Major Incident Lifecycle for IT Services

Available in: Lightning Experience

Available in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions with Agentforce IT Service.

A major incident typically progresses through these review states:

• Proposed: The fulfiller submits the incident for consideration as a major incident. This state is also called a major incident candidate.
• Approved: The major incident manager reviews and accepts the incident as a major incident.
• Rejected: The major incident manager rejects the incident. If there’s a business need, fulfillers can propose it again as a major incident.
• Demoted: The major incident manager demotes the incident back to a standard incident when it no longer requires major incident handling.

When an incident is first created, the Is Major Incident and Major Incident Comment fields are empty. If an incident fulfiller identifies an incident that critically affects business operations, they can propose it as a major incident.

After the fulfiller proposes the incident, the major incident status changes to Proposed. The major incident manager reviews the justification and either approves or rejects the proposal.

• If approved, the system updates status to Approved, sets the Is Major Incident value to Yes, and manages the incident through the major incident process. If the impact is reduced later, the major incident can be demoted back to a standard incident.
• If rejected, the system updates the status to Rejected, and the incident continues through the regular workflow.
• If demoted, the system updates the incident so it's no longer treated as a major incident.

Use the Major Incident Status Comments field to document key details, such as the decision rationale, investigation updates, or resolution notes. This maintains transparency across teams and provides a chronological record of actions taken.

After handling and verifying the issue, the major incident manager closes the incident.

If your admin sets up notifications, predefined notifications keep stakeholders such as employees and internal teams informed about major incidents. Notifications show progress through these stages. See Notifications for IT Services.