# Incident communication plan

Replace every bracketed field with a team-owned answer before using this plan.

## Plan owner

- Product or service: `[product or service]`
- Plan reviewed: `[date, time, and timezone]`
- Communication owner: `[name or role]`
- Backup communication owner: `[name or role]`

## Communication trigger

- Team-defined trigger for customer communication: `[verified condition]`
- Trigger confirmed by: `[name or role]`
- Team-owned incident record: `[record or link]`

## Verified fact source

- Confirmed impact, scope, state, and time source: `[system, record, or role]`
- Fact approver: `[name or role]`
- Known unknowns are recorded at: `[record or link]`

## Audiences and channels

| Audience | Channel | Publication owner | Access tested |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `[audience]` | `[status page, email, in-app, or support]` | `[name or role]` | `[yes or no]` |

Add one row for each audience and channel your team uses.

## Stage templates

- Initial acknowledgment: `[template or link]`
- Ongoing investigation or no-change update: `[template or link]`
- Identified or mitigation update: `[template or link]`
- Monitoring update: `[template or link]`
- Resolution update: `[template or link]`
- Customer follow-up: `[template or link]`

## Next-update ownership

- Team-defined cadence or rule: `[interval or rule]`
- Owner of the next specific update: `[name or role]`
- Next update commitment: `[date, time, and timezone or team-defined state change]`
- Backup or handoff route: `[name, role, or process]`

## Review boundaries

- Security and privacy review route: `[role or process]`
- Legal, regulatory, contractual, SLA, and notification review route: `[role or process]`
- Information excluded from customer messages: `[sensitive categories under your process]`

## Handoff record

- Current verified incident state: `[state]`
- Last customer update: `[time, timezone, channel, and record or link]`
- Next update commitment: `[time, timezone, or team-defined state change]`
- Open reviews and owners: `[items and owners]`
- Incoming owner acknowledgment: `[name or role, date, time, and timezone]`

## Pre-incident readiness

- [ ] Communication owner and backup are named.
- [ ] Publishing access for every planned channel was tested.
- [ ] Stage templates were reviewed by their owners.
- [ ] Every published time will include a timezone.
- [ ] Audience and channel facts will be checked for agreement.
- [ ] Security, privacy, legal, regulatory, contractual, SLA, and notification review routes are known.
- [ ] Credentials and sensitive incident data are absent from this plan.

This template supports communication planning only. Your team retains authority for incident triggers, remediation, security, privacy, legal, regulatory, contractual, SLA, and notification duties.