Incident Management in ServiceNow

Introduction

In today’s lecture, we will explore the Incident Management module in ServiceNow. By the end of this session, you will have a comprehensive understanding of what an incident is, the various fields present in the incident form, and the steps involved in creating an incident in ServiceNow.

Understanding an Incident

An incident is defined as an unplanned disruption to an IT service that interferes with the business operations of an organization. Common examples of incidents in a workplace may include a malfunctioning laptop, an outage of Wi-Fi services, or issues with office printers. These incidents can lead to significant losses, both financially and in terms of productivity. Therefore, having a robust Incident Management process is essential for organizations to resume operations with minimal downtime.

What is Incident Management?

Incident Management is the process that guides organizations in effectively managing the life cycle of an incident. The primary goal of Incident Management is to ensure that incidents are resolved as quickly as possible while minimizing disruption to business operations. This process is crucial for maintaining service quality and the availability of all IT services at optimal levels.

Creating an Incident in ServiceNow

Now that we have an understanding of what an incident is and the importance of Incident Management, let’s delve into ServiceNow and create an incident. For our demo, we will register an incident for the Wi-Fi being down in an office.

Prerequisites

To create an incident in ServiceNow, you need to have the appropriate permissions assigned to your user account.

Steps to Create an Incident

Access ServiceNow: Open the application navigator in ServiceNow and type “incident” under the Incident Application.
Create New Incident: Click on the Create New module. A blank incident form will load.

Fields on the Incident Form

As we fill out the incident form, we will discuss each field:

Number: This field displays the unique system-generated number for the incident record, serving as an identifier for future reference.
Caller: Enter the end user affected by the incident; for example, "Bell Tutor," who reports the problem.
Category: Define the type of incident. In our case, we will select "Network" since it pertains to our Wi-Fi issue.
Subcategory: Further specify the category. Here, we will choose "Wireless" for this Wi-Fi incident.
Service: Indicates the business service affected by the incident. We will select "IT Services."
Service Offering: Select any relevant service offering, which is not applicable in this instance.
Configuration Item: Select the affected configuration item; for instance, the wireless access point.
Short Description: Briefly describe the incident. For our example: "The wireless access point is not working in building 2."
Description: Provide detailed information about the incident. We will enter: "It's been reported that the Wi-Fi in building 2 is currently down and users cannot access the internet wirelessly."
Contact Type: State how the user contacted support. We will select "Phone" for this example.
State: This shows the status of the incident, initially set to "New."
Impact: Assess the impact of the incident; we will select "Low."
Urgency: Indicate how urgent the incident is; we will also set this to "Low."
Priority: This field auto-populates based on the impact and urgency.
Assignment Group: Select the group responsible for resolving this incident; we will select "Network."
Assigned To: Designate an individual to work on the incident, such as "David Dan."

After filling in these fields, we will save the incident by right-clicking on the header and clicking Save.

Notes and Resolution Information Tabs

As we explore the bottom of the incident form, we will find several tabs:

Notes Tab:
- Watch List: Add users who will receive notifications regarding incident updates.
- Work Notes: Document updates on the incident's progress.

In our case, we will note that David resolved the Wi-Fi issue by resetting the wireless access point.

Related Records Tab:
- You can relate this incident to others if applicable, but we will leave these fields blank for our example.
Resolution Information Tab:
- Knowledge: Decide if a draft knowledge article should be created upon closure of this incident.
- Resolution Code: Select how the incident was resolved; for demo purposes, we will choose "Solved Permanently."
- Resolution Notes: Log any resolution details; we will note that the connectivity issue was rectified by resetting the wireless access point.
- Resolved By: Select the technician who resolved the incident and the date and time of resolution.

After all data is filled, we can resolve the incident by clicking the Resolve button in the header.

Conclusion

Once resolved, we may view the incident in the incident list. The system automatically transitions the state to "Closed" after five days of being in the resolved state. You also have the option to close the incident manually.

It is also worth mentioning that incidents can be created via the Service Portal or through email.

Keywords

Incident
Incident Management
ServiceNow
IT Services
Configuration Item
Resolution Information
Work Notes

FAQ

What is an incident in ITIL? An incident is an unplanned interruption to an IT service or a reduction in the quality of an IT service.
What is the goal of Incident Management? The goal of Incident Management is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible while minimizing the impact on the business.
How do you create an incident in ServiceNow? You can create an incident by accessing the Incident Application, filling in the relevant details on the incident form, and saving the incident record.
Can incidents be created other than in ServiceNow? Yes, incidents can also be created through the Service Portal or via email.
What happens after an incident is resolved? After being resolved, the incident will automatically transition to a closed state after five days, or it can be manually closed by an administrator.