USMBOK: Universal Service Management Body of Knowledge (USMBOK)

USMBOK™: USM540

Service Incident Management

Any aberrations or anomalies, no matter how insignificant they may seem, may be the first indication of a problematic situation or 'incident'. The term ‘incident’ can have a wide range of definitions depending on the context within which it is used. A general definition is “A single distinct event that disrupts or degrades normal, agreed operations”.

Incidents are the evidence that drive problem elimination, new opportunity, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Service Incident Management manages incidents as they relate to customer activities and service level objectives defined with service level agreements. Incidents should be managed as a type of service request, but can be managed separately.

Regardless of the approach, incidents and service requests are managed through their natural lifecycle, from detection and recording in a system, to eventual resolution, completion, and closure.

Charter Statement:

To manage interruption and degradation of service as incidents and restore levels of services as quickly as possible within agreed response target times.

Service Incident Management Quick Links

Best Practices
Key Performance Measures

Key Objectives

The following key objectives are some of those commonly found within incident management standard operating practices:

To provide a consistent definition of what constitutes an incident
To provide specific and clear instructions on the objectives of managing incidents
To protect the interests of those most local, or personally affected by an incident
To provide a predictable response to an incident
To help coordinate the response to an incident across differing organizational and responsibility structures
To ensure organizational units plan a collective response to an incident
To ensure lines of authority are clear with respect to reporting and managing incidents
To ensure all parties involved use adequate and compatible communication methods for incidents
To ensure all parties use common terms and technology in managing incidents
To ensure incidents are assigned effectively
To ensure incidents are managed overall with effectiveness and efficiency
To monitor the organization's incident management workload to detect and report bottlenecks

Key Concepts

The following key concepts are some of those commonly found within incident management standard operating practices:

First Interview
Incident matching
Impact
Urgency
Target Time to Restore (TTR)
Estimated Time to Restore (ETR)
Incident lifecycle
Priority
Vital Customer/Business Activity
3Rs, Recover, Resolve, Restore
Complete, Close

Key Artifacts

The following key artifacts are some of those commonly found within incident management standard operating practices:

Incident Management System
Incident classification scheme
Diagnostic scripts (interview)
Trouble-shooting procedures
Assignment tables
Escalation rules
Notification methods
Closure scripts

Major Activities

The following major activities are representative of those commonly found within incident management standard operating practices:

Detect and Record
Classify and Authorize
Verify Entitlement
Escalation and Notification
Prioritization
Initial Diagnosis
Initial Cause Analysis
Assignment
Recover, Resolve, Restore
Complete
Close

Additional and more specific information about the activities are detailed within the USMBOK Guide.

More...

The USMBOK provides a significant amount of additional information on each element of the framework, including this area. The additional information includes:

Best Practices :

Best practices represents a technique or method that through experience and research has reliably led to a desirable level of operation. The USMBOK provides specific guidance on the 'best practices' required to design, implement and sustain an efficient and effective operation and offer these through a subscription based service, the

Best Practice Statement Library.

Key Performance Measures :

The efficiency and effectiveness of an operation is measured through its 'performance'. The Performance Management Framework (PMF) provides three levels or types of measures to help manage performance from the strategic, tactical and operational perspective.

The USMBOK provides specific guidance on these 'key performance measures' through a dedicated, subscription based service, the

Key Performance Measure Library.

Extensions:

An 'extension' is an approved additional relevant reference to the USMBOK and typically in the form of :

A book or publication with an ISBN or similar reference;
A website page or pages;
A white paper;
A personally penned article or report;
A periodical article or newsletter item;

More information on the available extensions and how they may be accessed or contributions submitted can be found here:

USMBOK Extension Library.

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