Incident guidance

An incident record tracks a particular service issue. It identifies the service, asset and assigned person, then carries priority, status and dates for opening, acknowledgement and resolution. Incident updates add a dated title, narrative and author. This history gives a Knowledge Editor a grounded starting point when the same question appears more than once.

Suppose several agents handle the same access failure. One incident may include the steps that resolved it, while another shows a condition where those steps did not work. The editor reads both before writing a general answer. The article can explain when a recovery step applies without turning the individual incident narrative into permanent instructions.

• Incident queue. Open, acknowledged and investigating cases stay visible to the service desk and manager.
• Assigned work. A person reference helps the agent find the cases they are responsible for resolving.
• Update trail. Each update carries its own author and occurrence date, preserving the sequence of investigation and response.

A resolved incident can still be useful source context for an article. The team should keep the incident’s service and asset references accurate so later readers understand the circumstances. An article’s category and owner serve a different purpose: helping the team maintain a reusable answer.

Decide when an agent records an update and what belongs in the update text. A short title should help another agent find the important point without reading every line. Agree who assigns incidents and who checks that a resolution date reflects the actual work. These habits make the case history usable when an editor returns to it later.

Set a simple handoff from the service desk to the article owner. The agent can describe the repeated question and point the editor to representative incident records. The editor then checks the final answer with the service owner. If the issue is still being investigated, avoid presenting a tentative step as settled guidance.

Select an open incident with a service, affected asset and assignee. The Service Desk Agent records an update describing the observed failure, then another update when the issue is resolved. The Knowledge Editor compares the case with an earlier incident on the same service and drafts guidance that covers only the common pattern. The Article Reviewer reads the draft against the incident history. If the answer is accurate, the team can mark the article Published and use it in later support work. Keep the original cases intact.

• Open incident queue — Current cases by priority, service, assignee and status.
• My assigned incidents — The agent’s own cases with opening date and current state.
• Incident update history — Dated notes and authors for the investigation.

The service question process shows the move from an incident to an article draft. Article publication covers the later review decision.