---
title: Managing major incidents using playbooks
description: Manage the major incident life cycle and process using Major Incident Playbooks from the contextual side panel of an incident record page.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/managing-mi-playbook-sow.html
release: australia
product: Service Operations Workspace
classification: service-operations-workspace
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 2
breadcrumb: [Managing a major incident record, Major Incident Management in Service Operations Workspace, Managing IT services in your organization, Service Operations Workspace for ITSM, IT Service Management]
---

# Managing major incidents using playbooks

Manage the major incident life cycle and process using Major Incident Playbooks from the contextual side panel of an incident record page.

A Major Incident Playbook in Service Operations Workspace provides a guided approach to the entire major incident process. It provides a way to visualize business process workflows for major incidents in a simple, concise, and task-oriented view. You can access the Major Incident Playbook using the **Major Incident Playbooks** \(\[Omitted image "mim-playbook-icon.png"\] Alt text: Major incident playbook\) icon on the contextual side panel of an incident record page.

The following playbooks are available in the base system for Major Incident Management:

-   **MI playbook** - Provides a simple and concise interface in separate sections for planned and unplanned communication or collaboration features in a task-oriented view. This playbook is suggested for upgrade customers.
-   **Advanced MI playbook** - Provides a similar interface to the MI playbook but has more advanced, configurable capabilities for planned and unplanned communication or collaboration, as well as collaboration placed under a single section. You can configure the unplanned communication or collaboration section to create, add, and configure the communication plans and tasks, and the collaboration channels or channel types using Playbooks. For more information, see [Designing a major incident playbook](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/design-playbooks-mim-sow.md). This playbook is suggested for new or zBoot customers.

You can select and assign one or more of the playbooks to Major Incident Management as needed. The **Playbook** tab displays all the playbooks that are assigned to Major Incident Management. For more information on assigning playbooks to major incidents, see [Assign a playbook to Major Incident Management](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/assign-playbook-mim-sow.md).

-   **[Manage major incidents using the MI playbook](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/manage-mi-playbook-mim-sow.md)**  
Manage major incidents using the MI playbook from the contextual side panel or the **Playbook** tab of an incident record page. This playbook provides a simple, concise, and task-oriented interface for managing the major incident process.
-   **[Manage major incidents using the Advanced MI playbook](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/manage-advanced-playbook-mim-sow.md)**  
Manage a major incident using the Advanced MI playbook that's available on the contextual side panel or the **Playbook** tab of an incident record page. This playbook provides a similar interface to the MI playbook but has advanced, configurable capabilities for communication and collaboration steps.

**Parent Topic:**[Managing a major incident record](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/service-operations-workspace/managing-major-incident-sow.md)