How to create an incident model

There are two methods to create an incident model. Choose the one that works best for your organization.

Method 1: create an incident model from an existing record.

1. From the main menu, select Run > Incident > Incidents. Service Management displays a list of all incidents.

2. Select the record you want to use as the model.

   Click the record identifier in the ID column to display the selected record.

3. Click More > Create model from record. Service Management displays the new model form with the values copied from the original record.

   Note  

   • Every incident model created with this method takes most field values from the existing record, including user options, but excludes:

     • Dates

     • Owner

     • Approval status

     • Completion code

   • When you create an incident model from an incident, Service Management:

     • Clears the values in any field that is not relevant to the model, such as dates, times, and assigned person.

     • Generates a task plan in the model that is the same as the task plan in the original record.

4. Edit the model as required.

5. Click Save on the toolbar.

Method 2: create a new incident model.

1. From the main menu, select Run > Incident > Models. Click New. Service Management displays the New incident model form.

   Note The record fields on the form are the same as the fields in the new incident form. However, Service Management disables some fields by default when you create an incident model. If you have the appropriate rights, you can customize this behavior.

2. Complete the Details section.

   Field	Description
   Title	A name for the model. Best practice: Choose a meaningful, descriptive, and relatively short name. The name is often the only identification used in selection lists and in other areas to identify components.
   Description	A description that captures the details of the model.
   Service	The service affected by any new incident that uses this model. 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: If you do not select a value, the model affects all services.
   Category	The category applied to new incidents that use this model. Service Management uses the category to classify each record.

3. Click Add attachment on the Attachments section header to attach a file to the incident model.

   Note

   • The following file formats are supported: jpg; jpeg; gif; png; doc; docx; ppt; pptx; xls; xlsx; pdf; txt; xml; zip; msg; sql; gz; rar; tar; 7z.

   • The maximum file size of an attachment is 10 MB.

   • If the Attachments field has been defined as encrypted for this record type and you are a member of an encryption domain, click Add encrypted attachments to attach an encrypted file to the record.

   • Attachments are not visible in the Service Portal.

4. Click the User options tab to add custom fields to the model.

   The user options tab allows you to add custom fields to the incident model.

   1. Click New field to add a field.

      The properties for each field are shown in the right pane.

      Property	Description
      Name	The name of the user option. The name: Must start with an upper case letter. May contain alphanumeric characters only (A-Z, a-z, 0-9). May not contain spaces. Must end with _c. This suffix is added automatically. You do not need to enter it manually.
      Display name	The display name of the field in the Service Management user interface.
      Field type	The field type: String. A textual value. Boolean. A true or false value. Numeric. A numeric value. List. A list of values. Select a predefined list, or click  Add to define a new list. Edit the list's items if desired. When List is selected, the List order field appears. Select Alphabetical to sort the list alphabetically, or Ordinal to sort the list by the user-defined order. For more information, see Create or edit a list in the User Options tab. For editable lists, you can edit the list items here. For more information, see Lists. Date. A date value. Rich text. A value in rich text format.
      Field size	The size of the field in the Service Management user interface. Select Medium or Large. In the Service Portal, all fields are displayed as a fixed size, one field per line, regardless of the selected field size.
      Required	Determines whether the field is mandatory or not. That is, if selected, the user must fill in a value for this field.
      Map values by	Enables mapping fields from a parent list to the items in this list. Available: For the List field type only.

   2. Repeat for each new field.

   3. Click Move Up or Move down on the toolbar to determine the display order of the new fields.

5. Click the Rules tab to add business rules to the model.

   For each of the process events, you can add rules to run before or after the general record business rules. For more information, see Incident model business rules.

6. Click the Task plan tab to add tasks to the model.

   For more information, see How to build a task/approval plan.

7. Click the Default values tab and specify default values for any of the available fields.

   • Incident details

     Field	Description
     Title	The same title will appear in all new records that use this model.
     Description	A description of the record. The same description will appear in all new records that use this model.
     Status	Choose a status.

   • Classification

     Field	Description
     Impact	The global effect on the user community. Consider whether the problem affects the entire enterprise, a business unit, or an individual.
     Service	The service affected by any new incident that uses this model. 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.
     Urgency	The urgency value describes how important the issue is for the customer. Service Management uses the urgency value to calculate the priority of the incident.
     Category	The category applied to new incidents that use this model. Service Management uses the category to classify each record.

   • Assignment

     Field	Description
     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.
     Owner	The incident owner is responsible for the incident until it is resolved.
     Assignment 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.
     Assignee	The assignee is a member of the assignment group. The assignee is responsible for the incident resolution.
     External reference	This entry applies only when there is a third party involved and they have a separate tracking number.

   • Resolution

     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.
     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.

   • User options

     Field

     Description

     <User-defined field>

     For each user option field, select one of the following options: Simple Mode. Enter the default value in the text box, or for a list, select a value from the drop-down list. Expression Language. Enter an Expression Language phrase that returns the default value. Click the Expression Language button to toggle between these options. When the button is selected (green), the field is in Expression Language mode. When it is not selected (white), the field is in Simple mode. For a full list of Expression Language functions, see Expression Language functions and syntax.

8. Click Save & close.

Related topics

• How to activate an incident model
• How to edit an incident model
• How to retire an incident model
• Incident models
• Incident model business rules