Guide
Incident Commander Guide
Use the shortest path through declaration, command center, status updates, and handoff.
First 5 minutes
- Start the incident
- Open the command center
- Confirm severity, environment, impacted scope, and commander assignment.
- Make sure the bridge link or meeting link is available if the team uses one.
During active response
- Keep the incident summary current.
- Add timeline entries when facts change or decisions are made.
- Launch runbooks for repeated work.
- Use status updates and publishing when people outside the response need an update.
Before resolution
- Confirm the service is stable enough to stop active coordination.
- Check the timeline can be read by someone who was not in the bridge.
- Make sure the next follow-up step is visible.
- Use close and hand off to move into retrospective work.