Which part of incident management focuses on understanding the effects of an incident?

The correct answer is impact assessment, which is a crucial aspect of incident management that involves evaluating the consequences and effects of an incident on the organization. This process allows teams to comprehend the severity and scope of the incident, including how it affects operations, stakeholders, data integrity, and overall business continuity.

During impact assessment, teams gather relevant information to determine the extent of disruption caused by the incident. This includes identifying the systems and processes affected, the number of users impacted, potential financial losses, and any legal or regulatory implications. Understanding these effects is vital for prioritizing response actions, allocating resources effectively, and ultimately guiding decision-making for incident resolution.

In contrast, while incident resolution focuses on restoring services and fixing the underlying issues caused by the incident, it does not primarily emphasize understanding the effects. Incident identification is about recognizing that an incident has occurred, and incident closure pertains to the formal conclusion of the incident management process after all actions have been taken and lessons learned have been documented. Therefore, impact assessment plays a distinct role by centering on the implications of the incident itself, making it the most relevant aspect in this context.