Planned Maintenance
Proactive maintenance communication keeps stakeholders informed and minimizes disruption. Discover best practices for assessing impact, providing advance notice, sending reminders, and more.
Planned maintenance requires proactive and transparent communication to minimize disruption and maintain trust.
For general preparation steps—such as stakeholder lists, communication channels, and templates—refer to the chapter.
1. Assessing Impact
Before communicating planned maintenance, assess its potential impact to determine the appropriate communication strategy.
Service Criticality: Identify which services or components will be affected and how essential they are to users.
Scope and Duration: Estimate how many users will be impacted and for how long.
Audience: Determine whether the maintenance affects internal teams, external customers, partners, or regulators.
Impact Level: Categorize the maintenance as minor (low risk, minimal disruption) or major (high risk, significant disruption).
Use this assessment to decide on lead times, notification channels, and the frequency of reminders.
2. Before Maintenance
Advance Notice
Communicate the planned maintenance window as early as possible, with more lead time for higher-impact work (e.g., 1–2 weeks for major customer-facing maintenance, a few days for minor updates).
Tailor the message to each audience, using appropriate channels (email, status page, in-app notifications, internal chat, etc.).
Reminders
Schedule and send reminders at logical intervals—such as one week, one day, and one hour before the maintenance begins—especially for high-impact changes.
Each reminder should restate the essential details: affected services, maintenance window, expected downtime, and support contacts.
Message Content
What: Clearly describe the maintenance activity and which services will be affected.
When: Specify the exact start and end times (including time zones).
Why: Briefly explain the reason for maintenance (e.g., upgrades, security patches, infrastructure improvements).
Impact: State what users can expect (e.g., downtime, degraded performance, no impact).
Support: Provide contact details for questions or urgent issues.
Handling Changes
If the schedule or scope of maintenance changes (e.g., rescheduling, extension, or cancellation), promptly update all affected stakeholders with the new details.
Use the same channels as the original notifications to ensure consistency and visibility.
3. During Maintenance
Status Updates
If maintenance starts late, is running longer than planned, or completes early, communicate these changes in real time.
For major or customer-facing maintenance, provide periodic updates on progress, especially if there are unexpected delays.
Unexpected Issues
If unplanned problems arise during maintenance that affect users beyond the communicated scope, escalate communications as you would for an incident (see the “During Incident” chapter).
Clearly distinguish between planned effects and unforeseen issues.
Reassurance
Remind stakeholders that your team is actively monitoring the process and is available to support any urgent needs.
Provide a point of contact for real-time inquiries.
4. After Maintenance
Completion Notice
Notify all stakeholders when maintenance is complete and services are fully restored.
Confirm whether the work was completed as planned or if there were deviations from the original scope.
Issue Reporting
Invite users to report any lingering issues or unexpected behaviors following maintenance.
Provide clear instructions or contact information for submitting feedback or support tickets.
Follow-up
If post-maintenance issues are discovered, communicate transparently about the nature of the problem, the steps being taken, and expected resolution timelines.
Update stakeholders as issues are resolved.
By following these steps, your planned maintenance communications will be timely, clear, and customer-focused—helping to reduce confusion, minimize disruption, and maintain trust with all stakeholders.
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