Help Desk Chapter 6

Record

A collection of related fields

Detailed incident description

A comprehensive accounting of an incident and the circumstances surrounding the incident's occurrence.

Client/Server

A computing model where some computers, known as clients, request services, and other computers, known as servers, respond to those requests.

Inquiry

A customer request for information

Question

A customer request for instructions

Flowchart

A diagram that shows the sequence of tasks that occur in a process

Trend analysis

A methodical way of determining and, when possible, forecasting service trends.

Root Cause Analysis

A methodical way of determining why problems occur and identifying ways to prevent them.

Known error

A problem that has a documented root cause and a workaround (ITIL definition)

Closed loop process

A process that changes its output based on feedback.

Kepner-Tregoe problem analysis

A proprietary problem analysis technique developed by Charles Kepner and Ben Tregoe that involves defining and describing the problem, establishing possible causes, testing the most probable cause, and verifying the true cause.

Request for change (RFC)

A request to change the production environment

Symptom

A sign or indication that an incident has occurred

Digital agent

A software routine that waits in the background and performs an action when a specified event occurs.

Short incident description

A succinct description of the actual results a customer is experiencing

Pareto analysis

A technique for determining the most significant causes from a list of many possible causes of a problem.

Brainstorming

A technique performed by a group of people that is designed to generate a large number of ideas for solving a problem.

Five Whys

A technique that involves repeatedly asking the question "Why?" until the root cause of a problem is determined

Cause and effect analysis

A technique used to generate the possible causes of a problem or effect.

Remote Control System

A technology that enables an analyst to view and take control of a connected device to troubleshoot incidents, transfer files, provide informal training, or collaborate on documents.

Target escalation time

A time constraint placed on each level that ensures incident resolution activities are proceeding at an appropriate pace.

Customer record

All of the data and text fields that describe a single customer

Incident Record

All of the fields that describe a single incident.

Incident owner

An employee of the support organization who acts as a customer advocate and ensures an incident is resolved to the customer's satisfaction.

Problem manager

An employee of the support organization who coordinates all problem management activities and ensures problems are resolved within SLA targets.

Troubleshooting skills

See problem solving skills

Standard change

Standard change

Notification

The activities that inform all of the stakeholders in the incident management process (including management, the customer, and service desk analysts) about the status of outstanding incidents.

Status data

The details about an incident that are used to track the incident throughout its lifecycle.

Incident data

The details of an incident or service request

Resolution data

The details that describe how an incident was resolved

Customer data

The identifying details about a customer

IT planner

The individual responsible for producing and maintaining the IT standards, policies, plans, and strategies that ensure the IT department's services meet the business' strategic needs.

Root cause

The most basic reason for an undesirable condition or problem, which, if eliminated or corrected, would prevent the problem from existing or occuring.

Incident management

The process responsible for managing the lifecycle of incidents (ITIL Definition).

Problem management

The process responsible for managing the lifecycle of problems (ITIL definition)

Early life support (ELS)

The stage in the service lifecycle that occurs at the end of a deployment and before the service is fully accepted into operation (ITIL definition).

Probable source

The system, network, application, or product that is most likely causing an incident.

Problem-solving skills

The thinking skills used to answer a question or resolve a difficult situation; also known as troubleshooting skills

Job shadowing

Working side by side with another person in an effort to understand and potentially learn that person's job