Incident Management & Problem Management

There shall be a documented procedure for all incidents to define:

1. recording;
2. allocation of priority;
3. classification;
4. updating of records;
5. escalation;
6. resolution;

There shall be a documented procedure for managing the fulfillment of service requests from recording to closure. Incidents and service requests shall be managed according to the procedures. ITG follows the process presented in the TAM/SME Service Management Plan

1. When prioritizing incidents and service requests, the service provider shall take into consideration the impact and urgency of the incident or service request.
   1. The Priority is entered via using Urgency and Impact values. Urgency: A measure of the criticality of an Incident or Problem where there is an effect upon deadlines, or the importance of a quick resolution to the CI’s customer. The urgency reflects the time available for repair and the avoidance of poor customer satisfaction.  Impact: A measure of the effect that an Incident or Problem is having or might have on the CI and its related CIs
2. The service provider shall ensure that personnel involved in the incident and service request management process can access and use relevant information. The relevant information shall include service request management procedures, known errors, problem resolutions and the CMDB. Information about the success or failure of releases and future release dates, from the release and deployment management process, shall be used by the incident and service request management process.
   1. When a release is performed, Software Engineering will notify all users of the scheduled maintenance required to publish the new release and on the day that the release will be published, open a service record to indicate the fact that the production server(s) will be undergoing a scheduled maintenance, and, open a new Service Record of type “Event” to indicate that the new release is being published. This will serve as record of the release publication event.
3. The service provider shall keep the customer informed of the progress of their reported incident or service request. If service targets cannot be met, the service provider shall inform the customer and interested parties and escalate according to the procedure.
4. The service provider shall document and agree with the customer the definition of a major incident. Major incidents shall be classified and managed according to a documented procedure. Top management shall be informed of major incidents. Top management shall ensure that a designated individual responsible for managing the major incident is appointed. After the agreed service has been restored, major incidents shall be reviewed to identify opportunities for improvement.
   1. The Company has created a defined process and a Management Review Board that refines and improves Service Record Management. The TAM and SME Guide articulates in detail all Service Call processes, procedures, and policies for managing services calls including major incidents.

Problem management

There shall be a documented procedure to identify problems and minimize or avoid the impact of incidents and problems. The procedure for problems shall define:

1. identification;
2. recording
3. allocation of priority
4. classification
5. updating of records
6. escalation
7. resolution
8. closure

Problems shall be managed according to the procedure. Problem Analysis and Resolution defines the company-wide standards for the formal process that is used to identify “Problems,” examine root cause, and identify resolution options in compliance with the Business Quality Manual (BQM). The service provider shall analyze data and trends on incidents and problems to identify root causes and their potential preventive action. Problems requiring changes to a CI shall be resolved by raising a request for change. Where the root cause has been identified, but the problem has not been permanently resolved, the service provider shall identify actions to reduce or eliminate the impact of the problem on the services. Known errors shall be recorded.

The effectiveness of problem resolution shall be monitored, reviewed and reported.

Up-to-date information on known errors and problem resolutions shall be provided to the incident and service request management process.