Incidents

The Service Desk Agent opens an incident with a summary, priority and opening time. The record points to the affected service, asset and assigned person. Those links matter when a caller describes a failing device but the service impact is wider: the team can see both the immediate asset and the service that people depend on. A Critical incident can be distinguished from a Low incident without changing the underlying record shape.

The working queue separates newly Open work from cases already Acknowledged or Investigating. The agent records the actual acknowledgment time when they take responsibility. An update gives the next person the observed symptom, the action already tried and the time it happened. Its author remains tied to a person, so the history stays legible when shifts change.

• Intake. Capture the summary, priority, affected service and asset, opening time and assigned person in the incident.
• Response. Record acknowledgment time, then add dated updates as the investigation proceeds.
• Closure. Record resolution time before moving the case through resolution and closure.

Decide who receives new incidents and who can change priority. Agree how agents identify the right service and asset before they submit a case, and how a service owner is consulted when several incidents affect the same service. Define the information an update should contain so the receiving agent can act on it. Decide who checks a resolved case before it closes. These choices let the queue represent real responsibility rather than merely a status label.

Suppose a shared workstation fails during an active service window. The Service Desk Agent records the asset, service, priority and assigned person. After acknowledging the case, they note the observed failure and their first check. A second agent can open the same incident, read that update and continue from it. When the service returns, the assigned agent records the resolution time and moves the incident to Resolved. The Service Manager checks the record and closes it. The opening, acknowledgment and resolution times still allow a later review of the response.

Before a case is handed to another agent, the current owner should check that the latest update says what remains uncertain. A good update helps the next person choose a new action instead of repeating an earlier one. The assigned person should stay visible through that handoff, and the Service Manager can use the service owner to decide whether a wider response is needed.

• Open incident queue — Work awaiting acknowledgment or investigation, with priority, service and assigned person visible.
• Incident update history — Dated case notes with their author and incident.
• Incident status board — The current spread of open, active and resolved cases.

See incident response and service ownership.