Incident Report Template for SaaS Products
SaaS incidents affect paying customers with SLA expectations. Reports must document timeline, impact, root cause, and corrective actions with rigor.
This template provides structure that satisfies both internal reviews and customer-facing communication.
Template sections
4 sections covering the complete incident report workflow.
Severity and Impact
Classify severity: SEV1 (fully down) through SEV4 (cosmetic). Document customers affected, features unavailable, and SLA thresholds breached.
Timeline
Complete timeline: issue start, detection, incident declared, major actions taken, service restored, incident closed.
Root Cause Analysis
Use 5 Whys. Distinguish proximate cause (what triggered it) from root cause (systemic issue). Root causes are usually process or architecture issues.
Corrective Actions
Immediate (prevent recurrence), short-term (reduce severity of similar incidents), and long-term (eliminate the class of incident). Each has an owner and deadline.
Copy-paste template
# Incident Report: [Description] ## Summary - Severity: [SEV1-4] - Duration: [X hours] - Customers affected: [Count] - SLA breach: [Yes/No] ## Timeline | Time (UTC) | Event | |---|---| | [HH:MM] | Issue began | ## Root Cause: [Description] ## Actions | Action | Owner | Deadline | |---|---|---| | [Fix] | [Name] | [Date] |
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