Incident Response Team Setup

Guides building an incident response (IR) team and testing program from zero using a 7-phase process: staffing model selection, role catalog definition, team charter writing, severity and priority model design, operating parameters, response plan development, playbook creation, and a 3-tier testing program. Consumes the risk register produced by disaster-risk-assessment to calibrate severity levels against real exposure. Output: IR team charter, severity/priority models, response plan templates, playbook structure, and a testing program design.

When to Use

• Building an IR team for the first time or formalizing an ad hoc response function
• Redesigning an existing IR team after a significant organizational or threat environment change
• Establishing severity and priority models before the next incident season
• Designing a tabletop exercise or a disaster recovery test program
• Scoping which incidents to handle in-house vs. outsource
• Establishing IR training requirements and response decision criteria

Prerequisite: A completed risk register from disaster-risk-assessment. The P×I rankings and scenario list from that register feed directly into severity model calibration in Step 4. Without it, severity thresholds will be guesswork rather than evidence-based.

Process

Step 1 — Choose a staffing model