ITIL Incident Management aims to minimize disruption to the business by restoring service operation to agreed levels as quickly as possible. Incident Management is often the first process instigated when introducing the ITIL quality framework to a Service Desk, and it offers the most immediate and highly visible cost reduction and quality gains.
1. Incident Management Best Practices
Step
ITIL
by
Step A Step-by-Step Guide
ITIL Incident Management aims to minimize disruption to the business by restoring service operation to agreed levels as
quickly as possible. Incident Management is often the first process instigated when introducing the ITIL quality framework
to a Service Desk, and it offers the most immediate and highly visible cost reduction and quality gains.
Step 1: Choose the Right Tool
Getting the process and the defined roles correct for your objectives is the main goal. Automating those processes makes it
all easier, faster, more effective and efficient. The software used to handle Incident Managment should include all of the
following features:
1. Ability to manage an incident through the entire lifecycle
2. Enforcement of standardized methods and procedures ensuring efficient and prompt handling of all incidents
3. An automatic escalation system that prioritizes and routes incidents according to your specific requirements – including
Service Level Agreements
4. Ability to classify incidents
5. Ability to report on high level or down to the detail on every incident– real-time
6. Ability to allow any user to request and track incident status
7. An integrated and searchable knowledgebase that can be populated with common solutions and work-arounds
to known problems
8. Ability to manage and report on Key Process Indicators (KPIs) such as number of incidents by category, priority, resolution,
service level agreement, etc.
Sample Incident Management Process
TechExcel ServiceWise includes a Tip: Items to include on an
graphical workflow editor. With Incident Form
New this editor, organizations may
‘draw’ their process into place. ·- Incident Owner
To the left is an example of ·- Date submitted
Submit New how an organization might -- Incident Classification
Incident choose to implement the ·- Priority
incident mangement process. ·- Description of the incident
·- Resolution Details
Incident
Review
Tie
r1
Pick
up Work in Progress
Need More Info Tier 1
Step 2: Automate
Additional Escalate to Every IT organization should seek to automate processes
Reopen
Info Requested Need More Info Tier 2 whenever possible, and the Incident Management process
is no exception. Automation is important because it
Work in Progress minimizes processing errors, facilitates faster response times,
Notify Customer Tier 2
and helps to ensure process compliance. There are countless
options for automating the processes related to Incident
Resolved Management, ranging from email notifications to escalation
Notify Customer alerts to knowledgebases with artifical intelligence. What is
critical is selecting and using automation wisely. Buy and use
Resolved the automation tools that make sense for your
organization— those that help you manage incidents more
Resolved efficiently and effectively.
Closed
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2. Incident Management Best Practices
A Step-by-Step Guide
Step 3: Share Information
Giving the Incident Management process access to information greatly improves its capability to resolve incidents quickly and
efficiently. Information stores such as knowledgebases play a key role. Properly configured and updated knowledgebases will
help analysts identify known problems, recommend fixes and workarounds, and alert analysts of potential issues. Integrating
Incident Management with a knowledgebase that is customer facing also empowers customers to find answers to their own
problems and, assuming a web-based system, is available to them 24/7.
Step 4: Gain Support of the Executives
To realize the true benefits of a formalized process, executive buy-in
and support is foundational. To sell formalized Incident Management
as well as any other ITIL process in the organization, proponents must
communicate the benefits in terms everyone will understand. Many
of the potential benefits--more efficient use of IT resources,
Integrated knowledge search within Incident Management
elimination of redundant work, enhanced projects, greater reliability
and availability of IT services--will apply to many facets of the business. Proponents need to educate managers about how these
benefits will apply to the organization, how they will be measured, and the downside of not using best practices in managing
IT services.
Step 5: Integrate With other IT processes
Closely linking Incident Management processes with Configuration and Problem Management will improve your ability to share
information and manage incidents proactively. Problem Management processes allow your organization to eliminate the
pesky root causes of incidents. Close ties to Configuration Management will allow potential configuration problems to be
identified and resolved prior to the occurrence of incidents.
Step 6: Strive for Continuous Improvement
One of the major benefits, if not THE benefit of process orientated
approaches to managing IT services and infrastructure is that it enables
continuous improvement. An organization is never totally satisfied with
the current state of affairs and always wants to improve its service
offerings. ITIL enables continuous improvement by allowing
organizations to start measuring everything in IT. That is why it is so
important to record everything. Technical people normally avoid
documentation, they resist to documenting everything they do while they
have more important tasks to complete like fixing a critical server.
The benefit of having everything recorded outweighs the hassle of
recording it by far. However, take note, it usually takes some effort to realize
these benefits, which makes it even more difficult to get the techies recording their work.
Tip: Map out the roles and responsibilities and associated service levels for Incident Management. At a minimum, the
processes should include: Call logging, Call assignment, Call resolution, Call documentation and knowledge transfer,
and Call closure.
While Incident Management can be a thankless job, it’s a core process that every IT staff needs to master. Incident Management
is the linchpin that connects the community of IT services users to the resources for resolving incidents that exist within
IT shops. Incident Management identifies, classifies, and manages the resolution of incidents while minimizing their impact to
the business. This role is critical in ensuring that the impact of IT incidents on the business is managed effectively, and it offers
the hope that future incidents can be mitigated as Incident Management programs become more proactive.
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