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Major Incidents


Mark F

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Hello what would the differences be between Incident and major Incidents? I don't think you can change the type you log against however you can create a specific SLA set or custom data sets in a incident ticket to indicate this as a Major Incident

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Thanks for getting back, in our current supportworks we have the option to create a major incident (MI - which allows all child incidents to be associated with one incident converted to a major incident - when the MI is closed off, all related calls are automatically updated and closed off also.),

Example - site is down and users cannot logon etc...

the greatness of this feature is we can report on it also?

But in service manager I cannot locate this feature?

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We have just moved to Hornbill ourselves and unless I am missing something this feature does not exist. I think the severity is based around the priority set, however if you want a centralised ticket to link items to I would probably recommend using a problem workflow and assign tickets to that, you can still report on the job and all linked items.

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Hi Mark

Thanks for your post, and for everyone's input.

There is not a separate request type of MI in Service Manager. You can use Priorities on an Incident to reflect either a Low, Medium, High or Major Incident. You can use the Link request feature to link other Incidents to this one.

In addition you can use the Business Process Engine, on resolution of the Incident to check the Priority using a decision node, after a get request information node, and if this is Major you can use the Linked Request > Update linked Requests, to cascade down an update to the timeline of the linked Incidents.

More info on Business Process Options on our wiki: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Business_Process_Workflow

Alternatively you could as suggested above raise a Problem or Known error from the Incident. This will allow several actions to be performed:

1. Use the above logic for updating Linked Requests > Updated linked requests at trigger points in the Problem Process

2. By Defining workaround information, you can make the possible Solutions available to the linked Incidents using the Solution feature - wiki reference: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Workarounds_and_Known_Errors

3. You can publish the Problem to the Service and or Customer Portal to notify customers of the issue, and allow them to add themselves as an Impacted User to the Problem in one Click using the Me Too option on the portal. This will add the users as connections to the Problem, and again using the business process engine you can automatically notify all affected connections via email that the Problem is resolved. This should help with cutting down on the number of repeat Incidents about already known issues.

Publishing Known Issues: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Publish_Action_Item

Connections: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Connections_Action_Item

4. On logging of a Problem / Known Error or Incident with a Major Priority you can build in automatic notifications to be sent to the wider customer base - using the business process tool you can send out emails to distribution email addresses, specific customers and or connections to a request. In addition you can automatically post the issue to a workspace to let other support staff that a request of this type has been raised.

Business Process: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Business_Process_Workflow

* See Email, Connection and Collaboration options to achieve the above

We don't currently have the option to automatically close child tickets, but this is an area that we are currently looking into, and as we progress this we will update this accordingly.

I hope some of these options help in the meantime?

Thanks

Steven

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Major incidents is an interesting topic and there are different viewpoints on how to implement and manage major incidents within any Service Desk. What we will try to do is to provide as much flexibility as possible to allow anyone to work with their definition of a Major Incident.

A big part of this flexibility is done through the BPM engine. As one of the default priorities that you can set against a request, we have included "Major". Using the BPM engine you can then define a Major Incident procedure for any request set with a major priority. As part of the BPM you will be able to automate communications, assign Service Level timers, add to a major incident Board, automatically assign activities, update the timelines of the linked requests, or you could even post to a Major Incident workspace.

If you do not wish to use the priorities to indicate a Major Incident there are the custom fields that could be used to add a check box to an incident to indicate a Major Incident.

There are plans in the future to include more automation between linked requests and also the ability to define the type of link (impacted by, depends on, etc). Which will extend out these options even more.

Hope this helps.

James

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  • 4 months later...

We're just looking at creating an IT process for dealing with major incidents

Looking at this thread it looks as though we might have to use a Problem but maybe create a priority called 'Major Incident' so we can differentiate them

It would be good if there was a Major Incident category that worked like a problem but was called major incident

Using a problem will allow us to have something visible on the portal and publish a workaround

We could also link any separate calls to it but there isn't a way to resolve/close them all with the problem like there was in SupportWorks

 

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Hi Everton1878

Thanks for your post.

On 26/09/2016 at 1:06 AM, Everton1878 said:

there isn't a way to resolve/close them all with the problem

I'm assuming that you would like linked requests to be resolve/closed automatically when the parent request, in this case a problem, is resolved or closed?  There is an on-going discussion here that may interest you.   We are planning on having some work done to allow for some automation between linked requests.  It is still in its planning stage so I'm afraid that I can't suggest a time frame yet for when this may be available.  We will keep you posted. 

Regards,

James

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  • 5 years later...
On 5/5/2016 at 7:25 PM, Steven Boardman said:

Hi Mark

Thanks for your post, and for everyone's input.

There is not a separate request type of MI in Service Manager. You can use Priorities on an Incident to reflect either a Low, Medium, High or Major Incident. You can use the Link request feature to link other Incidents to this one.

In addition you can use the Business Process Engine, on resolution of the Incident to check the Priority using a decision node, after a get request information node, and if this is Major you can use the Linked Request > Update linked Requests, to cascade down an update to the timeline of the linked Incidents.

More info on Business Process Options on our wiki: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Business_Process_Workflow

Alternatively you could as suggested above raise a Problem or Known error from the Incident. This will allow several actions to be performed:

1. Use the above logic for updating Linked Requests > Updated linked requests at trigger points in the Problem Process

2. By Defining workaround information, you can make the possible Solutions available to the linked Incidents using the Solution feature - wiki reference: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Workarounds_and_Known_Errors

3. You can publish the Problem to the Service and or Customer Portal to notify customers of the issue, and allow them to add themselves as an Impacted User to the Problem in one Click using the Me Too option on the portal. This will add the users as connections to the Problem, and again using the business process engine you can automatically notify all affected connections via email that the Problem is resolved. This should help with cutting down on the number of repeat Incidents about already known issues.

Publishing Known Issues: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Publish_Action_Item

Connections: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Connections_Action_Item

4. On logging of a Problem / Known Error or Incident with a Major Priority you can build in automatic notifications to be sent to the wider customer base - using the business process tool you can send out emails to distribution email addresses, specific customers and or connections to a request. In addition you can automatically post the issue to a workspace to let other support staff that a request of this type has been raised.

Business Process: https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Business_Process_Workflow

* See Email, Connection and Collaboration options to achieve the above

We don't currently have the option to automatically close child tickets, but this is an area that we are currently looking into, and as we progress this we will update this accordingly.

I hope some of these options help in the meantime?

Thanks

Steven

@Steven Boardman with the developments between when this post was published and now is this still how youd recommend approaching major incidents? Log as a problem record.?

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@Stephen.whittle as you say there have been developments and new features added in recent years, problems and major incidents are treated differently.

Hornbill allows for flagging / raising of Major Incidents - perhaps through priority or a custom value on the Incident form, and through the use of the business process or from the Auto Tasks you can invoke MI Comms plan etc. 

Hornbill is non prescriptive in the sense that Problem management has some specific features which may appeal to how you want to work, but likewise the process designer around Incident Management also lends itself to support key features of MI management.

* Comms Plans

* MI Review & Reports 

If we look at the wiki definition of the Major Incident as a sub process of Incident Management it makes reference to and interaction with problem management.

https://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/Incident_Management

image.png

As with all of this, ultimately it will come down to operationally how you want to work and what your specific needs you have, and I am sure the customer success team would be happy to engage and work through your requirements in this area.

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