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This section focuses on Incidents processing by the agents.

Tip

Role required: incident_manager.

State Flow


*This state model is valid for End-User incidents. Infrastructure Incidents do not have Rejected by User state.

Procedure

Status

Description

LoggingRegisteredThe incident is recorded (via phone/email/Self-Service Portal) but not yet categorized.
CategorizationAssignedThe incident is categorized and assigned to a relevant person or group.
ResolutionIn Progress

The person started working on the issue.

Note

When Assigned User changes to another person, the Incident state changes from the In Progress to Assigned value.


ClosureCompleted

An incident is considered to be resolved when an agent comes up with a temporary workaround or with a permanent solution for this issue. In this case, he/she must change the status to Completed so that the caller could perform the tests. If the tests are successful, then the the incident should be marked as Closed; otherwise, it should be marked as Rejected by User. 

Also, when incident is completed, the caller can evaluate how the agent did his job agent's performance and the service level on the whole. For this, please perform the following follow these steps:

  1. The agent changes the incident state to Completed.
  2. The caller receives a notification where he is asked to evaluate the agent job and the service level.
  3. The caller follows a link in the notification and evaluates these parameters. There are three values which correspond to three system values:
    1. Below Expectations
    2. Meets Expectations
    3. Above Expectations.
ClosureClosedAfter the incident caller is satisfied with the incident solution, he can close the incident (mark it as Closed and (optionally) evaluate the agent performance by grading "Agent Satisfaction" and "Service Satisfaction"). If the incident was not closed after it was marked as Completed, then it can be closed automatically over an adjustable timeframe.


Info

Only the incident caller has the right to close the incidents; this is the best ITSM practice. But in SimpleOne, this rule does not affect infrastructure incidents. The incidents of this type can be closed only by the responsible person after performing the tests.

Waiting Statuses

Procedure

Status

Description

Investigation and diagnosisInformation NeededIf the issue description is not clear enough, then the agent has to request additional information by changing the incident status to Information NeededOnce the information is received, the status has to be changed to the previous one.
ResolutionPostponed

The incident can be marked Postponed if the resolving incident should be postponed for a known period. If the incident moves to this status, then planned resolving date must be specified in the Resubmission field. But if the incident affects business functions, then it must have at least a temporary workaround.

Functional escalationExternal ProcessingIf the incident solving requires 3rd party engaging, then, after referrals, the incident status must be changed to External ProcessingAnd after this 3rd party engaging is over, the incident state and the assigned user should be changed to the previous one.
ResolutionRejected by UserIf the caller is not satisfied with the agent work on the incident after completing it, then he can change the status to Rejected by User to address the defects.

Incidents Prioritization


Incident Priority of the Incident can be figured out based on its impact and urgency using a priority matrix.

The impact of an incident indicates the level of damage that may be caused to the business user. In SimpleOne, the impact can be categorized as:

  1. Low
  2. Medium
  3. High
  4. Very High.

The urgency of an incident indicates the measure of time until an incident has an impact on the business. In SimpleOne, the urgency can be categorized as:

  1. Low
  2. Medium
  3. High
  4. Very High.

Based on the priority, incidents can be categorized as:

  1. Low
  2. Moderate
  3. High
  4. Critical.

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Priority Management
Priority Management
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Assigning and Updating Incidents


Once the incident is registered, it has to be assigned to the responsible person to be processed. To assign an incident, please complete the following steps:

  1. Open the incident you want to work on.
  2. Find the Assignment Group field, then click the magnifier icon to select a group to assign the incident to.
  3. (Non-mandatory step) complete the same step for the Assigned User field.

The incident is assigned.

To perform any updates in the incident, please complete the following steps:

  1. Open the incident you want to work on.
  2. Change the desirable field(s).
  3. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

Your changes will be displayed in the Activity log, that is located in the Notes tab (scroll down the page).

The following information is displayed:

  1. Update author
  2. Field updated
  3. New field value
  4. Old field value.

Activity view

Create a "parent-child" relationship between incidents


Create a such relationship links to link two or more incidents between with each other in a "parent-child" model.

To create a child ticket, please complete the following steps:

  1. Start creating a new incident in a way as it was described here.
  2. Fill in the form, then scroll down the page and open the Related Records tab.
  3. Click a magnifier icon next to the Slave Incidents field. The incidents list will appear.
  4. Select desired incidents from the list and click the Select Items button. You can choose more that one item, in this case, all of them will be slaves for the master incident.
    1. The Level of Dependency field is automatically populated with the Master value and remains read-only.
  5. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

If you need to make an existing incident child for another one, then you can skip step 1.

To create a parent ticket, please complete the following steps:

  1. Start creating a new incident in a way as it was described here.
  2. Fill in the form, then scroll down the page and open the Related Records tab.
  3. Click a magnifier icon on the Master Incident field.
  4. Select an incident you need to be a parent for this one.
    1. The Level of Dependency field is automatically populated with the Slave value and remains read-only.
  5. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.


Info
For your information:

you can also use an autosuggest feature when choosing records in reference fields, such as Master Incident or Slave Incidents fields. For this, just start typing an incident number or incident subject.


If you need to make an existing incident parent for another one, then you can skip step 1.

Tip
titleMaster and Slave Incidents

You can close all slave incidents related to the master incident with a bulk action without navigating to a form of every slave incident and manually closing it. For this, please complete the steps below:

  1. Make sure that the master incident is in the In Progress state.
  2. Navigate to the Related Records tab and click the Close all Slave Incidents button.

After that, the state for all slave incidents will be changed to Completed, too. The closure notes and other service information will be transferred from the master incident.

Also, when you comment on a master incident, the comment you made is transferring into slave incidents in two ways depending on the comment type:

  1. The comment left in the Work Notes field of the master incident is copied into relevant fields of all slave incidents.
  2. The comment left in the Additional Comment field of the master incident is copied into relevant fields of all slave incidents, and in addition, a comment announcing notification is sent to the incident caller.


Create an Incident Announcement


Create an announcement informing related to inform about the Incident being processed.

To create an Incident announcement, please click the Create Announcement button in the Incident form.

In there, two types of announcements are available:

  • Recovery - this type of announcement informs that some service or CI recovery activities have been started
  • Completion Recovery - this type of announcement informs that some service or CI recovery activities are over.

Create an Incident Task


If If incident solving of incident requires the participation of various departments, then you can create Incident Task for each of them. They will be related to the parent incident, but not like in the "master-slave" model. The better example is the "parent-child" model. 

To create an incident task, please complete the following steps:

  1. Open the incident you want to work on.
  2. Scroll down the page, then open the Incident Task tab.
  3. Fill in the form.
  4. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
FieldMandatoryDescription

Number 

YThis field is populated automatically.
ParentYThis field is populated automatically with the number of the parent incident.
StateN

Available options:

  • Registered
  • In Progress
  • Completed
  • Cancelled.
Assigned UserY

Choose a responsible person you wish to assign the task to.

Note

When an incident has been assigned to a

task to

responsible user, then the Assigned Group field becomes non-mandatory. The same goes for other task objects, like change requests, or service requests.


Assigned GroupY

Choose a responsible group you wish to assign a the task to.

Note

When an incident has been assigned to a responsible group, then the Assigned User field become becomes non-mandatory. The same goes for other task objects, like change requests, or service requests.


SubjectYSpecify the task subject.
DescriptionNDescribe the task by giving more details.
Followers listNIn there, users list who have followed the who follow the task for tracking updates is displayed.
Schedule tab
Planned Start DatetimeNThe date when you want the assigned person to start working on this task.
Planned End DatetimeNThe date you want this task to be finished (completed and closed).
Actual Start DatetimeNThe date when the assigned person started to work on this task. This field must be filled by the agent.
Actual End DatetimeNThe date when the assigned person finished the work on this task. This field must be filled by the agent.


Info

You can create as many Incident Tasks as you need. 

Create Relationships


You can create relationships between incidents and other types of tasks. For this, please complete the following steps:

  1. Open the incident you want to work on.
  2. Scroll down the page, then open the Related Records tab.
  3. You can create these types of relationships:
    1. Solved by Changes
    2. Caused by Changes
    3. Related Problems
    4. Known Error
    5. Related Inquiry
    6. Slave Incidents
    7. Master Incident

    8. Related Articles.
  4. To create these relationships, please complete the steps below:
    1. Click a magnifier icon next to the appropriate field.
    2. In the appeared window choose a necessary option and click Save.

Relationship types

TypeDescription

Solved by Change

The incident is solved / can be solved by the Change Request specified.

Caused by ChangeThe incident is caused by the Change Request specified.
Related ProblemsThe incident is related to the Problems specified.
Known ErrorThe incident is a Known Error, it has a recorded root cause and a workaround.
Related InquiryThe incident is related to the Inquiry specified.
Slave IncidentsThe incident has one or more child incidents (see above on this page).

Master Incident

The incident has a master incident (this essence is opposite to the child incidents).

Related ArticleThe incident is related to the Knowledge Base Article specified.


Closure information


Based on the SimpleOne state model, when the incident is resolved, it must be marked as Completed, that will denote the incident closure. Also, the agent must provide the following details:

  1. Closure Code
  2. Closure Notes.

Closure Code

This code specifies an option of the closure. SimpleOne has the following options:

OptionDescription
Solved 1st levelThe incident was solved by the 1st level of service agents without functional escalation.

Solved 2nd level

The incident was solved by the 2nd level of service agents (the 1st level of service agents was unable to solve it).
Not Solved (Unable To reproduce)The agents couldn't reproduce the incident and didn't find any disfunction.
Not Solved (Dropped)This closure code is chosen when the request is not an incident at all (for example, it's a Change Request).
Not Solved (No User Reaction)This closure code is chosen when the user didn't provide additional information after he was asked about this in the Information Needed Incident.
Not Solved (Workaround)This closure code means that the incident has no permanent solution, but a temporary workaround related to the Known Error.
Not Solved (Other)This closure code is meant to be for all other reasons.

Closure Notes

In this field you need to put down information on works performed, and maybe other information related to this incident. 

Escalation Rules


There are two possible types of escalations: functional and hierarchical.

  • Functional escalation is when 1st level service agents are unable to solve an incident due to any reasons (lack of authority or competence), they escalate it to the 2nd level to address.
  • Hierarchical escalation is typically required when an incident is of a serious nature or a set of incidents may take an excessive amount of time. It's an escalation up to the management.

In SimpleOne, automatic incident escalation is implemented. How it works:

  1. If the incident have not been processed for a certain period, and there is a risk of the SLA breach, then assigned person or group manager is being notified about this;.
  2. If the things have not been changed, then incident urgency increases, the incident rises up in line;.
  3. If it didn't help, then incident urgency increases again, the incident rises up in line, the assigned person or group manager is being notified about this repeatedly.

Also, you can keep the line manager of the assignee informed about agent informed about the incident activities by clicking the "Notify Manager" button on the form.

One of the examples of the hierarchical escalation:

If the incident solution was rejected by the caller (state Rejected by User was set) two times, then the automatic notification is sent to the assigneeagent's manager.

Indication


Every incident has SLA indicators quantized and tied up. They can be found at the bottom of the incident page, in the Indication Tab. This tab displays the following information:

  1. Start time
  2. Has breached
  3. Stop time
  4. Business Elapsed Time
  5. Business Time Left
  6. Breach Time
  7. Pause Time.

SLA Indicators

Indicator

Description

Start timeThe indication start time. This field is linked with the incident Registered state.
Has breachedThis field displays whether SLA has been breached or not.
Stop timeThe indication stop time. This field is linked with the incident Completed state.
Business Elapsed TimeThis field displays how much business time has passed since the incident was created.
Business Time LeftThis field displays how much business time is left until SLA will be breached,.
Breach TimeThe time value of how much SLA has been breached in this incident.
DowntimeThe downtime duration.

In SimpleOne, SLA indicators can be determined based on three entities: field, operator and value.

You can create your own SLA indicators using the Condition Builder. To create it, navigate to the Agreements and Commitments → Timepoint Indicator and click New.

For example, you can create separate SLA indicators for incidents having an impact from "Low" to "Very High" and set a separate "Breach Time" value for them, based on your SLA agreement.



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