Services and Assets

A service identifies the operational responsibility behind changes, incidents and requests. Its criticality and owner help the operator understand the impact of a disruption. An asset can link to that service and locate the equipment involved.

The service owner and criticality help the receiving operator judge impact. The asset link identifies the equipment involved and its location. A problem record can hold the underlying issue across separate incidents; its owner follows the cause after the immediate disruption is resolved.

• Ownership. Admin maintains the inventory; Service Operator uses it during response.
• Evidence. Check service owner and criticality, then asset tag, location and status.
• Follow-through. Keep the service and asset links accurate as assignments change.

Agree the service owner and criticality before incidents begin. Keep each asset tied to its supporting service and check its assigned or maintenance state when it appears in an incident. Problem records can hold a root cause across repeated incidents.

Rehearse an ordinary record and an exception with the people who will use this area. Check the linked owner or service before changing a status. If the outside information changes, compare it with the original request before the next handoff.

Select an incident with a linked service and asset. Check that the service owner can be reached, that the asset location and status match the case, and that a related problem record is owned if the underlying issue continues.

Have the receiving operator repeat the check using the linked records. Review a mismatched owner, value or date with the decision owner before applying the same handling to more work.

For an exception, use an incident linked to an asset marked Maintenance while its service is Active. The Service Operator should check whether the asset is really part of the current disruption and whether its location is still correct. The Admin can correct the inventory record; the incident responder should keep the observed impact in the incident chronology. If several incidents share an underlying cause, a problem record gives that investigation an owner and a root-cause field. Keep those links current so a later operator does not assume an old asset assignment still describes the service.

• Service inventory — Active and maintenance services with their owner and criticality.
• Asset register — Assigned and maintenance assets with their location and linked service.

Follow the service context handoff and review the data model before migrating records.