EditIntroduction
There is more than one way to create an incident in Octopus. The creation upon a phone call requires a quick reaction from the call center analyst, so every click counts. We have thought about that aspect and made our tool according to this important requirement.
The
Incidents / SR module allows the management of incidents and service requests. In this article, we are going to see the
incident aspect. (see
Creation of a Service Request (SR) for precisions on the "Service Request" aspect)
.
This article explains the efficient creation steps of an incident in a context where a user calls to address his needs to the Service Center.
EditSome definitions
According to the ITIL framework, the objective of the Incidents Management process is to restore the service as soon as possible, by having the smallest minimum impact on current operations.
- An Incident is an event that is not part of normal operations and that causes, or could cause, an interruption of service or a reduction of service quality.
- A Service Request (SR) is a user request asking to receive specific information, a hint, to benefit from a standard change or to get access to an IT service. Service Requests are usually managed by a service center, have defined execution steps, are pre-approved and have lesser impact on the infrastructure. The requests not part of this category are managed as Changes, in the Changes Management process.
EditReceiving a phone call
When receiving a phone call, proceed this way:
1. Click on the Users button (or press F3) to open the Users Management module.
F3 allows to open the Users module and position the cursor in the Search field
2. Search the user (using their first or last name, Windows username or phone extention
3. Once the user has been found, you can access their existing requests and inform him of any developments
(in that case, we recommend adding an activity into the journal to indicate that the user called in for a follow up)
4. ...or open a new request.
5. Click on Create an incident / SR action (or press F4).
EditCreate an incident
6. The Incident option is selected by default
7. Enter the information linked to the incident :
- Enter a subject and a detailed description or select an incident template (previously configured)
The subject must be as clear and complete as possible since it will be visible in the requests list and must resume rapidly the nature of the incident
When a template is selected, some fields are filed to accelete the incident creation.
- Select the category and the sub-category
The Service Center must identify the incident's category and sub-category, according to the information provided by the user
Enter the CI that seems to be the origin of the incident; this information could be corrected at the resolution when the real cause will be identified
The due date will be determined according to the chosen priority. It is possible to use an urgency and impact as well to let the system automaticaly choose the priority
For additional information on how to automaticaly establish a priority, please consult the following article
Priority definitions.
- Assign a group or an assignee
By default, an incident will be assigned to its creator. To reassign it to a group, the creator must remove his name from the "Assignee" field
8. At this step, the creator can check the Open the form option to access the screen that will allow him to add more information to the incident, or to go directly to step 8.
9. Click Ok.
Additional Information :
- The "Subject" field allows manually entering a subject or selecting an incident template form the scrolling list
- The "Source" field indicates the incident's origin. If the incident has been entered through the Web Portal or by email, the field will automatically be modified accordingly to the chosen method of creation.
EditOpening of the form
Clicking on "Open the form" brings a separated window, giving access to additional fields. Some fields differ between the incident form and the Service Request form, without forgetting that according to the initial Ocotpus configuration, some fields can be visible or not, mandatory or not.
To learn more about the visibility of certain fields, see this article Octopus Configuration.
EditUpper part of the form
1. Users section :
A difference exists between requester and user. The 'user is the person affected by the service interruption or degradation. The requester, if it differs from the user, represents the situation where someone calls for another user.
The green arrows on the right of the user or requester's name allows a quick access to their file.
2. Assignation section :
The Group field represents the group which the assignee is part of. It is possible to assign an incident to only a group, or directly to an assignee.
The Follow-up by field allows to keep the incident in the owner's list to keep an eye on it until its closure. Once the incident has been resolved, the assignee of the incident will become the one identified in the "Follow-up by" field until the complete close.
3. Section Dates :
The Due date is automatically chosen by the system (if the SLA option is enabled) and is based on the established resolution delay for each priority (see article Modify the priorities).
EditBottom left part of the form
This section describes and classifies the incident.
- Incident tab allows to describe and categorise an incident.
- Related Incidents tab can link an incident to another one.
- Attached files tab will include a file into an incident.
- History allows to view the modifications history of an incident.
EditBottom right part of the form
All request related activities are kept in the "Activities" section. It reflects the steps taken to bring the incident to a resolution. We have also integrated the communications performed through the self-service Web portal. At last, we have established a color code to better identify the nature of different activities:
- activities performed by assignees are displayed in blue
- task descriptions about activities performed by external labor is displayed in purple
- information added by an end user via the self-service Web portal are in green
- resolution activities appear highlighted in yellow
Activities list
EditAdding an activity
To add an activity, click on the Add button.
- Using "Activity type" allows a quicker selection of the described activity. This list can be configured from the "Tools > Reference Data Management" menu
(This field COULD be invisible in your environment. Contact your Octopus administrator if you need to gain access to it.)
We can specify in minutes the length of activities to obtain metrics about efforts put in the requests execution. If this metric is required, it is recommended to make this field mandatory to force the constant usage of the fields by the technicians
We can indicate that an on-site visit was required while performing the activity (On-site visit = yes)
The "Communication" section appears when the "Allow to send activities via email" option is enabled (Tools > Options...). We can render the activity visible on the self-service Web portal and/or send an email message to all kinds of recipients.
Adding an activity''
Additional information :
- The total effort includes the sum of all individual efforts entered in all incident activities.
- The total cost represents an approximative amount of the incident's execution cost. Furthermore, when the CIs are linked to incidents, we can find in the "Cost" tab the total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes the initial cost and maintenance costs (parts, internal and external labor, preventive maintenance, service contract, etc.) associated with the CI.
- The total cost of the incident form includes the total effort multiplied by the ressources cost, the costs related to labor activities and costs related to parts.