Problems and assets

An incident records a response to a particular service event. A problem gives the Service Owner a place to write the underlying statement and root cause as investigation continues. The problem has an owner, opening time, service and status. It can remain open, under investigation, known as an error or resolved. Use the service reference to compare problem work with incidents affecting the same operation.

Assets provide more specific context for incidents. Each asset has a tag, optional serial number, location, status and service. When a responder opens an incident, the affected asset reference narrows the question from a broad service to a particular item. A service owner can review assets assigned to a service or in maintenance before deciding whether a reported symptom may be related to planned work.

• Service issue. A problem keeps the statement, root cause and accountable owner together.
• Affected item. An asset contributes its tag, location and state to the incident record.
• Response connection. Incidents and problems both point to the service being examined.

Begin with the observed service symptom. Check whether a related problem is already under investigation before opening another cause record. Assign a person to own the problem and record the statement in terms the response team can test. As evidence accumulates, enter the root cause and update the problem status. Review the affected asset’s status when the incident points to equipment in maintenance or already retired.

Agree how to name problems and when an investigation has enough evidence to be marked a known error. A root cause statement should describe the actual finding; a guess can remain in the problem statement until checked. Decide who can resolve the problem and how the Service Owner confirms that the service issue no longer recurs.

For assets, agree who maintains tags and service assignments. The incident form requires an asset, so the response team needs a usable asset register for each service it handles. Review status labels such as assigned, maintenance and retired with the people who operate the equipment. Use the recorded location to help responders identify the right item during a live case.

Repeated alerts lead to incidents on a service with an assigned gateway asset. The responder confirms the asset tag and location on the incident. The Service Owner opens a problem with an owner and a clear statement about the recurring symptom. After comparing incident updates, the owner documents a root cause and marks the problem as a known error while a reviewed change is prepared. The asset may move into maintenance for the repair. When the change is verified, the owner records the problem’s resolution. The incident and problem retain their own status histories.

• Open problems — Review investigations and known errors by service and owner.
• Service assets — Find assigned or maintained items tied to a service.
• Incident queue — Read the service and affected asset on active response work.

Follow alert to incident response, then change review when a repair needs approval.