Incident Response Template - Free Download & Example

When a production incident strikes, every minute counts. This incident response template provides a structured framework for detecting, classifying, communicating and resolving incidents. It includes an escalation matrix with responsibilities per severity level, communication templates for internal and external stakeholders, a diagnostic checklist for rapid root cause identification, rollback procedures and a comprehensive post-mortem template. By following an established incident response process you minimise downtime, protect your organisation's reputation and learn structurally from every incident.

Variations

How to use

Step 1: Download the incident response template and make sure the team knows where to find it before an incident occurs. Step 2: Upon detecting an incident: classify the severity (P1-Critical to P4-Low) according to the included criteria matrix. Step 3: Activate the communication protocol: notify the incident response team via the defined channel and assign an incident commander. Step 4: Start diagnostics: check monitoring dashboards, logs, recent deployments and configuration changes. Step 5: Implement a temporary fix or rollback to limit impact while the root cause is being investigated. Step 6: Keep stakeholders updated every 30 minutes via the status page and internal communication channels. Step 7: After resolving the incident: document a timeline of all actions and write a blameless post-mortem with root cause, impact, timeline and preventive actions. Step 8: Schedule a post-mortem review meeting within 48 hours and assign owners to the preventive actions.