How to edit an incident record

This tab includes the following sections:

• Incident details

  Field	Description
  Title	The title is a summary of the issue presented by the end user. If you omit a title, Service Management uses the beginning text from the Description field. Best Practice: Choose a meaningful, descriptive, and relatively short title. Titles are often the only identification used in selection lists and in other areas to identify components. Service Management displays the title at the top of the form when you edit or display the complete record.
  Description	The description captures the details of the incident. You can also capture information that might not fit well elsewhere. For example, if the location and telephone number are different from the contact details, you can record the correct information in this field. Service Management may automatically recognize CIs whose details are entered here. See CI Detection - Automatic recognition of CIs.
  Status	Service Management updates this field with a status value when you open, update, close, or escalate an incident. Valid status values are: Ready, In progress, Pending, Suspended, and Complete.
  Expected resolution time	Expected resolution date and time. Click the calendar icon to specify the date. Click the clock icon to specify the time.
  Contact	The person who should be contacted for follow up questions about the incident. Select a person from the drop-down list.
  Preferred contact method	The preferred method for communication with the contact. Select one of the following options: Email Phone
  Reported by	The name of the end user who reported the incident.
  Next target time	The calculated time before the next Service Level Target will expire. If the target expires, the status of the target is breached.

• Classification

  Field	Description
  Priority	Priority is a read-only value that Service Management chooses based on Impact and Urgency values. The following table describes the priority matrix.   Enterprise Site or department Multiple users Single user Total loss of service Critical High High Medium Severe disruption High High Medium Medium Slight disruption High Medium Medium Low No disruption Medium Medium Low Low This matrix can be adjusted through business rule configuration.
  Service	Services are usually related to one of the following: Infrastructure. For example, database or network services. Business services. For example, email or a web portal. Note At the top of the list of services Service Management displays smart suggestions, based on the text entered in the Title and the Description fields.
  Impact	Impact describes the global effect on the user community. Consider whether the incident affects the entire enterprise, a business unit, or an individual. Valid values are: Enterprise Site or department Multiple users Single user The default selection is Single user. Example: Choose Enterprise if the problem affects the entire organization or a critical business unit. Single user is the lowest impact.
  Service component	The service component related to the incident.
  Category	The category describes the type of incident. The default categories are based on best practice recommendations for service-related processes. They reflect how the incident is assigned and help to organize reporting metrics. At the top of the list of categories Service Management displays smart suggestions, based on the text entered in the Title and the Description fields.
  Urgency	The urgency indicates how important the issue is for the service recipient. If there is an outage or a mission-critical outage, the urgency might be Critical. Valid values are: Total loss of service Severe disruption Slight disruption No disruption Example: Choose Total loss of service if there is an outage that directly affects the basic infrastructure, such as network services. Choose Slight disruption if the problem does not need immediate resolution. The end user can provide guidance for these settings because it is how they perceive the impact and urgency within their organization.
  Incident model	An incident model is a repeatable way to resolve a particular type of incident. When you choose a model, the incident follows the predefined workflow phases that apply to the model. At the top of the list of models Service Management displays smart suggestions, based on the text entered in the Title and the Description fields.
  Impact start	The time when the impact to the service began (could be a partial or complete impact). Select a date and time.
  Impact end	The time when the impact to the service ended (could be a partial or complete impact). Select a date and time.

• Assignment

  Field	Description
  Current assignment	An assignment group is a pool of resources with advanced skills to resolve the incident when the incident owner or the customer escalates the incident. The assignee becomes responsible for the incident resolution. Select a value from the drop-down list. The following values are available: Unassigned. No group or person is assigned to the incident. Service desk. The group selected in the Service desk group field is assigned to the incident. The person selected in the Service desk owner field becomes the incident assignee. Expert group. The group selected in the Expert group field is assigned to the incident. The person selected in the Expert assignee field becomes the incident assignee.
  Service desk group	A Service desk group is a pool of resources. The Incident Manager can choose a group to own the incident. One or more members of the group can work on the incident resolution. Select a group from the drop-down list. Only functional groups are available. This field is mandatory when Service desk is selected as the current assignment.
  Owner	The incident owner is responsible for the incident until it is resolved. Select a person from the drop-down list or type a few characters to search for the required person.
  Expert group	Select a group from the drop-down list. Only functional groups are available. This field is mandatory when Expert group is selected as the current assignment.
  Expert assignee	Select a person from the drop-down list or type a few characters to search for the required person.
  External reference number	This entry applies only when there is a third party involved and they have a separate tracking number. Example: The outage resolution depends on a vendor repair of related equipment that is under warranty. In this case, you should type the vendor incident number.

• Resolution

  Service Management uses the text that you provide in the Title and Description fields to launch a knowledge search as soon as you expand the Resolution section. Service Management searches for existing articles or other records that contain matching information. For example, if your description includes the words "email server down", Service Management searches for those words throughout the knowledge database. If a match occurs, the Suggested solutions link is displayed. Click the link to see the top three solution candidates. These matches can be any of the following record types:

  • Articles
  • User questions
  • External knowledge
  • Problems
  • Changes
  • Incidents

  If you want to link one of the suggested solutions to this record, hover your mouse over the end of the solution entry to display action buttons. The buttons and actions vary depending on the type of potential solution record.

  Click one of the buttons described in the following table.

  Link to record type	Action	Result
  Change Incident Problem Request	Link	Updates the list of related records on the Related records tab in both the current incident and the linked change, incident, problem, or request record.
  Incident Problem	Copy + link	Copies the solution text from the referenced incident or problem into the Solution field of the current incident. Updates the list of related records on the Related records tab in both the current incident and the linked incident or problem record. Note If there is no prospective solution found, Service Management does not display this button.
  Article	Copy link	Copies a link to an article into the Solution field of the current incident. Note Only articles that are in the External phase of the workflow are eligible to be solution links.
  Q and A	Copy link	Copies a link to a question and answer into the Solution field.

  If you want to search for other suggested solutions for the current incident, click Find more solutions at the bottom of the Resolution section.

  Service Management inserts a search form at the top of the page where you can type a search argument to produce a complete list of potential solution matches. You can use "or," "and," or a wild card character to enhance your search argument.

  All returned results appear in the left pane. If you select a record, the record details appear in the right pane. If you find a suitable match, do one of the following:

  • Click Copy solution to copy information from an incident or problem into the Solution field of the current incident.

  • Click Copy link to resolution to copy a link to an article or question and answer into the Solution field of the current incident.

  • Click Link as cause to add information about a change to the Related records tab in the Causes of the incident section of the current incident.

  • Click Link as effect to add information about a change to the Related records tab in the Effects of the incident section of the current incident.

  • Click Link as related to add information about a request to the Related records tab in the Causes of the incident section of the current incident.

  Complete the Resolution section with as much information as possible.

  Field	Description
  Problem candidate	A checked box specifies that the incident has a root cause, and that it can be resolved through Problem Management processes.
  Knowledge candidate	A checked box specifies that the solution details can apply to future incidents.
  Solution	A detailed description of the resolution. If the solution is a knowledge or problem candidate, the solution description should be as specific as possible. If you linked an article, the link appears in this field. Service Management may automatically recognize CIs whose details are entered here. See CI Detection - Automatic recognition of CIs.
  Completion code	The completion code describes the reason that you can close the incident. Example: In the case of immediate resolution, the completion code might be Resolved with workaround.
  Closure category	The categorization of the incident as determined after the incident has been resolved. Select a value from the drop-down list.
  Solved time	The time when the incident resolution was applied. There may be a delay between the actual resolution and its application. Select a date and time.
  Suggested solutions	Click Suggested solutions to have Service Management suggest solutions, based on the information provided for the incident. If none of these are relevant, you can click Find more solutions to look for other solutions in the database.

This tab includes the fields described in the following table.

In this tab you may add, change, or delete associations with business devices, infrastructure and peripheral assets, licenses, and system elements that are related to the record. When you link a device, an infrastructure asset, a license, or a system element to a record, you create an internal relationship between them.

In this tab you can also view a topology impact map for each device and system element you choose, and the affecting CIs and a topology impact map for each affected service.

• The Involved devices section enables you to link a device.
• The Involved infrastructure & peripherals section enables you to link an infrastructure or peripherals.
• The Involved licenses section enables you to link a fixed asset license.
• The Involved system elements enables you to link a system element.

How to add an involved device, an infrastructure & peripheral asset, a license, or a system element

1. Click Add or the grid icon .

2. Select the required records. The added items appear in yellow.

3. Click Save.

How to delete an involved device, an infrastructure & peripheral asset, a license, or a system element

1. Select the required records.
2. Click Remove. The selected items appear in strikethrough text.
3. Click Save.

How to view an impact map for a device

1. In the Involved Devices section, select the device.

2. Click Show Impact. An impact map of the device is displayed.

How to view an impact map for a system element

1. In the Involved System elements section, select the system element.

2. Click Show Impact . An impact map of the system element is displayed.

You can zoom in and out of the impact map by using the mouse wheel button. If a text string is too long to be displayed, an ellipsis (…) appears. You can hover over the ellipsis to display the full text string.

You can hover over the following icons in the impact map:

• Owner avatar – a window is displayed with the owner’s details.

• Business criticality – a tooltip is displayed with the criticality.

• Location – a tooltip is displayed with the name of the location.

Depending on the size of the impact map and the browser window, Service Management may not display the subtype of a Device, Service or System Element. Hover over the subtype graphic to see a tooltip with this information.

The Related records tab enables you to review, create, and delete relationships among Service Management records. The number at the end of the tab label displays the number of related records for the current record. There are two types of related records:

Other record types depend on the current record.

Example: an employee requests a certain change to an email account. The request triggered an incident because there is an email server outage. You cannot complete the change until the incident status is closed.

The current record depends on other record types.

Example: the incident to repair the email server outage generates a problem record because this is a recurring outage that requires investigation. The problem resolution requires finding the root cause for the outage. When the outage is resolved, the incident is resolved. When the incident is resolved, the change request can be resolved.

Resolving a request for change, an incident, or a problem can also involve hardware or software acquisition, or even require a new service to be available. Service Management also enables you to link asset records to changes, incidents, or problems.

To relate records

1. Click the Related records tab to display a list of related records that

   • depend on the current record
   • the current record depends on

2. In each section, the default sort order is first by record type, then by phase. You can click a column heading to reverse the sort order in any column.

   Field	Description
   ID	The identifier of the record. Click the ID value to link to the record.
   Title or Name	A short description provided by the end user.
   Phase	The current phase of the current record in the workflow.
   Priority	The priority is a value based on urgency and business impact values.

3. In the appropriate section, do one of the following:

   • Click  Add to create a relationship between the current record and another record.

     The Add related record dialog box opens, displaying a list of potential related records. If you select an individual record, Service Management displays the contents of that record in the right pane.

     • To search for more records, use the Search box at the top of the dialog box.

     • Find the record that you want to link, and click OK to create the relationship.

   • Click  Remove to delete the relationship between the current record and the selected record. Click OK to confirm the action.

     Note This action removes the relationship between the two records only. It does not delete either record.

The Related knowledge tab is where related knowledge or news articles are displayed.