WiscIT - Incidents vs. Service Requests (vs. Tasks)

Incident vs. Service Request: ITIL Definitions

Generally, ITIL defines an Incident as:

There is an issue/degradation, perceived issue/degradation, or unexpected response with the service that is impacting the user. This includes anything from an error message, malfunction, to the service being completely down.These issues can negatively impact business operations and need to be restored as quickly as possible.

whereas a Service Request is:

The customer or user is requesting information, advice, or access to a service. It is an initiation of a service action that is agreed upon as a normal part of service delivery, such as a password reset, software installation, or a new hardware request. Service requests are typically low-risk, frequent, and follow pre-defined, repeatable procedures.

Challenges in Definitions

While it would be ideal to have ironclad definitions for incident and service request, the reality is that there are both interactions with customers that cross the boundary between incident and service request as well as tool considerations that might not match the "best" definitions for the terms.

The classic example that helps illustrate the challenges in definitions is a password reset. A password reset is both a standard, routine, request with a repeatable procedure, but it could also be considered a degradation of service from the perspective of the user that can't login.

What are Incidents, Service Requests, and Tasks in WiscIT?

Incidents

The Incident object in WiscIT will include all ITIL defined incidents as well as ITIL defined service requests that do not have a corresponding service offering form in WiscIT powered by Ivanti Neurons. Additionally, incidents can be attached to service problems.

Generic service inquiries, service feedback and non-repeatable requests are represented in WiscIT as incidents. Fledgling or underdeveloped processes may initially be represented as an incident, but may eventually evolve into a defined service request depending on:

• Process maturity
• Volume of submission
• Resource constraints to document and build the workflow

Service Requests

The service request object in WiscIT is for service requests per the ITIL definition that are defined and have had a request offering form built in WiscIT. Service requests in the tool require a request offering form template configured for the request; they cannot exist without one. No ITIL defined Incidents should use the service request object since they can’t be attached to problems.

Because Request Offerings take time and resources to build, not every process that could be represented as a Service Request in WiscIT will be represented as a Service Request; fledging or underdeveloped process may be represented as incidents until they are able to be developed into Service Requests.

Tasks

A task represents a piece of work to be performed as part of a process. Tasks cannot exist alone; they must have a parent Incident, Service Request or Change object.