The term ‘major incident’ sounds like it always means a life-or-death situation, or some historically monumental occurrence. But more often than not, a major incident isn’t any of those things. Having an unclear understanding of what a major incident is can hold you and your business back from creating the systems needed to manage and resolve incidents quickly, and keep operations running smoothly. So, what is a major incident anyway?
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Major Incidents 101
Not knowing how to define a major incident is a common problem. Depending on who you ask, a major incident is defined in either acute specifics or obtuse, vague terms.
For example:
● The Free Dictionary defines a major incident as “an event or situation that threatens serious damage to human welfare,
A Category 2 hurricane nearing landfall, a broken freezer leaking artisanal vegan ice cream, a web store where the shopping cart can’t remember the items added to it, and a flooded basement in the sciences building on a college campus. What do these four events have in common? Depending on the industry you work in, they’re major incidents.