Incident Management Process:

Introduction:

The purpose of this document is to detail the working framework of the Incident Management process.
The document covers responsibilities, scope, key deliverables, interfaces and dependencies within
the IT infrastructure.

1.0 – Objectives & Scope

The goal of the Incident Management process is to resolve incidents and service requests as quickly
as possible, minimizing the impact on the business operation.

Incident Management is the process that enables the registering, management and control of
disruption to normal IT service operations as reported by the business.

1.1 Objective

 Restore normal service operation as quickly as possible, wherever

possible and with minimal impact on the organisation.
 Reduce time taken to solve incidents.
 Facilitate a reduction of avoidable incidents.
 Ensure higher levels of service availability.
 Contribute to a higher quality of service.
 Provide data for the production of comprehensive and accurate
management information on the quality of service and customer
support.

1.2 Scope of Support

All staff utilising Group IT services, who contact the Service Desk to report an issue or log an IT
related service request will have their issue recorded on the IT Service Desk tool (ITSM Tool) on their
behalf.
Each issue recorded by the Service Desk will be categorised as either an Incident or a Request and
will be handled in accordance with the IT Department’s Incident Management framework.

2.0 – Incident and Request Definitions

The Incident Management process covers both incidents and requests. The definitions of Incident and
Request are detailed in this section

2.1 - Incident Definition

An incident is defines as an unplanned interruption to an IT Service or a reduction in the Quality of an

IT Service. Example incidents are detailed below:

 Network failing or too slow

 Server or infrastructure failure
 Printer not printing
 PC or Laptop not working
 Email service not working
 Failure of a Configuration Item (CI) that has not yet impacted
Service is also an Incident (e.g. failure of overnight backups).

2.2 - Request Definition

A Service Request is defined as a user initiated request for the provision of a service that is classed
as a minor change to an existing application or supporting infrastructure. Example Service Requests
are detailed below:

 Creation of a new accounts

 The deletion of an existing account
 Office moves
 Move of a desktop and printer
 Request for a new version of desktop software
 Access to shared folder/drives

3.0 – Responsibilities

This section details responsibilities of key roles within the Incident Management process. Key roles
are: Incident Manager, IT Support Assistant and Third Line Support staff (network/systems support).

3.1 - Incident Manager

The IT Service Desk Manager is the owner of the IT Incident Management process. However, any
appropriate member of the IT Support team may be nominated to act as Incident Manager in the
event of a priority 1 or 2 incident.

 Ensuring that incidents are resolved and managed to the customer

satisfaction.
 Responsible for managing customer communication and
escalations.
 Responsible for measuring efficiency and effectiveness targets.
 Production of management information.
 Management of Major Incidents, priority 1 and 2 incidents.
 Management of escalations of all incidents.
 Providing approval for change of priority of incidents on request of
IT Users and IT staff in the case of priority 1 and 2 incidents.
 Obtain regular reports from vendors on performance of IM
process.
 Resolving any conflict on re-assignment of incidents.

3.2 - IT Support Assistant

 Single point of contact for all IT issues.

 Responsible for recording incidents and requests on ITSM Tool.
 Routing raised incidents to systems/network support when
unresolved
 Initial support, classification, prioritisation and resolution of
incidents and requests.
 Ownership, monitoring, tracking and communication of incidents
and requests assigned to the Service Desk or to them specifically.
 Resolution of incidents
 Escalation of incidents where necessary.
 Undertaking of daily Service Desk tasks.

3.3 – Third Line Support Staff (Network/Systems Support)

 Handling and receiving incidents via the Service Desk software

tool.
 Proactively raising incidents in response to events or requests
from an external party/vendor
  Incident investigation and diagnosis.
 Resolution and recovery of assigned incidents.
 Communicating updates to staff and Service Desk of outstanding
incidents through to resolution, via updates in incident within
 Service Desk software tool, and via phone, email or in person for
non IT staff.
 Escalation of incidents to Incident Manager where required (such
as in the case of a severity 1 incident.

4.0 – Process Activities

The purpose of this section is to define the activities that make up the Incident Management process
to manage all Incidents (and Service Requests).
The life cycle phases of an Incident are detailed below.

 Incident Identification and Recording

 Start Incident Management procedures.
 Classification and Prioritisation
 Assess Incident against urgency, impact to determine the priority
 Investigation and Diagnosis - Assessment of Incident
 Resolution and Recovery - Invoke recovery action
 Incident Closure- Satisfactory resolution of Incident with customer
 Escalation – Priority 1 Incidents / Clients unhappy with proposed resolution/workaround.
4.1 – Severity 3 and 4 Activity Descriptions

The following table provides a detailed description of the activities highlighted in the workflow.
‘Assignee’ designates the particular person or team to which a call has been assigned.
Ref Activity Description Responsible
Incidents are received via phone, email and walk-ins. All Incidents must be
logged. For each Incident, the Service Desk:

Detect,  Creates a new incident ticket

1.0 Record &  Checks the user details within ITSM Tool and updates if required Service Desk
Classify  Selects the appropriate category, sub- category and call impact and
urgency Enters summary and call description.

 Service Desk attempt to resolve each recorded incident/ request, either at

first contact, or by assigning calls types handled by the Service Desk or
Provide Initial appropriate member of the Service Desk team for investigation and
1.1 resolution. Check ‘Supported IT Services’ list on IZMI document Service Desk
Support
management system for support information. Save the Incident and provide
a unique reference to the user

All Incidents are assigned to an appropriate member of IT Support.

Perform  Review assigned Incident

1.2 investigation  Perform initial diagnosis
Assignee
and diagnose  Communicate with user and update ITSM Tool call action’ tab
through to resolution

 If the Service Desk is unable to resolve the Incident, it is assigned

Escalate escalated to the appropriate vendor/third party or to third line Service
1.3
Incident support for investigation. Desk/Assignee
 Notify the Service Desk Manager of Severity 1 incidents.

If the current assignee has investigated the incident and have been unable to
Update & resolve, or the assignee believes the incident should be reassigned to an Support
1.4 alternative person, they will:
reassign Team/Assignee
Update the ‘call actions’ tab with the investigation performed.
Reassign to the appropriate person /team

Following further investigation, when the person assigned to handle the call
Identify & has identified a suitable workaround or solution, they will :
Communicate Implement solution or workaround.
1.5 Assignee
workaround / Contact user and confirm resolved where possible.
fix Update the work log within the Incident \ Request

If it is believed the Incident has been resolved, the assignee will:

Update Update the Incident with the solution information.
1.6 Assignee
Incident ticket Move the ticket to ‘resolved’ status.
Update call with the appropriate resolution codes.
Close Following a period of five working days, the status of the incident ticket will be ITSM
1.7
Incident set to ‘closed’ Tool/Application