Incident management and crisis management are two important components of Business Continuity Management (BCM). They are distinct but interconnected aspects of an organization’s strategy for handling disruptions and maintaining essential operations. Here’s an overview of each:

Incident Management:
Definition: Incident management is the process of responding to and resolving day-to-day disruptions, issues, and minor events that have the potential to disrupt normal business operations. These incidents can include IT outages, equipment failures, minor security breaches, or other disruptions that affect business processes.
Scope: Incident management focuses on the immediate and short-term response to events, with the primary goal of minimizing the impact and restoring normal operations as quickly as possible.

Key Objectives:
Minimizing Disruption: The main objective is to limit the impact of the incident and maintain essential operations.
Response and Recovery: Actions are taken to address the incident, mitigate its effects, and restore normal business processes.
Documentation: Incidents are typically well-documented for analysis and improvement.
Examples: Examples of incidents include a server crash, a minor data breach, a power outage, or a localized IT system failure.

Crisis Management:
Definition: Crisis management, on the other hand, deals with major and often unexpected events that have the potential to seriously disrupt or even threaten an organization’s survival. These events can include natural disasters, cyberattacks, public relations crises, financial meltdowns, or other severe disruptions.

Scope: Crisis management involves planning for and responding to events that go beyond the scope of regular incident management and have the potential to affect the organization at a broader level.

Key Objectives:
Maintaining Organizational Survival: The primary goal is to ensure the organization’s survival and protect its reputation, people, and assets.
Communication and Coordination: Crisis management involves clear and effective communication with stakeholders, coordination of resources, and making strategic decisions.
Recovery and Continuity: The focus is on stabilizing the situation and ensuring essential functions can continue.
Examples: Examples of crises include a major data breach affecting customer data, a natural disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake, a significant product recall, or a public scandal.
In summary, incident management is concerned with the day-to-day handling of minor disruptions, focusing on a quick response and recovery. Crisis management, in contrast, deals with major, often unexpected events that have the potential to severely impact the organization, requiring a more strategic, coordinated, and long-term approach to ensure the organization’s survival and recovery. Both are essential components of a comprehensive Business Continuity Management (BCM) plan, with incident management often serving as a building block for crisis management preparedness.