Let us start with the basics—incidents are scary. They cause our bodies to produce adrenaline and make our hearts race. They force us to stop what we are doing and reevaluate. Commonly, when responding to incidents, we try to figure out what is going on and what is not working while in a panicked state.
An incident is when something significant happens and it requires you to change your path and normal actions. It could be a cup of coffee spilling on you and you need to change your clothes. An accident could happen during your commute to work, causing you to have to take a different route.
You could fall and break your arm and have to spend the next three months wearing a cast. All of these incidents require you to do something immediately and then, often, make longer-term changes to your plans.
In software, incidents can be similar. They tend to be a failure due to a change in the system (either in the system itself or the input the system is receiving) or something changing...