What qualifies as an incident in the context of PagerDuty?

In the context of PagerDuty, an incident is characterized as an unplanned interruption to a service. This definition underlines the nature of incidents as unexpected events that disrupt the normal functioning of services. Such interruptions can lead to downtime, degraded performance, or failures that affect the users or stakeholders relying on the service. Recognizing an unplanned interruption as an incident is crucial for teams using PagerDuty, as it triggers the necessary response mechanisms to mitigate the issue, restore service, and notify the appropriate personnel for resolution.

Other scenarios like planned service downtimes, scheduled maintenance windows, or customer complaints do not fit the definition of an incident in this context. Planned downtimes and maintenance windows are typically pre-communicated, allowing users to prepare for the service unavailability, while customer complaints might indicate dissatisfaction but do not necessarily represent a disruption in service availability or functionality. This distinction is essential for effectively managing incidents and ensuring service reliability.