# Don't count your incidents, make your incidents count

DevFeed: [Don't count your incidents, make your incidents count](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/don-t-count-your-incidents-make-your-incidents-count-11761.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://incident.io/blog/dont-count-your-incidents-make-your-incidents-count>)

Author: Chris Evans

Published: 2021-06-17T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [The incident.io Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/the-incident-io-blog.md>)

Topics: [incident](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/incident.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systems.md>)

Tags: [analysis](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/analysis.md>), [culture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/culture.md>), [errors](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/errors.md>), [incident](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident.md>), [incident-channel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident-channel.md>), [incident-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident-management.md>), [incident-response](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incident-response.md>), [outage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/outage.md>), [post-mortem](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/post-mortem.md>), [slack-incident](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/slack-incident.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/systems.md>)

## AI overview

Counting incidents as a target can create misleading signals and counterproductive behavior, such as suppressing reports or debating severity labels. The article argues for analyzing contributing factors, encouraging incident reporting, responding effectively, and sharing knowledge afterward.

## Source excerpt

Whilst setting incident targets might work in some organizations, it's worth considering whether they provide the signal you expect, and whether the implications of doing so have been properly considered.