Incident Management

Incident Management process is supported by a SM workflow cartridge that enables the execution of the process according to the ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000 guidelines.

Of course the preconfigured process (the workflow cartridge) is just an accelerator and the tuning / completion of the initial configuration will still be required. To this aim, the Workflow Engine guide may be useful.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the configuration below is only one of the possible configuration to deal with the incident management process. The need for a different behaviour of the process may be fulfilled by simple changes of the configuration.

Operational model

The preconfigured process has the objective to facilitate and support the resolution of incidents or the provision of workarounds. At the core of the process configuration is the following operational model.

Incident Management operational model

The requester requires to open an incident by contacting the service desk. One of the members of the service desk takes the request in charge,

becoming the owner of it, and starts to manage it. The owner may find a workaround and/or solution for the incident and, therefore, may close it. Alternatively, the owner may not be able to find any solution or workaround and may need to involve technical staff to investigate and find it. In such a case, he/she will route to the technical staff the incident, still remaining accountable for it. In other words, the service desk alwasy acts as a single point of contact (SPOC) for the requester.

Roles

For this process, the following organizational roles are defined:

Organizational role	Description	itmSUITE® role mapping
Requester	Opens incidents on behalf of himself/herself or for a third party Monitors the resolution of the incidents Confirms that the incident is closed	This role is mapped on a system resource with user of user type "Requester". The login identifier of this user is "FinalUser".
Service desk member	Also known as First Line Support, it is the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for the requester This group receives the notifications of all the incidents opened One of the members decides to deal with the incident and takes the incident owner role	This role is mapped on a system resource with user of user type "Resource". The login identifier of this user is "SDSpecialist". The resource is also member of the "Service Desk" solution group which is set as master solution group.
Service desk manager	Overviews and coordinates the service desk	The role is assigned to the service desk member, user "SDSpecialist", who is also member of the "Service Desk"solution group and is set as solution group manager for it.
Incident owner	Role taken on by someone who is part of  the service desk team Offers initial support and attempts to resolve the incident Activates escalation/ routing/ requests Manages all the communications with the requester Watches over and monitors the incident along all its lifecycle ensuring target service levels are achieved Checks the implemented resolution and sets the incident to resolved If needed, closes the incident	The role is set to the service desk member who takes in charge the incident.
Technical team member	He/she receives the notification on the assignment of an activity concerning an incident (e.g. conducting the analysis and finding to find a resolution or workaround for it) Carries out the assigned tasks Notices when completed or unable to complete	There are several technical teams predefined for different domains. The following table shows which users are members of each team. Domain Solution group Member users Application management "Application Management" "AppManager" "AppSpecialist" Personal devices management "Personal Management" "PersonalManager" "PersonalSpecialist" Network management "Network Management" "NetManager" "NetSpecialist" Server management "Server Management" "ServerManager" "ServerSpecialist"
Technical team manager	Receives the notification on the assignment of the incident to his/her team in order to find a resolution or workaround for it Assign the member of his/her team who should work on it (this can be done by setting the ticket worker or creating and assigning ticket activities) Watches over and monitors the work of his team	There are several technical teams predefined for different domains. The following table shows which users are set as solution group manager for each domain. Domain Solution group Solution group manager Application management "Application Management" User "AppManager". Personal devices management "Personal Management" User "Personal Manager". Network management "Network Management" User "NetManager". Server management "Server Management" User "ServerManager".
Service manager	Monitors how the incidents are evolving for the service(s) he/she is responsible for	This role is mapped on a system resource with user of user type "Project/Service Manager". The login identifier of this user is "ServiceManager", who is set as service manager for the "itmCLOUD" service.

Process

As for all workflows, new incidents can be created by using the self service portal, accessible by means of Self Service menu.

The following requests which trigger a new instance of the incident management process are configured and available to all organizational roles in the self service portal:

A workflow is configured to support the Incident management process. The workflow is characterized by workflow statuses and workflow transitions. The figure below illustrates the process.

Incident management process.

The table below explains the meaning of each workflow status.

Workflow status	Description
"Default"	A preliminary status which is displayed when an incident is created.
"Opened"	The incident has been recorded and activities to resolve it started.
"In Charge"	The service desk has taken the incident in charge and started to work on it directly or by routing to other teams.
"Resolved"	A workaround or a definitive solution has been found.
"Suspended"	The activities to analyse and solve the incident are temporarily suspended.
"Cancelled"	The incident has not been rejected or has not been confirmed.
"Closed"	The incident closure has been confirmed. No other changes are possible.

And finally the table below explains the roles authorized to execute the workflow transitions.

Source status	Destination status	Authorized executors	Comment
"Default"	"Opened"	Requester
"Opened"	"In Charge"	Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"Opened"	"Cancelled"	Creator or Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"In Charge"	"Resolved"	Service desk member or Technical team member	Technical team members are configured through solution group. Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"In Charge"	"Suspended"	Service desk member or Technical team member	Technical team members are configured through solution group. Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"In Charge"	"Cancelled"	Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"Resolved"	"Closed"	Creator or Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"Resolved"	"In Charge"	Creator or Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"Suspended"	"In Charge"	Service desk member or Technical team member	Technical team members are configured through solution group. Service desk members are configured through master solution group.

Services

Different services are configured for different incident domain areas as illustrated in the following table.

Incidents domain areas	Service	Service manager
Application management	Only one application, and the related service ("itmCLOUD") is configured.	The user "servicemanager" is configured as service manager.
Personal devices management	"Personal Device Management".	The user "personalmanager" is configured as service manager.
Network management	"Network Management"	The user "netmanager" is configured as service manager.
Server management	"Server Management"	The user "servermanager" is configured as service manager.

Management information

Many management information are available as fields in the incident management configured form. The following table illustrates the intended use of key information and its behaviour. NOTE: information are available (visible) and can be modified according to a specific configuration which is meant to be suitable for the organizational roles involved in the process.

Information group or tab	Field	Purpose	Comments
"Default"	"Opened"	Requester
"Opened"	"In Charge"	Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"Opened"	"Cancelled"	Creator or Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"In Charge"	"Resolved"	Service desk member or Technical team member	Technical team members are configured through solution group. Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"In Charge"	"Suspended"	Service desk member or Technical team member	Technical team members are configured through solution group. Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"In Charge"	"Cancelled"	Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"Resolved"	"Closed"	Creator or Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"Resolved"	"In Charge"	Creator or Service desk member	Service desk members are configured through master solution group.
"Suspended"	"In Charge"	Service desk member or Technical team member	Technical team members are configured through solution group. Service desk members are configured through master solution group.

Views

The following views are made available in the Tickets area of the home page:

View	Content	Requester	Service desk	Technical team
Incidents resolved	Incidents in status "Resolved"	X
Incidents opened	Incidents in status "Opened"		X
Incidents assigned	Incidents in status "In Charge" and assigned to the solution group to which the resource belongs			X

Additionally, the following views are made available in the Incident menu for all the organizational roles:

View	Content
Incidents active	Incidents in status "Opened" "In Charge", "Resolved"
Incidents suspended	Incidents in status "Suspended
Incidents closed	Incidents in status "Closed"
Incidents cancelled	Incidents in status "Cancelled"

Notifications

The following notifications are configured:

Trigger	Recipients	Purpose
An incident is opened	Solution group members of "Service Desk"	Alert that there is an incident to manage.
An incident is taken in charge	The incident creator	Alert that someone has started to work on the incident.
An incident is resolved	The incident creator	Alert that the incident is resolved.
A solution group is assigned or changed for the incident	Solution group manager	Alert that there is a resource to allocate to manage the incident.
A ticket worker is assigned	The assigned ticket worker	Alert that there is work to be done.
An incident is suspended	The incident creator	Alert that the incident is suspended.
An incident is closed	Solution group members of "Service Desk"	Alert that the incident has been closed.
An incident is cancelled	The incident creator	Alert that the incident has been canceled.

Examples of use

Try the following sequence:

(table with steps, etc.)