management Process for staff.

Purchase My Full ISO 27001 Toolkit
Every document needed for ISO 27001

The Incident Management Policy is a crucial document that outlines how an organisation identifies, handles, and resolves incidents affecting its IT systems, services, and infrastructure. The goal is to maintain operational efficiency and security, thereby ensuring compliance with industry regulations and best practices.

Incident management policy example

What is the Purpose of the Incident Management Policy Template?

This template serves as a framework for creating a tailored Incident Management Policy for your organisation. It aims to provide guidelines for minimising the impact of incidents on operations, restoring service levels swiftly, and ensuring that compliance measures are followed.

Where and When to Use the Incident Management Policy Template?

This template is ideal for organisations with a focus on IT governance, security, and operational efficiency. It should be used when establishing or updating the incident management protocols. Regular reviews are recommended to keep the policy up-to-date.

What’s Inside?

  • Purpose & Scope: Defines the objectives and applicability of the policy.
  • Definitions: Explains key terms like ‘Incident,’ ‘Major Incident,’ and ‘Stakeholders.’
  • Incident Management Process: Steps from recording the incident to closure, including categorisation and resolution.
  • Prioritisation Method: A matrix for determining incident priority based on impact and urgency.
  • Major Incident Management Process: A detailed guide for handling major incidents.
  • Roles & Responsibilities: Explains the roles of IT Helpdesk, Help Desk Manager, IT Support Personnel, Major Incident Manager, and Senior Management.
  • Stakeholder Communication: Describes the methods used for keeping stakeholders informed.
  • Confidentiality: Protocols for handling sensitive information.
  • Compliance & Policy Review: Explains the necessity of adherence to the policy and its review cycle.

Additional Information

  • Incident Review and Continuous Improvement: The policy includes guidelines for quarterly reviews and in-depth post-mortems following major incidents.
  • Target Resolution Times: Defines response and resolution times based on incident priority levels.

Why Choose Our Incident Management Policy Template?

Our template is comprehensive and follows best practices in IT governance and security. It ensures that you have a structured approach to dealing with both regular and major incidents, thereby helping to maintain operational integrity and comply with relevant regulations.

Previous post

Why Projects Fail

Photo of author

Written by

Alan Parker

Alan Parker is an ISO 27001 consultant and founder of Iseo Blue Limited. He helps UK SMEs achieve certification in 90 days or less - often without a dedicated security team or a large budget. With over 30 years in IT governance and information security, Alan works with software companies, IT service providers, managed service providers, and professional services firms across the UK, Europe, and internationally. Qualifications: ITIL v3 Expert, ITIL v4 Bridge, PRINCE2 Practitioner. Named IT Project Expert of the Year (2024, UK). Alan writes in plain English for busy teams who need to get things done. Connect on LinkedIn or Bluesky, or explore his free ISO 27001 tools and templates at iseoblue.com. B.Sc (Hons) Information Systems, CISMP certified.