What is an Incident?

An Incident is an unplanned interruption to an IT Service or a reduction in the quality of an IT service.

What is Incident Management?

Incident Management is a process to restore normal service operations and minimize the adverse impact of the interruption on business operations, thus, ensuring that the best possible service quality and availability are maintained.

Incident Management Process Flow

The following process flow diagram depicts the Incident Management process:

Figure: Incident Management Overview

Incident Life Cycle

The following diagram depicts the various stages of an Incident (see: Incident Status):

Figure: Incident Management Life Cycle

Source

An Incident can be logged by an End User or Analyst. An Incident can also be auto-created from the SummitAI Operations Management module if there is a monitoring failure. 

End User

The End Users can use the following options to log a new Incident:

• SummitAI Application (Incident Management module): The End Users can log an Incident from the NEW INCIDENT page using the SummitAI application. For more information, see Logging Incidents_IM.
• E-mail: If the Mail to Incident option is enabled by the Administrator, an Incident is automatically logged when the End User sends an e-mail with the issue to the Support team (team handling your organization's IT issues) from a configured e-mail id. The e-mail is attached to the Incident automatically.
•  IVR: When the End User sends a voice mail, an Incident is logged for the End User. The web services are used to integrate voice/IVR to receive voice-based issues and log Incidents. The appropriate option should be enabled by the Administrator for IVR (see: Configuring Application Settings).

Analyst

The Analyst can log a new Incident for an End User:

• SummitAI Application (Incident Management module): The Analyst can log an Incident on behalf of the User from the NEW INCIDENT FOR USER  page using the SummitAI application. For more information, see Logging Incidents for Users.
• IVR: An Analyst can log a New Incident by parsing the End User's phone number in the query string, if IVR is enabled by the Administrator (see: Configuring Application Settings).
• Relationship Tab: An Analyst can create a New Incident from the Relationship tab of the SERVICE REQUEST DETAILS  page, CHANGE RECORD DETAILS page, and PROBLEM RECORD DETAILS page (see: Logging Service Requests for Users_SRM, Creating Change Records, and Creating Problem Records (PRs)_PM)

Auto Creation from IT Operations Management

An Incident is automatically logged when an Event occurs as a result of any abnormality observed during Monitoring. The Incident is auto- created if enabled on the EVENT ACTION TEMPLATE  page. The Incident is logged based on the template designed on the INCIDENT TEMPLATE page of the SummitAI IT Operations Management module (see: SummitAI IT Operations Management Help)

Factors

The Incident is assigned based on the following factors:

• Category and Classification
• Impact,Urgency and Priority
• Service Window

Troubleshooting Information

The Analyst can refer the following sources to resolve the Incident:

• Knowledge Record
• Know Errors
• Problem Management
• Similar Incidents
• Change Record
• Configuration Items