Major Incident Management in Service Operations Workspace
Create and manage major incidents in Service Operations Workspace.
Major Incident Management overview
[Omitted video] Description: Introduction to Major Incident Management
[Omitted image "mim_sow_record_page_new.png.png"] Alt text: Major incident record
A major incident (MI) is created when an issue occurs that results in significant disruption to the business and demands a response beyond the normal incident management process.
Major incidents have a separate procedure with shorter timescales and higher priorities to encourage a faster resolution process for the incidents with a high business impact.
The definition of what constitutes a major incident must be determined based on your requirements. For example, a major incident can be created if a critical business service is impacted or if there’s a service outage that affects many users.
Major incident user roles
The major incident manager (major_incident_manager) user role is available in the base system and enables you to manage and resolve major incidents. As a major incident manager, you can do the following:
- Promote a major incident candidate to a major incident.
- Create a major incident.
- Directly promote an incident to a major incident without going through the proposal process.
Major incident creation
A major incident is created or promoted from a major incident candidate. A major incident candidate can be created from the incident record page in Service Operations Workspace in the following ways:
- Propose an incident as a major incident candidate.
- Create a major incident candidate.
- Use major incident trigger rules to propose an incident as a major incident candidate or promote directly to a major incident automatically.
Major incident response and handling
When responding to a major incident, some crucial actions include the following:
- Finding the correct resources
- Communicating updates to users and stakeholders
- Setting up conference calls to investigate and resolve the incident
- Escalating the incident when required
You must define the communication plans that are associated with a major incident based on predefined conditions. Incident communication plans and related communication tasks are created for a major incident based on the communication plan definitions. Then, tasks run as defined in the associated incident communication.
- Major Incident Management process in Service Operations Workspace
A major incident has a high impact and urgency that affects many users and deprives the business of one or more crucial services. Given the urgency of the situation, a well-coordinated response process is required to accelerate the resolution and minimize the business impact. - Managing a major incident record
Manage a major incident record with a playbook or the various tabs on the major incident record page.
Parent Topic:Managing IT services in your organization
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--- title: Major Incident Management in Service Operations Workspace description: Create and manage major incidents in Service Operations Workspace. locale: en-US canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/mim-in-sow.html release: brazil product: Service Operations Workspace classification: service-operations-workspace topic_type: concept last_updated: "2026-09-10" reading_time_minutes: 4 breadcrumb: [Managing IT services in your organization, Service Operations Workspace for ITSM, IT Service Management] --- # Major Incident Management in Service Operations Workspace Create and manage major incidents in Service Operations Workspace. ## Major Incident Management overview \[Omitted video\] Description: Introduction to Major Incident Management \[Omitted image "mim\_sow\_record\_page\_new.png.png"\] Alt text: Major incident record A major incident \(MI\) is created when an issue occurs that results in significant disruption to the business and demands a response beyond the normal incident management process. Major incidents have a separate procedure with shorter timescales and higher priorities to encourage a faster resolution process for the incidents with a high business impact. The definition of what constitutes a major incident must be determined based on your requirements. For example, a major incident can be created if a critical business service is impacted or if there’s a service outage that affects many users. ## Major incident user roles The major incident manager \(major\_incident\_manager\) user role is available in the base system and enables you to manage and resolve major incidents. As a major incident manager, you can do the following: - Promote a major incident candidate to a major incident. - Create a major incident. - Directly promote an incident to a major incident without going through the proposal process. ## Major incident creation A major incident is created or promoted from a major incident candidate. A major incident candidate can be created from the incident record page in Service Operations Workspace in the following ways: - Propose an incident as a major incident candidate. - Create a major incident candidate. - Use major incident trigger rules to propose an incident as a major incident candidate or promote directly to a major incident automatically. ## Major incident response and handling When responding to a major incident, some crucial actions include the following: - Finding the correct resources - Communicating updates to users and stakeholders - Setting up conference calls to investigate and resolve the incident - Escalating the incident when required You must define the communication plans that are associated with a major incident based on predefined conditions. Incident communication plans and related communication tasks are created for a major incident based on the communication plan definitions. Then, tasks run as defined in the associated incident communication. - **[Major Incident Management process in Service Operations Workspace](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/mim-process-sow.md)** A major incident has a high impact and urgency that affects many users and deprives the business of one or more crucial services. Given the urgency of the situation, a well-coordinated response process is required to accelerate the resolution and minimize the business impact. - **[Managing a major incident record](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/managing-major-incident-sow.md)** Manage a major incident record with a playbook or the various tabs on the major incident record page. **Parent Topic:**[Managing IT services in your organization](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/managing-services-operations-in-organization.md) **Related topics** [Knowledge Management in Service Operations Workspace]() [On-Call Scheduling in Service Operations Workspace]() [Problem Management in Service Operations Workspace]() [Recommendation Framework in Service Operations Workspace]() [Recommended Actions for ITSM in Service Operations Workspace]() [ServiceNow integrations with Microsoft Teams in Service Operations Workspace]() [Service Level Management in Service Operations Workspace]() [Walk-up Experience management in Service Operations Workspace]() [Collaboration in Service Operations Workspace]() [Computer Telephony Integration in Service Operations Workspace]() [Universal Request in Service Operations Workspace]() [Universal Task in Service Operations Workspace]() [Resetting password using Service-desk assisted Password Reset in Service Operations Workspace]()
| title | Major Incident Management in Service Operations Workspace |
| description | Create and manage major incidents in Service Operations Workspace. |
| locale | en-US |
| canonical_url | https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/mim-in-sow.html |
| release | brazil |
| product | Service Operations Workspace |
| classification | service-operations-workspace |
| topic_type | concept |
| last_updated | 2026-09-10 |
| reading_time_minutes | 4 |
| breadcrumb | Managing IT services in your organizationService Operations Workspace for ITSMIT Service Management |