Incident Processing

This section focuses on Incidents processing by the agents.

Create Child Incident

Create a child incident links two or more incidents between 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 press the Related Records tab;
3. Unlock Slave Incidents. For this, press a lock icon.
4. Press a magnifier icon to select an incident that will be a parent for this one. You can choose over one incident, in this case, all of them will be a parent for it.
5. Press the lock icon again and then press Save.

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

Create an Incident Task

If solving of incident requires the participation of different 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 press the Incident Task tab;
3. Fill in the form:
   1. the Number field - will be filled automatically;
   2. the State field - when just created, leave it in the Pending state;
   3. the Incident field - will be filled automatically with the number of the parent incident;
   4. the Assigned user field -  choose a technician you wish to assign a task to;
   5. the Assigned group field - choose a department you want to assign a task to;
   6. the Subject field - describe the task here in a brief manner;
   7.  the Description field - please put there the detailed task.
4. After you have entered task details, you can move to the Schedule tab. Here you can specify start and end dates for working.
   1. Actual Start Date - the date when the technician started to work on this task. This field must be filled by the technician;
   2. Actual End Date - the date when the technician finished the work on this task. This field must be filled by the technician;
   3. Planned Start Date - the date when you want the technician to start working on this task;
   4. Planned End Date - the date you want this task to be finished (completed and closed).
5. Press Save.

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 press the Related Records tab;
3. You can create these types of relationships:
   1. Solved by Change;
   2. Caused by Change;
   3. Related Problems;
   4. Known Error;
   5. Related Inquiry;
   6. Slave Incidents;
   7. Master Incident;
   8. Related Request;
   9. Related Article.
4. To create relationships for the Solved by Change, Caused by Change, Related Problems, Related Inquiry, Slave Incidents, Related Article, please complete the following steps:
   1. Press a lock icon, then press a magnifier icon;
   2. In the new window that was appeared choose a necessary option;
   3. Press the lock icon again and then press Save.
5. To create relationships for the Known Error, Master Incident, Related Incident, please complete the following steps:
   1. Press a magnifier icon;
   2. In the new window that was appeared choose a necessary option;
   3. Press Save.

Let us have a closer look at these relationships.

Escalation Rules

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

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

In the SIMPLE system, 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 technicians' manager is being notified about this;
2. If the things has 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 technicians' manager is being notified about this repeatedly.

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 press 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. Press Save.

Your changes will be displayed in the Activity log.

Priority Management

The 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 will be caused to the business user.

The urgency of an incident indicates the time within which the incident should be resolved.

Based on the priority, incidents can be categorized as:

1. Major;
2. High;
3. Medium;
4. Low;
5. Minor.

The priority matrix

Closure information

Based on the SIMPLE state model, after the incident was resolved (by marking an incident as Completed), it must be closed. Before closing an incident, the agent must provide the following details:

1. Closure Code;
2. Closure Notes.

Let us have a closer look at every item.

Closure Code

This code specifies an option of the closure. The SIMPLE system has the following options:

Closure Notes

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