Incident management is a series of steps taken to identify, analyse and resolve critical incidents that could lead to issues in an organisation.
Incident management is a crucial part of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework. ITIL comprises a collection of best practices designed for IT Service Management (ITSM). Its primary objective is to help align an organisation’s IT services with its established business needs. ITIL provides detailed descriptions of vital IT practices, including procedures, tasks, processes, checklists etc. These practices are not necessarily tailored to a particular organisation or its technology, but are versatile enough to deliver value and support the strategic growth of the company. While ITIL is not officially an industry standard, it is widely adopted and globally recognised as a beneficial framework for providing IT services.
According to ITIL, an ‘incident’ is any unplanned interruption to an IT service or reduction in the quality of an IT service. The goal of incident management, as described by ITIL, is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible to minimise the impact on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained.
Incidents can disrupt operations, lead to temporary downtime and contribute to the loss of data. It is increasingly crucial for organisations to take incident management practices seriously, as there are strong benefits when incidents themselves are taken seriously.
Some of the benefits include:
There can be established practices and procedures that can help IT teams better respond to incidents and mitigate future incidents. Additionally, machine learning automatically assigns incidents to the right groups for faster resolution. Dedicated agent portals for issue resolution have access to all the necessary information in one view and can leverage AI to deliver recommended solutions immediately. A dedicated portal for Major Incident Management enables swift resolution by bringing together the right resolution teams and stakeholders to restore services.
Employees can easily contact IT support to track and fix issues. They can connect with IT through the web portal or mobile app to have a better understanding of the status of their incidents from start to finish, as well as the subsequent effects. A better employee experience is delivered through intuitive omni-channel self-service and transparent, two-way communications.
Agents have the ability to prioritise incidents based on established processes – which can also assist in the continuity of business processes – and are brought together to manage work and collaborate using a single platform for IT processes. Likewise, incident management makes it possible to restore services faster by bringing together the right agents to manage work and collaborate using a single platform for IT processes. IT can use advanced machine learning and data models to automatically categorise and assign incidents, learning from patterns from historical data.
Incidents can be logged in incident management software, which provides insight into service time, the severity of the incident, and whether or not there is a constant type of incident that can be mitigated. From here, the software can generate reports for visibility and analysis.
Incident management systems help build out processes that provide insight into SLA performance and if these are being met.
Once incidents have been identified and mitigated, knowledge of these incidents and necessary responses can be applied to future incidents for faster resolution or all-round prevention. Increase incident deflection rate by reducing tickets and call volumes with a self-service portal and helpful chatbots: This allows employees to find answers on their own before needing to log an incident, effectively preventing issues before they impact users with AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations).
The average amount of time to resolution decreases when there are documented processes and data from past incidents. Accelerate incident resolution with machine learning and contextual help to eliminate bottlenecks. AIOps integration reduces incidents and mean time to resolution (MTTR).
Incidents cause downtime, which can slow or prevent businesses from executing operations and services. Well-documented incident management processes help with the reduction or total elimination of downtime that occurs as a result of an incident.
Smooth operations within a company are reflected in a product or service. Employees will have a better experience if businesses do not experience downtime or a lapse in services due to an incident. Likewise, providing omni-channel options, where employees can submit incidents via self-service portals, chatbots, email, phone or mobile, empowers employees to easily contact support to track and fix issues with incident management.
IT incidents take many different forms, and not every potential issue will require the same type of remediation. That said, organisations benefit from establishing a consistent internal process for identifying, investigating, resolving and reviewing IT incidents. Because ITIL is such an extensive framework, most IT teams simply pick and choose what they need to address, i.e. the kinds of IT incidents they are likely to face. The end goal is to create a comprehensive, repeatable workflow capable of streamlining the incident management process unique to the organisation.
To help make this possible, ITIL incident management guidelines suggest the following steps:
An incident is identified and recorded in user reports and using solution analysis – once identified, the incident is logged and categorised. This is important for how future incidents can be handled and for prioritisation of incidents.
This step’s timing may vary from incident to incident, depending on the incident’s categorisation. Smaller incidents may also be logged and acknowledged without triggering an official alert. Escalation occurs when an incident triggers an alert, and the proper procedures are performed by the individual who is assigned to manage the alert.
Incidents need to be classified into the proper category and subcategory in order to be easily identified and addressed. Typically, classification happens automatically when the right fields are set up for classification, prioritisation is assigned based on the classification, and reports are quickly generated.
The proper priority can have a direct impact on the SLA of an incident response, ensuring that business-critical issues are addressed on time and employees do not experience any lapse in service.
Once an incident has been raised, the IT team performs an analysis and provides a solution to the employee. If a resolution is not immediately available, the incident is escalated to the proper teams for further investigation and diagnosis of the incident.
An IT team should aim to resolve incidents using the proper prioritisation methods as quickly as possible. Communication can help with the resolution and closure of tickets, and automation can be used to help resolve tickets as well. Once an incident has been resolved, it is followed up with additional logging and understanding of how to prevent the incident from occurring again, or how to decrease the time to resolution if it does reoccur.
A comprehensive and coordinated incident management process empowers organisations, allowing them to more effectively and painlessly identify and resolve issues before they can become major problems. To ensure optimal results, consider the following best practices:
No matter the level of the incident, the urgency, or the position of the caller, always log everything into a single tool with as much detail as possible. Keep track of all incidents, as this will speed up time to response and resolution. There are also automated systems that can reconcile the logs.
Be thorough in filling in everything to ensure that all the necessary details are present for any further investigation, information gathering or reports that are generated.
Avoid unnecessary categories and subcategories that can be sorted elsewhere or described in the fields. Also avoid using options such as “other” as much as possible.
Standardise processes to ensure that each team member follows the same procedures and utilises the right responses for each incident – this keeps quality consistent and uniform.
Solutions do not always need to be new and innovative. If there are effective solutions that exist, use them to keep procedures moving forwards and standardised.
There is a significant organisational benefit to properly and consistently training employees at all levels. It can be beneficial to train non-IT personnel how to respond to incidents at lower levels to help IT staff respond to higher-level incidents more quickly. Teams that are trained well also work more effectively together and communicate better.
One of the most important aspects of incident management is avoiding unnecessary overload. Carefully plan how events are categorised and what these categories mean, in order to prevent incidents from being overlooked and response times from becoming too long. A good starting point is to define service level indicators that are used to determine the hierarchy of prioritisations – for instance, prioritising root cause analysis over surface-level symptoms.
Teams need to communicate who is overseeing incidents and when. Create an on-call schedule to help teams ensure that a responder with the proper expertise is available in the event of an incident, then make any adjustments based on how overwhelmed individual employees are with different incidents.
Create guidelines to establish effective communication – this is crucial to collaboration and team effectiveness. The guidelines should establish which channels staff should use, the content of these channels, and how communication is to be documented. Improper guidelines can create unnecessary stress and tension during response periods when there is no standard for how employees are meant to interact and communicate. Well-documented communications help teams refer back to verify communication and pass on any necessary details without any loss of information.
Establish levels or types of changes that individuals can make and from whom they need to get approval. Depending on the system and individual, they may need to seek approval or additional confirmation for changes. Ensure that the board who oversees changes is readily available, so that change procedures are swift and effective.
Review incidents and evaluate the reason for each incident. Identify preventative measures that could have been taken for the incident and measures that need to be taken for future incidents. This also ensures that all documentation is completed and that there is proper liability and compliance training if needed.
Different types of teams approach incident management in varying ways, each applying their unique perspectives and operational strategies. The three most common types of incident management teams are:
ITSM teams are traditionally responsible for end-to-end management of IT services within an organisation. Their primary goal is to ensure that IT services align with business needs and provide maximum value. ITSM teams typically use frameworks such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) to guide their processes, and their focus is often on service quality, customer satisfaction and continuous improvement.
In terms of incident management, ITSM teams strive to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible after an incident has occurred, minimising impact on business operations. They do this through established processes for incident identification, logging, categorisation, prioritisation, investigation, resolution and closure. This approach tends to be more reactive, dealing with incidents after they’ve occurred.
SRE employs aspects of software engineering to address issues in operational environments more effectively. The primary goal of site reliability engineering is to create scalable and highly reliable solutions, using software as a tool for managing systems, solving problems and automating crucial operations tasks.
SRE teams take a somewhat different approach to incident management. While they certainly address incidents as they occur, they also place a great emphasis on preventing incidents from happening in the first place. This involves designing systems to be robust and resilient, and continually measuring and improving system reliability. SRE teams often operate under a service level agreement that specifies a certain level of system uptime, and they aim to maintain system reliability within these agreed parameters.
DevOps is a methodology that seeks to integrate the functions of the development and operations team, to create a unified approach where software can be built, tested and released more rapidly and reliably. DevOps can help foster a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility, further improving incident response times.
DevOps teams address incident management with a focus on continuous delivery and infrastructure as code. Incidents are often seen as opportunities for improvement, and the team’s response will typically involve not only resolving the immediate problem, but also adjusting the development and deployment processes to prevent similar incidents in the future. This might involve making changes to the code, updating automated tests or enhancing monitoring and alerting capabilities.
In summary, ITSM teams focus on aligning IT services with business needs and tend to be more reactive. SRE teams aim to build robust systems and prevent incidents from occurring. DevOps teams view incidents as opportunities for improvement and aim to adjust their processes to prevent recurrence. Each approach has its strengths, and many organisations will use a combination of these strategies to manage incidents effectively.
Alerting systems are critical for timely incident detection, continuously monitoring various aspects of the system and sending alerts when anomalies or potential incidents are detected. This enables IT teams to respond promptly to incidents, reducing the time between incident occurrence and resolution. Alerting systems may also classify incidents based on severity, helping teams to prioritise their response.
AI and virtual agents are transforming the way that incidents are managed. AI can analyse and learn from past incidents to improve incident prediction, detection and resolution. Virtual agents, such as chatbots, can provide instant responses to common queries and perform basic troubleshooting tasks, freeing up human agents to handle more complex incidents.
AIOps combines machine learning and big data to automate IT operations and further streamline the incident management process. By analysing enormous amounts of data in real time, AIOps can discover patterns and anomalies that could indicate potential incidents. It can also suggest solutions based on historical data, making incident resolution more efficient and allowing for proactive incident prevention and mitigation.
Chat rooms serve as a centralised communication hub where all relevant stakeholders can collaborate in real time during an incident. This can significantly speed up the incident resolution process by improving coordination and reducing communication gaps among team members. Modern chat tools often come with features such as file sharing and integration with other incident management tools, enhancing their effectiveness.
Proper documentation improves incident understanding, aids in post-incident analysis and provides insights for future incident prevention. Documentation tools help to create, manage and store all incident-related information in a way that is organised and easy to search. These solutions often come with features such as templates and collaborative editing, making it easier to create comprehensive and accurate incident reports.
Incident tracking tools equip organisations with the means to document all incidents throughout their lifecycle, from the initial detection through to the final resolution. They assist in assigning incidents to the appropriate teams, tracking the progress of incident resolution and maintaining a historical record of incidents. This archived data is a valuable resource for locating patterns, enhancing procedures and training new team members.
Video chat tools provide a face-to-face communication platform for team members who may not be at the same location. This can be particularly useful for complex incidents that require detailed discussion and collaboration across departments or involve contractors or remote workers. Video chat can also be beneficial for building team cohesion and improving the overall efficiency of the incident management process.
ServiceNow IT Service Management offers Incident Management, which can help to keep employees productive and happy by providing easy-to-use contact support for tracking and fixing issues. Users can easily connect to IT via a self-service portal, chatbot, email, phone call or mobile app. This allows employees to choose how they would like to submit incidents.
IT agents will be thrilled as well. Dedicated agent portals for issue resolution have all the necessary information in one view. There is also a dedicated portal for Major Incident Management that enables swift resolution by bringing together the right resolution teams and stakeholders to restore services. Mobile Agent gives IT agents a mobile app to triage, address and resolve incidents on the go.
Additionally, ServiceNow Incident Management offers 24-hour support and gives service-desk personnel a clear view of incident resolution workflows via an incident response playbook. Visual task boards promote intuitive, effective collaboration, and the configuration management database (CMDB) creates a single system of record to help users better understand the impacts associated with individual incidents.
And, with guided setup, deploying ServiceNow incident management can be a fast and uncomplicated process.
Enable agents to manage and collaborate work with a single IT process platform.
Empower employees to do more, with omni-channel self-service and two-way communication.
Provide self-service portals and intelligent chatbots, so that employees have the tools to solve their own issues without having to get IT involved.
Machine learning and AI automatically assign incidents to the right resolution group for a faster effective resolution and deliver recommended solutions immediately.
Contact ServiceNow today and see how the right approach to incident management can boost your business.
Unchain your innovation with a modern, cloud-based, silo-busting ITSM solution.