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Icologiq Knowledge · Process
Incident Management
The structured process for reporting, assessing, investigating, following up and learning from incidents and related events.
Also known as:
incident reporting, incident investigation, incident follow-up
At a glance
Type
Process
Topic
Incident Management
Applies to
Cross-industry
Current version
Status
Last reviewed
October 23, 2026
Definition
Incident management covers the structured process from initial reporting through review or triage, risk assessment, investigation where appropriate, action assignment, verification, closure and learning. The process can also connect related observations, near misses, complaints and corrective actions where they reveal common risks or causes. The depth of follow-up should be proportionate to actual and potential impact.
Why it matters
Incident management matters because effective follow-up requires more than recording an event. A controlled process connects reporting, prioritization, ownership, investigation, actions and closure so significant issues receive proportionate attention while evidence and learning remain traceable.
Capture what happened, where and when, along with the evidence needed for someone else to understand the report.
Report and record the event
1
Check completeness, determine who should coordinate follow-up and reject or redirect reports that do not belong in the process.
Review and triage the report
2
Use consequence or effect, likelihood or chance and defined risk criteria to prioritize investigation, escalation and actions.
Assess actual and potential risk
3
Determine causes and control weaknesses when the event, recurrence or potential impact justifies deeper analysis.
Investigate where appropriate
4
Make action ownership, deadlines, completion evidence and review requirements visible until required work is complete.
Assign and track follow-up actions
5
Review whether required processing is complete, resolve rejected or incomplete actions and document the closure decision.
Verify handling and close
6
Use incident, near-miss and observation data to detect recurring patterns, improve controls and feed relevant risks or CAPAs.
Learn across incidents
7
Process explained
Managing incidents from report to closure and learning
The exact workflow can vary by risk and report type, but a mature incident process should make triage, ownership, action follow-up and closure decisions visible.
An unplanned event or condition that resulted in, or could contribute to, harm, loss, nonconformance or operational disruption.
Incident
Event
· Incident Management
An event that did not result in injury, damage or loss but had the potential to do so under slightly different circumstances.
Near Miss
Event
· Incident Management
A systematic approach for identifying the underlying causes of a problem or event instead of addressing only its immediate symptoms.
Root Cause Analysis
Method
· CAPA & Incidents
A structured process for addressing causes of actual or potential problems through corrective or preventive measures and verifying that actions are effective.
CAPA
Process
· CAPA & Incidents
An action taken to eliminate the cause of a detected nonconformity, incident or other unwanted condition and reduce the chance of recurrence.
Corrective Action
Process
· CAPA & Incidents
A root cause questioning method that repeatedly asks why a problem occurred to move from visible symptoms toward underlying causes.
5 Whys
Method
· CAPA & Incidents
A visual cause-analysis method that groups possible causes of a problem into structured categories so teams can investigate them systematically.
Fishbone Diagram
Method
· CAPA & Incidents
A prioritization method that ranks problem or cause categories by frequency, cost or other impact so teams can focus investigation and improvement effort where it matters most.
Pareto Analysis
Method
· CAPA & Incidents
An iterative four-step improvement cycle (Plan, Do, Check and Act) used to control processes, evaluate results and drive continual improvement.
Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle
Method
· Improvement
A recorded observation of a workplace condition, behavior or practice relevant to health and safety that can identify hazards, good practices or opportunities for improvement without requiring an incident to have occurred.
Safety Observation
Safety event
· Incident Management
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