Why establishing clear control at the start of a major incident call matters for incident responders

Outline at a glance

• Core idea: Start with a strong command structure to bring clarity and momentum to a major incident.

• What control looks like in practice: an Incident Commander, clear roles, a concise brief, and trusted channels.

• How PagerDuty supports this: a disciplined runbook, a dedicated war room mindset, fast escalation, and shared situational awareness.

• Why this matters: better communication, faster triage, fewer missed steps, and a smoother path to resolution.

• Common pitfalls to avoid: vague ownership, cluttered channels, and late scoping.

• Quick takeaways: practical steps you can apply on day one to establish control.

Let’s start with the frame: why establishing control at the start matters

Imagine you’re on a major incident call. The clock is ticking, the room feels crowded with voices, and you’re trying to separate signal from noise. In moments like this, a single, steady command that says, “This is how we roll,” makes all the difference. That’s what establishing control at the outset does. It doesn’t just manage the chaos; it channels it. It gives the team a shared sense of purpose and a clear map of who does what, when, and why.

In a PagerDuty-driven workflow, control is less about micromanaging and more about lighting a path through the fog. It’s about creating a temporary command structure that everyone can rely on. When you kick off with a designated leader—the Incident Commander—the team gains a focal point for decisions, a single thread to pull on, and a rhythm for information flow. This clarity is your best shield against miscommunication, scope creep, and noisy chatter that slows everyone down.

Let me explain how that translates into real-world action. At the start of a major incident, you’re not just reacting; you’re coordinating. You set the scene with a quick, sharp briefing that answers the basics: what happened, what’s affected, what’s the current priority, and who’s on point for which task. With this shared mental model, engineers are free to focus on fixes rather than frantically figuring out who is responsible for what. The result? The response feels more deliberate, less chaotic, and more likely to hit the target of containment sooner.

The role that anchors everything: the Incident Commander

Think of the Incident Commander as the person who keeps the train on the rails. They don’t fix every problem themselves; they orchestrate the effort. They confirm the scope, set the tempo, and ensure the right people are in the right places. In practice, the Incident Commander:

• Opens a concise briefing that states the incident and its priority.

• Assigns roles clearly: tech lead, communications lead, logistics, and safety if needed.

• Keeps the critical moments moving: decisions are made, documented, and communicated.

• Maintains a single thread of truth for status and next actions.

You don’t want the role so exalted that no one else speaks up, nor so weak that the decision-making stalls. It’s a balance—firm enough to move fast, flexible enough to incorporate new information. PagerDuty helps by providing the structure in the moment: a centralized place for events, a channel for updates, and workflows that reflect who’s responsible for what. The goal is a quick, confident start that invites calm, deliberate action rather than panic or delay.

What does control look like in a PagerDuty-enabled workflow?

Here’s a practical picture you can visualize when a major incident hits:

• A spine of communication: The incident is declared, the war room is convened, and a briefing is delivered. The Incident Commander states the priorities and who’s covering which lane of the response.

• Clear roles, simple handoffs: Each function—on-call engineers, network specialists, database admins, and the communications liaison—knows who to report to and who approves what.

• A living playbook: Runbooks or playbooks outline steps for common failure modes, and they’re referenced during the response, not reinvented on the fly.

• Rapid triage and prioritization: By assessing severity, user impact, and containment potential, the team aligns on what to fix first and what to monitor second.

• Status of the status: Status updates flow through a shared channel or dashboard, so everyone reads from the same page and no one reinvents the wheel with every message.

That structure isn’t about slowing things down; it’s about making the speed sustainable. When the team isn’t reinventing the wheel with each new update, they’re freed to execute fixes, test changes, and validate results with confidence.

A quick aside on the human element

People respond to clarity. When you establish control early, you reduce cognitive load. Folks can channel their energy into solving problems instead of debating ownership. It’s a small but powerful shift: from “who should do this?” to “this is who’s handling it, and this is how we’ll know it’s done.” And on a human level, that reduces stress. The mind breathes easier when there’s a plan you can trust.

Common pitfalls that undermine early control—and how to avoid them

• Vague ownership: If nobody is clearly on point, decision-making stalls. Fix: appoint an Incident Commander and spell out roles during the initial briefing. Keep the list to essential players so it’s easy to refer to.

• Too many voices, not enough direction: An overpopulated call can become a chorus of distracting opinions. Fix: establish one primary communicator (the Communications Lead) and a cadence for updates. Let engineers speak to fixes, not to administrivia.

• Delayed scoping: Waiting to understand the full impact wastes time. Fix: outline the current impact and scope at the start, with a plan to re-scope as new data lands. You can always adjust, but you must begin.

• Fragmented channels: Multiple, parallel chat streams create silos. Fix: consolidate into a single incident channel or a designated war room, with critical updates cross-posted to status dashboards for visibility.

• Relying on heroics instead of processes: Heroic patches feel fast but brittle. Fix: pair fast actions with documented runbooks so repeatable success is possible, even when experts are not available.

The human-friendly, practical steps you can start using today

• Appoint a starter: At the moment an incident lands, name an Incident Commander. Give them a tight 60-second briefing window to set priorities and assign roles.

• Draft a one-page objective: In plain terms, what’s the primary goal right now? Contain? Restore service? Validate a fix? State it and revisit as needed.

• Create a simple runbook reference: Have key steps for common failure modes ready and accessible. If you’ve got PagerDuty, link those steps in the incident page so the team can follow along without hunting.

• Establish a single source of truth: A primary channel for incident updates, plus a dashboard or status page that mirrors what the team sees in real time.

• Keep the cadence practical: Short, focused updates at set intervals keep momentum without turning the call into a logbook. If things change, you’ll adjust, but don’t flood the channel with noise.

• Close the loop quickly: When containment is achieved or a fix is verified, announce it clearly and document what changed, what’s next, and who approves a broader rollout.

A few digressions that still tie back to the main thread

• Runbooks aren’t a relic; they’re a living safety net. They aren’t rigid scripts but living guides that reflect your system’s reality. Update them after every incident so they stay useful.

• Communication is a skill, not a checkbox. The best incident teams practice concise updates, avoid jargon with outsiders, and use plain language when explaining what happened and why it matters.

• The value of a post-incident review: A thoughtful debrief isn’t about assigning blame; it’s about learning where the command structure worked and where it didn’t. A good review solidifies the protocol so the next incident starts with more clarity.

What this means for your day-to-day work as a PagerDuty-minded responder

When you begin with a controlled moment, you set the tone for the rest of the incident. The team benefits from a predictable rhythm, and stakeholders gain confidence in the response. That confidence isn’t just feel-good; it translates into faster containment, fewer miscommunications, and a smoother upgrade or rollback process if a fix needs adjustment.

If you’re shopping for ways to sharpen incident response, consider how your tooling supports that initial framing. PagerDuty isn’t a magic wand, but it does offer a disciplined backbone: clear incident pages, escalation policies that get the right people in the room, and the ability to surface runbook references at the moment they’re needed. Use those features to enforce a calm, purposeful start. That’s how you build a team that can handle the heat without melting down.

Final takeaways you can carry into the next major incident

• Start with a designated Incident Commander and a crisp, shared briefing.

• Define roles early and keep the channels lean and purposeful.

• Rely on a living playbook to guide actions, not to trap the team in rigid steps.

• Maintain a single source of truth for status, decisions, and next steps.

• Revisit scope and priorities as new facts emerge, but don’t let the call stall while you wait for perfect information.

• Close the loop with a clear, documented resolution and a quick, constructive post-incident review.

In the end, establishing control at the start isn’t about winning a race; it’s about creating a reliable rhythm that guides the entire response. A steady hand at the helm keeps the team focused, the lines of communication open, and the path to resolution visible. And while the clock may still be ticking, you’ll find that momentum builds when everyone knows where they’re headed and why. That’s the essence of effective incident response—a practical, human-centered approach that teams can rely on, even when the pressure is highest.