Hey folks! We‘re back with another nifty feature to your Incident Management tool arsenal. You now have the ability to merge incidents with a few clicks! With this latest update you can reduce the noise while dealing with a complex incident by merging incidents across services under a parent incident. Typically this can occur when multiple incidents stem from the same underlying issue or root cause. Incident responders can then focus on what's important: Root cause identification and its impact on the infrastructure. This feature can come handy during major incidents that span multiple services in complex infrastructures.

So, why Merge Incidents in the first place?

1. Enhanced Visibility: Merging incidents provides a consolidated view of the issue, making it easier for teams to understand the scope and impact.
2. Faster Resolution: By combining similar incidents, you can focus resources on resolving the root cause instead of addressing each incident separately.
3. Reduced Duplication: Merging prevents the duplication of effort and ensures that everyone is pooling their efforts in the same direction.
4. Improved Communication: A single merged incident simplifies communication with stakeholders, keeping them informed about progress and resolution.

When to Merge Incidents?

While the decision to merge incidents completely depends on the system complexity and service interdependencies, here are a few scenarios where using the merge incidents feature can be useful: 

1. Common Root Cause: When multiple incidents stem from the same underlying issue or root cause, merging them helps streamline the investigation and resolution process.
2. Multiple Reports of the Same Problem: When several users report the same problem, merging their incidents under a single parent incident can prevent duplication of effort.
3. Related Incidents: When separate incidents are interrelated, such as a network outage affecting multiple services, merging can help maintain a clear incident chain.

How does Merge Incidents work? 

For a detailed breakdown of how you can access the feature, what it can (and cannot do) and other nitty gritties check out our documentation here. OR you can watch the video below for a quick rundown on how parent and child incidents are created!

Conclusion

In conclusion, we believe merging incidents will help optimise your incident management process and prevent duplication of effort. Or simply put, you’d rather not find out the hard way that you and your teammate were working on the same incident all along. This feature is available to everyone who takes Squadcast on a spin via our 14 day free trial!