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BMC® Remedy® Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
User’s Guide
June 2006
Part No: 60845
Copyright 1991–2006 BMC Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
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all other BMC Software product or service names, are registered trademarks or trademarks of BMC
Software, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective companies.
BMC Software, Inc., considers information included in this documentation to be proprietary and
confidential. Your use of this information is subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable end user
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notices included in this documentation.
For license information about the OpenSource files used in the licensed program, please read
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252.227-7014, DFARS 252.227-7015, and DFARS 252.227-7025, as amended from time to time. Contractor/Manufacturer is
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Contacting Us
If you need technical support for this product, contact Customer Support by email at
[email protected]. If you have comments or suggestions about this documentation, contact
Information Development by email at [email protected].
This edition applies to version 7.0 of the licensed program.
BMC Software, Inc.
www.bmc.com
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Best Practice and New icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
About the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite. . . . . . . . . . . 10
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
BMC Remedy Problem Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
BMC Service Level Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite documents . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 1
Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0
. . . . . . . 17
Installing and configuring Incident Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
What’s new in Incident Management 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Incident Management user roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Requester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Support staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Incident manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Process flow and the life cycle of an incident request . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Chapter 2
Using functions common to all ITSM applications . . . . . . . . . 27
Opening the main application console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Using BMC Remedy User client to open a main console . . . . . . . . . 28
Contents ! 3
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Using a browser to open a main console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Working with the Overview console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Opening the Overview console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Using the Assigned Work table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Viewing and creating broadcast messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Using the navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Using quick actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Auto-filling fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Working with records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Searching for records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Printing records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Modifying records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Working with relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Defining relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Copying relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Indicating impacted areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Modifying relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Performing quick actions on a relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Removing relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Adding work information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Creating reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Broadcasting messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Creating broadcast messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Viewing broadcasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Sending pages and email messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Paging a person or on-call group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Sending email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Working with reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Generating a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Using qualifications to generate a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Generating a report using saved qualifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Chapter 3
Working with the Requester console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Requester role. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Service Request Management users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Understanding the Requester console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4 "Contents
User’s Guide
Opening the Requester console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Functional areas and tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Working with service requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Creating a service request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Filtering service requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Viewing a service request record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Modifying a service request. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Searching for service requests by Request ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Printing a service request. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Canceling a service request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Reopening a service request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Completing surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Viewing service requests with errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Working with service requests as the Request Master . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Opening a service request record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Reopening a service request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Viewing or adding work information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Viewing the event log and troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Service Request form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Working with the Solution database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Viewing broadcast messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Chapter 4
Working with Incident Management as support staff . . . . . . 103
Understanding the Support Console tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Setting application preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Recording a new incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Using the Process Flow Status wizard to record a new incident . . . . . . 109
Using a template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Using the decision tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Using scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Relating incidents as duplicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Recording CI unavailability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Adding or modifying a customer profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Understanding assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Receiving notification of assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Working with assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Contents ! 5
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Reassigning an incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Working with tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Investigating and diagnosing an incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Viewing an incident
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Searching for a solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Recording the cost of working on an incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Resolving an incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Creating a problem investigation from an incident . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Creating infrastructure change from an incident . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Reopening a resolved incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Closing an incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Creating known errors and solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Creating a known error from an incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Creating a solution database entry from an incident . . . . . . . . . . 150
Chapter 5
Working with Incident Management as a manager . . . . . . . 153
Understanding the Manager Console tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Managing assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Viewing unassigned incidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Assigning an incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Monitoring an incident's status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Reopening a closed incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Understanding SLM calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Understanding notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Viewing the audit log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Chapter 6
Managing configuration items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Creating a CI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Creating a computer system CI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Creating a bulk inventory CI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Creating an inventory location CI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Managing inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Viewing inventory locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Relocating CIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Reserving and using inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
6 "Contents
User’s Guide
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Contents ! 7
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
8 "Contents
Preface
The BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 User’s Guide
describes how to use the BMC® Remedy® Incident Management application.
Incident Management is one of five BMC Remedy IT Service Management
applications.
The BMC® Remedy® IT Service Management Suite
(BMC® Remedy® ITSM Suite) includes:
!
The BMC® Remedy® Asset Management application.
!
The BMC® Remedy® Change Management application.
!
The BMC® Remedy® Service Desk solution (which includes the
BMC® Remedy® Incident Management application and the
BMC® Remedy® Problem Management application).
!
The BMC® Service Level Management application.
The applications run in conjunction with the BMC® Remedy® Action
Request System® platform (BMC® Remedy® AR System® platform) and
share a common database. All five applications consume data from the
BMC® Atrium® Configuration Management Database (CMDB) application.
Preface ! 9
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Best Practice and New icons
Documentation for the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite contains two icons.
Icon
Description
The New icon identifies features or
products that are new or enhanced with
version 7.0.
The Best Practice icon highlights
processes or approaches that BMC has
identified as the most effective way to
leverage certain features in the suite.
About the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite
There have been several updates to the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite since
version 6.0.
Note the change to the BMC® Remedy® Help Desk application. BMC is now
offering the BMC Remedy Service Desk solution, which contains the
following applications:
!
BMC Remedy Incident Management
!
BMC Remedy Problem Management
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 is installed with Asset Management, Change
Management, and Service Desk (including Incident Management and
Problem Management). It stores information about configuration items and
their relationships in an inheritance-based data model, and has the ability to
reconcile data from different sources. BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 provides a
“single source of truth” about your IT environment, enabling other BMC
applications to manage CIs, predict the impact of configuration changes, and
perform other Business Service Management (BSM) functions.
For more information, see the BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 User’s Guide.
10 "Preface
User’s Guide
BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0
The BMC Remedy Asset Management application lets IT professionals track
and manage enterprise configuration items (CIs)—and their changing
relationships—throughout the entire CI life cycle. As part of the BMC
Remedy ITSM Suite, Asset Management is integrated with BMC Remedy
Service Desk (which contains the BMC Remedy Incident Management and
BMC Remedy Problem Management applications), BMC Remedy Change
Management, and BMC Service Level Management, and offers flexibility to
support customized business processes.
For more information, see the BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 User’s
Guide.
BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0
Using ITIL-compatible best practices, BMC Remedy Change Management
provides IT organizations with the ability to manage changes by enabling
them to assess impact, risk, and resource requirements, and then create plans
and automate approval functions for implementing changes. It provides
scheduling and task assignment functionality, and reporting capabilities for
reviewing performance and improving processes. Because Change
Management is integrated with BMC Atrium CMDB, Change Management
lets you relate changes to other records, such as configuration items
(including services) and incidents.
For more information, see the BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 User’s
Guide.
BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0
BMC Remedy Incident Management is used to manage incidents. Incident
management is reactive, and is typically initiated in response to a customer
call or automated event. An example of an automated event might be an alert
from a monitoring system, such as BMC® Service Impact Management
(BMC® SIM). The primary goal of the incident management process,
according to ITIL standards, is “to restore normal service operation as
quickly as possible with minimum disruption to the business, thus ensuring
that the best achievable levels of availability and service are maintained.”
About the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite ! 11
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
An incident is any event that is not part of the standard operation of a service
and that causes an interruption to or a reduction in the quality of that service.
Normal service operation is the operation of services within the limits
specified by Service Level Management (SLM).
For more information, see the BMC Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
User’s Guide.
BMC Remedy Problem Management 7.0
BMC Remedy Problem Management is used to manage problem
investigations, known errors, and solution database entries. Problem
management can proactively prevent the occurrence of incidents, errors, and
additional problems. A problem investigation helps an IT organization get to
the root cause of incidents. It initiates actions that help to improve or correct
the situation, preventing the incident from recurring.
After a problem investigation identifies the cause, this information can result
in either a known error or a solution database entry. A known error is a
problem that has been successfully diagnosed and for which a temporary
work-around or permanent solution has been identified. A solution database
entry contains information that might be required to provide or restore a
service.
For more information, see the BMC Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0
User’s Guide.
BMC Service Level Management 7.0
BMC Service Level Management enables a service provider, such as an IT
organization, a customer support group, or an external service provider, to
formally document the needs of its customers or lines of business using
service level agreements, and provide the correct level of service to meet those
needs.
Service Level Management also provides a means to review, enforce, and
report on the level of service provided. It streamlines the most important task
of all, which is the communication between a service provider and its
customers. Multiple service targets can be defined and monitored, acting as
a bridge between IT service support and IT operations. This enables costs to
be controlled and helps to provide a consistent level of service in support of
a key business service.
12 "Preface
User’s Guide
For more information, see the BMC Service Level Management 7.0 User’s
Guide.
Audience
Incident Management is intended for the following IT professionals:
!
IT support staff
!
IT managers
The Requester console is intended for any IT user.
BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite documents
The following table lists the documentation available for the BMC Remedy
ITSM Suite.
Unless otherwise noted, online documentation in Adobe Acrobat (PDF)
format is available on product installation CDs, on the Customer Support
website (http://supportweb.remedy.com), or both. You can order printed
documentation from [email protected].
Note: To access the support website, you must have a support contract.
You can access application Help by clicking on Help links within the
application.
Title
Document provides
Audience
Format
ITSM Configuration Quick Start Start with this reference card to quickly
install and configure applications in the
ITSM suite.
Administrators Print and
PDF
BMC Remedy Action Request
System 7.0 Concepts
Concepts for using the Action Request
System.
Administrators Print and
PDF
BMC Remedy Action Request
System 7.0 Installing
Procedures for installing the Action
Request System.
Administrators Print and
PDF
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0
Common Data Model Diagram
Hierarchical diagram of all classes in the Administrators PDF
CDM, including unique attributes and
applicable relationships.
Audience ! 13
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Title
Document provides
Audience
Format
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0
Common Data Model Help
Description and details of superclasses,
subclasses, attributes, and relationships
for each class.
Administrators HTML
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0
Information about CMDB concepts and Executives and Print and
Concepts and Best Practices Guide best practices for planning your BMC
administrators PDF
Atrium CMDB implementation.
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0
Developer’s Reference Guide
Information about creating API
programs, C and Web Services API
functions and data structures, and a list
of error messages.
Administrators PDF
and
programmers
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Help
Help for using and configuring BMC
Atrium CMDB.
Users and
Product
administrators Help
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0
Installation and Configuration
Guide
Information about installing and
configuring BMC Atrium CMDB,
including permissions, class definitions,
reconciliation, and federation.
Administrators Print and
PDF
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Javadoc Information about Java classes, methods, Programmers
API Help
and variables that integrate with BMC
Atrium CMDB.
HTML
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Master
Index
Everyone
Print and
PDF
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Release Information about new features and
Notes
known issues.
Everyone
Print and
PDF
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 User’s
Guide
Users
Print and
PDF
Combined index of all books.
Information about using BMC Atrium
CMDB, including searching for CIs and
relationships, launching federated data,
reporting, and running reconciliation
jobs.
Print and
BMC Remedy 7.0 Approval Server Topics on installation and configuration Users and
administrators PDF
Guide for Users and
of the Approval Server, how to use the
Administrators
Approval Server, and understanding the
approval workflow.
BMC Remedy IT Service
Management 7.0 Configuration
Guide
14 "Preface
Procedures for configuring the BMC
Remedy IT Service Management
applications.
Administrators Print and
PDF
User’s Guide
Title
Document provides
Audience
BMC Remedy IT Service
Management 7.0 Installation
Guide
Administrators Print and
Procedures for installing the BMC
PDF
Remedy IT Service Management
applications and solutions: BMC
Remedy Service Desk solution (BMC
Remedy Incident Management and BMC
Remedy Problem Management), BMC
Remedy Change Management, and BMC
Remedy Asset Management.
BMC Remedy Asset
Management 7.0 Help
Help for using BMC Remedy Asset
Management.
Everyone
Format
Product
Help
BMC Remedy Asset Management Information about known issues in each Everyone
7.0 Release Notes
release of BMC Remedy Asset
Management. Also provides a list of new
features included with the application.
Print and
PDF
BMC Remedy Asset Management Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Everyone
7.0 User’s Guide
Asset Management application; includes
new features and overview.
Print and
PDF
BMC Remedy Change
Management 7.0 Help
Help for using BMC Remedy Change
Management.
Product
Help
BMC Remedy Change
Management 7.0 Release Notes
Information about known issues in each Everyone
release of BMC Remedy Change
Management. Also provides a list of new
features included with the application.
Print and
PDF
BMC Remedy Change
Management 7.0 User’s Guide
Procedures for using the BMC Remedy
Change Management application;
includes new features and overview.
Everyone
Print and
PDF
BMC Remedy Service Desk 7.0
Release Notes
Information about known issues in each Everyone
release of BMC Remedy Service Desk:
Incident Management and BMC Remedy
Service Desk: Problem Management.
Also provides a list of new features
included with the application.
Print and
PDF
BMC Remedy Service Desk:
Incident Management 7.0 Help
Help for using BMC Remedy Incident
Management.
Everyone
Product
Help
BMC Remedy Service Desk:
Incident Management 7.0 User’s
Guide
Procedures for using the BMC Remedy
Service Desk: Incident Management
application; includes new features and
overview.
Everyone
Print and
PDF
Everyone
BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite documents ! 15
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Title
Document provides
Audience
Format
BMC Remedy Service Desk:
Problem Management 7.0 Help
Help for using BMC Remedy Problem
Management.
Everyone
Product
Help
BMC Remedy Service Desk:
Problem Management 7.0 User’s
Guide
Procedures for using the BMC Remedy
Service Desk: Problem Management
application; includes new features and
overview.
Everyone
Print and
PDF
BMC Service Level Management
7.0 Configuration Guide
Procedures for configuring the BMC
Service Level Management application.
Administrators Print and
PDF
BMC Service Level Management Help for configuring the BMC Service
7.0 Configuration Help
Level Management application.
Administrators Product
Help
BMC Service Level Management
7.0 Installation Guide
Procedures for installing the BMC
Service Level Management application.
Administrators Print and
PDF
BMC Service Level Management
7.0 Release Notes
Information about known issues in each Everyone
release of BMC Service Level
Management. Also provides a list of new
features included with the application.
BMC Service Level Management Help for using the BMC Service Level
7.0 User Help
Management application.
Everyone
BMC Service Level Management
7.0 User’s Guide
Everyone
Procedures for using the BMC Service
Level Management application; includes
new features and overview.
BMC Remedy 7.0 Task
Management Administrator’s
Guide
Procedures to configure Task
Management.
Note: This guide also includes steps to
configure seamless authentication
between BMC Remedy Change
Management and the other
components of BMC Remedy Change
and Configuration Management
(CCM).
16 "Preface
PDF
Product
Help
Print and
PDF
Administrators Print and
PDF
Chapter
1
Introducing BMC Remedy
Incident Management 7.0
The Service Desk: Incident Management application is used to manage
incidents. Incident management is reactive, and is typically initiated in
response to a customer call. The primary goal of the incident management
process, according to ITIL standards, is “to restore normal service operation
as quickly as possible with minimum disruption to the business, thus
ensuring that the best achievable levels of availability and service are
maintained.”
An incident is any event that is not part of the standard operation of a service
and that causes an interruption to or a reduction in the quality of that service.
Normal service operation is the operation of services within the limits
specified by the service target.
The following topics are provided:
!
!
!
!
Installing and configuring Incident Management (page 18)
What’s new in Incident Management 7.0 (page 18)
Incident Management user roles (page 21)
Process flow and the life cycle of an incident request (page 24)
Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0 ! 17
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Installing and configuring Incident Management
Your administrator installs and configures Incident Management. For
details, see:
!
BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Installation Guide
!
BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide
What’s new in Incident Management 7.0
The new features in this release of Incident Management include:
!
Improved ITIL conformance—A new process flow tool helps you follow
ITIL processes for incident management.
!
Enhanced user interface—The user interface is now more consistent with
other BMC applications. To help speed use of the application, forms and
dialog boxes have been streamlined, and Quick Action accelerators have
been added.
!
Role-based consoles—Support staff, managers, and requesters have
separate consoles. The Requester console provides customer access.
!
Permission model—Permissions and functional roles have been
enhanced to provide greater flexibility in setting up user access. For
details, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration
Guide.
!
Task management—You can assign tasks to one or more people without
changing the incident assignment. For previous users of Incident
Management, this replaces the work log action feature. Now you can
assign and view tasks without going into the work log.
!
Direct view into CMDB—This allows you to manage configuration items
(CIs) from Incident Management.
!
Cost tracking—The cost for each incident can be tracked as the incident
moves between support groups for diagnosis, resolution, and closure,
based on either flat-rate or time-based costs.
18 "Chapter 1—Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0
User’s Guide
!
Reporting—Incident Management now includes the reports described in
the following table.
Report
Description
Group Assignment to Incidents
This report lists incidents and their
assigned support groups for a
specified date range.
Open Incident volume by Assignee
This bar chart displays the number of
open incidents for each assignee.
Incidents by activity times
This report lists all open incidents and
the amount of time since the reported
date.
Resolved and Closed Incident Volume
by Assignee
This bar chart displays the number of
resolved and closed incidents for each
assignee.
Change induced incidents
This report lists incidents that were
caused by changes.
Note: This report is available only if
Change Management is installed.
!
Service Level Management—If Service Level Management is installed, the
Incident form displays the status of service targets.
!
Enhanced audit log—You can now filter the audit log, for example, to see
only date field audit records or assignment changes.
!
Terminology changes—You can find terminology changes in the
following table.
Table 1-1: Key terminology changes in Incident Management
Previous term
New term
Associate
Relate
Associations
Relationships
Automatic Routing
Auto Assign
Delete
Remove—This change applies only to the
Relationship and Financial tabs, to clarify
the action being performed.
Service Categorization
Operational Categorization
What’s new in Incident Management 7.0 ! 19
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Table 1-1: Key terminology changes in Incident Management
What’s new for
Help Desk
users?
Previous term
New term
Work Log
Work Info
Work Log Action
Task
This release replaces BMC® Remedy® Help Desk with Incident Management
and Problem Management. New Incident Management features for former
Help Desk users include the features mentioned in the previous paragraphs,
and also the following features:
!
Enhanced problem management—Problem investigations have a
separate form. Problem Management includes new processes to manage
the life cycle of a problem investigation and known errors, and to record
solution database entries.
!
Navigation pane—Located on the left side of consoles and forms, this
provides access to common functions, such as assigning an incident to
yourself.
!
Multi-tenancy—This makes it possible to host multiple companies and
their data on a single server. This feature can also be used for any groups,
such as business units or departments, whose data must be kept separate.
Multi-tenancy is limited to the company level in Incident Management.
Configuration can differ on a per-company basis. Multi-tenancy from the
user’s perspective is accessed by selecting the appropriate company from
the list next to the Company field.
!
Incident matching—From the Incident form, users can perform searches
for known errors, solution database entries, problem investigations, and
other incidents that match criteria from the current incident to assist in
the incident resolution process.
!
Categorization—This is recorded separately for operational and product
categorization, each with multiple levels to provide greater flexibility. Due
to multi-tenancy, each company or business unit can be configured with
its own categorization.
!
Decision tree—This takes the user step-by-step through a questionnaire,
and, based on answers, completes part of the form for a new incident. A
manager or administrator can build decision trees.
20 "Chapter 1—Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0
User’s Guide
!
Scripts—These are detailed instructions that an administrator or manager
sets up to help users record important information about an incident.
Scripts can be used when recording or assigning an incident.
!
Incident templates—These can be used to populate incident records with
standard information that is entered on a regular basis. A template can
also set a relationship to a configuration item (CI). An administrator can
create templates for commonly occurring incidents, as described in the
BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
!
Prioritization—Incident priority is now determined by impact and
urgency. This can be configured by an administrator, as described in the
BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
!
Terminology changes—You can find a terminology change in the
following table.
Table 1-2: Key terminology change between Help Desk and Incident Management
Help Desk term
Incident Management term
Bulletin Board
Broadcast
Incident Management user roles
Incident Management provides functionality for IT users with the requester
role, for support staff, and for managers.
Important: The permission model in Incident Management has had several
updates since version 6.0. To define permissions and functional roles,
review the permissions and functional roles sections in the BMC Remedy
IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
Requester
IT users can request resolution of incidents through the Requester console.
This console gives requesters access to:
!
Public broadcast messages.
!
Their own incident and change requests.
!
A satisfaction survey, which can be completed on resolution of an incident
or change request.
Incident Management user roles ! 21
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
The Requester console provides access based on the following permissions:
!
Request Console Master—This user is responsible for configuring the
Requester console. The request console master can view all the requests
submitted by other users. This user is more of an administrator than a
support user.
!
Registered User—This user has a record in the People form, and the user’s
login information is in the Login/Access Details tab of the People form.
!
Guest User—All other users are considered to be guest users even if a user
has a record in the People form. If a user’s login information does not exist
in the user record, then the user is considered a guest user. Guest users
cannot create change requests.
Support staff
First-line support staff are members of the Service Desk. They are the
primary contacts for all customers and are responsible for recording
incidents and coordinating their resolution. Typically, the first-line support
staff own all incidents and are therefore responsible for validating incident
resolutions with their customers.
Second-line and third-line support are considered subject matter experts.
Their main responsibility is to provide an accurate analysis and diagnosis of
their assigned incidents to restore service to the affected customers.
Support staff responsibilities include:
!
Creating, classifying, and updating incident records.
!
Verifying the Customer Profile data and updating the information if
appropriate.
!
Relating CIs to the incident.
!
Escalating incidents that need to be resolved based on SLM terms or
perception of urgency.
!
Resolving incidents or assigning for resolution.
!
Coordinating and validating resolutions with customers.
!
Closing incidents and determining customer satisfaction.
22 "Chapter 1—Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0
User’s Guide
Support can also participate in the problem management process, as
described in the BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 User’s
Guide. They can also participate in the change management process, as
described in the BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 User’s Guide.
Incident manager
Incident managers are responsible for the quality and integrity of the
incident management processes. Support group leads and managers are
responsible for the work of members of their support group. They coordinate
the assignment of incidents to support staff.
Their responsibilities include:
!
Monitoring incidents.
!
Monitoring open incidents requiring assignment.
!
Managing the assignment of incidents to their appropriate support groups
for resolution.
!
Receiving notifications of incident assignments and escalations.
!
Facilitating the resolution of escalated incidents in accordance with the
escalation policy.
!
Ensuring the resolution of incidents within the support group's service
targets.
!
Ensuring the overall completeness and accuracy of closed incidents.
!
Reviewing reports.
!
Ensuring that incidents requiring root cause analysis are copied into
Problem Management.
!
Managing support group membership.
!
Managing scripts, templates, and decision trees.
Incident Management user roles ! 23
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Process flow and the life cycle of an incident request
The Process Flow Status area displays the process flow of the incident request
within the Incident form. A diagram shows the five stages of an incident
request, as indicated by best practices, rooted in ITIL processes. The current
stage of the incident is highlighted. The status of the incident is indicated by
both color and text.
Figure 1-1: Example of selecting an accelerator from the Process Flow Status wizard
Process Flow
Status area
Current stage
The Process Flow Status area also serves as a wizard, guiding you through the
stages of the incident life cycle. At each stage, the diagram provides
accelerators applicable to the current stage. For example, you can use
accelerators to move the incident to a pending state or to the next stage.
When you select an accelerator, a dialog box appears, prompting you to enter
the data required to complete the task. You can also enter optional
recommended data in the dialog box. By using the process flow accelerators,
you are following ITIL best practices.
24 "Chapter 1—Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0
User’s Guide
Figure 1-2: Selecting an accelerator from the Process Flow Status wizard
Figure 1-3: Example of form displayed by Process Flow Status wizard
Process flow and the life cycle of an incident request ! 25
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Table 1-3: The five stages of an incident request
Incident stage Description
Tasks
Identification
and recording
!
Investigation
and diagnosis
This stage initiates the incident
management process. The purpose of
this stage is to accurately record and
recognize disruptions to services
provided by IT to its customers. For
details, see “Recording a new incident”
on page 108.
!
!
In this stage, you can search existing Next stage
information to identify a possible
! Generate problem
solution. If the incident cannot be
! Generate change
resolved or a root cause analysis is
! Relate CI
required, you can escalate the incident
to problem management. For details, ! Enter pending (or
resume)
see “Investigating and diagnosing an
incident” on page 132.
Note: Generate change is
available only as a task
if Change
Management is
installed.
Resolution and In this stage, you resolve and recover
recovery
from the service disruption to enable
the customer to resume work. For
details, see “Resolving an incident” on
page 141.
!
Incident closure In this stage, you make sure that the
incident has successfully restored the
service to the customer and that the
customer is satisfied with the outcome.
For details, see “Closing an incident”
on page 147.
!
Closed
Next stage
Enter pending (or
resume)
Select template
!
!
!
!
Next stage
Generate problem
Generate change
Enter pending (or
resume)
Reopen
Close
In this stage the incident is closed. No None
further activities are performed on the
incident.
26 "Chapter 1—Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0
Chapter
2
Using functions common to all
ITSM applications
This section contains basic procedures that are common to most forms and
consoles. Most of the information in this section is similar throughout the
ITSM suite.
The following topics are provided:
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Opening the main application console (page 28)
Working with the Overview console (page 31)
Working with records (page 38)
Working with relationships (page 43)
Adding work information (page 51)
Creating reminders (page 53)
Sending pages and email messages (page 60)
Working with reports (page 65)
Using functions common to all ITSM applications ! 27
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Opening the main application console
You start an ITSM application by opening its main console. How you do this
depends on whether you want to view the console through the
BMC® Remedy® User client or through a browser. See the following
instructions for information about opening the main console.
Using BMC Remedy User client to open a main console
This section describes how to open an application’s main console from the
IT Home page, by way of BMC Remedy User.
" To open the application’s main console from the BMC Remedy User
tool
1 Choose Start > Programs > Action Request System > BMC Remedy User.
The Login dialog box appears.
Figure 2-1: Login dialog box
2 Perform the following steps:
a In the User Name field, type your user name.
b In the Password field, enter your password.
28 "Chapter 2—Using functions common to all ITSM applications
User’s Guide
c In the Preference Server field, specify the server name if your
administrator set up a preference server for centralized user preferences.
For example, if you have a report server from which you can access
predefined reports, you specify it here.
3 Click OK to log in.
The Home Page form opens automatically. If it does not, perform the
following steps in BMC Remedy User:
a Choose Tools > Options.
b In the Options dialog box, click the Home Page tab.
Figure 2-2: Home Page tab on the Options dialog box
Opening the main application console ! 29
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
c Select the check box to open the home page automatically.
4 When the IT Home page opens, click the Incident Management Console link
from the navigation pane.
Figure 2-3: IT Home page
Navigation pane
Incident
Management
Console link
Using a browser to open a main console
This section describes how to open the Incident Management console from
a browser.
" To open a main console from a browser
1 Type the following URL in to your browser’s address bar:
http://<web_server>:<port>/arsys/apps/<arsystem_server>/Home Page
where:
<web_server> is the fully qualified name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier
system, specified in the format server_name.company.com.
<port> is an optional port number, which is needed if the web server is not
on the default port (port 80).
<arsystem_server> is the name of your BMC Remedy AR System server.
30 "Chapter 2—Using functions common to all ITSM applications
User’s Guide
For a list of supported browsers, see the compatibility matrix at:
http://supportweb.remedy.com/Rem/IssuesAndSolutions/
CompatibilityMatrix/index.jsp
2 Enter your user name and password, then click Login.
3 When the IT Home page opens, click the Incident Management Console link
in the navigation pane.
For an illustration of the IT Home page, see Figure 2-3 on page 30.
Working with the Overview console
The Overview console is the primary interface for support staff. It provides
quick access to the information you need and to the procedures that you
perform most often.
This section discusses how to use the Overview console.
Figure 2-4: BMC Remedy IT Service Management Overview console
Working with the Overview console ! 31
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Opening the Overview console
The BMC Remedy IT Service Management Overview console provides quick
access to commonly performed functions.
" To open the Overview console from your desktop
1 Open BMC Remedy User as described in “Using BMC Remedy User client to
open a main console” on page 28.
2 On the Home Page form, under the Remedy Foundation Elements heading,
click the Overview Console link.
The Overview console appears.
" To open the Overview console from a browser
1 Launch your browser as described in “Using a browser to open a main
console” on page 30.
2 On the Home Page form, under the Remedy Foundation Elements heading,
click the Overview Console link.
The Overview console appears.
Using the Assigned Work table
The Assigned Work table lists different types of records. The types of records
that you can select depend on the BMC Remedy applications that are
installed.
Each type of record is identified by a specific prefix:
!
CHG—Identifies change requests. BMC Remedy Change Management
must be installed for you to be able to create and view change requests.
!
SDB—Identifies solution database entries. BMC Remedy Problem
Management must be installed for you to be able to create and view
solution entries.
!
TAS—Identifies tasks. Tasks can be attached to incidents, problem
investigations, or change requests.
!
INC—Identifies incidents. BMC Remedy Incident Management must be
installed for you to be able to create and view incidents.
32 "Chapter 2—Using functions common to all ITSM applications
User’s Guide
!
PBI—Identifies problems. BMC Remedy Problem Management must be
installed for you to be able to create and view problems.
!
PKE—Identifies known errors. BMC Remedy Problem Management
must be installed for you to be able to create and view known errors.
!
PR—Identifies purchase requisitions. BMC Remedy Asset Management
must be installed for you to be able to create and view purchase
requisitions.
You can also change the table’s contents by using the Company filter and
Console View fields at the top left corner of the console:
!
Company—Shows records associated with a particular company (useful
in a multi-tenancy environment).
!
Personal—Shows all the records that are assigned to you.
!
Selected Groups—The options below this heading apply to records that
are assigned to your support groups. When you select an option for
selected groups, you are prompted to select from all support groups for
which you are a member.
!
!
Show All—Shows all records for the groups you select.
!
Show Unassigned—Shows all the records that are unassigned to an
individual, but which are assigned to the groups you select.
All My Groups—Shows all the records that are assigned to all support
groups that you belong to. If you belong to more than one support group,
the records for all those groups appear.
!
Show All—Shows all records.
!
Show Unassigned—Shows all the records that are unassigned.
In the Windows environment, if there are more records than the application
can show in the table, you can see the next grouping of entries by placing the
pointer in the table and right-clicking, then clicking either Next or Prev.
When using a browser, use the arrow keys at the top corner of the table.
You can create new records by clicking the Create button that appears below
the table.
Working with the Overview console ! 33
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Creating records
From the Overview console, you can create new records for the various ITSM
applications installed on your system. The types of requests you can create
from the Overview console depend on the applications you have installed.
" To create records
1 From the Overview console, click Create.
The Select Request Type dialog box appears.
Figure 2-5: Select Request Type dialog box
2 From the Request Type list, select the type of record you want to create.
Note: The available request types depend on which ITSM applications are
installed on your system.
3 Click Select.
The New form of the application appropriate to the type of record you are
creating appears.
4 Enter all the required information to create the request.
For details on creating a new incident, see “Recording a new incident” on
page 108. For more information about creating other types of records, see the
related application’s user guide.
34 "Chapter 2—Using functions common to all ITSM applications
User’s Guide
Searching for records
From the Overview console, you can search for records from the various
ITSM applications installed on your system. The types of records you can
search for depend on the applications you have installed.
" To search for records
1 From the Overview console, click Search.
The Select Request Type dialog box appears.
2 From the Request Type list, select the type of record for which you want to
search.
Note: The request types available depend on which ITSM applications are
installed on your system.
3 Click Select.
A search dialog box appropriate to the type of record for which you are
searching appears.
4 Enter search criteria as needed to search for the record.
For more information about searching for records, see “Searching for
records” on page 38.
Refreshing data
After you create or modify a record, click Refresh to see the latest changes in
the Assigned Work table. The Refresh button is located in the top right
corner of the console.
If you have changed the search criteria, you can return to your defaults by
clicking Set to Defaults.
Working with the Overview console ! 35
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Viewing and creating broadcast messages
Use the Broadcast feature, on the lower portion of the console, to view and
create messages that can be viewed by the entire organization or by users in
the support, approver, management, and administrator groups. For
information about using Broadcasts, see “Broadcasting messages” on
page 55.
Using the navigation pane
The pane on the left side of the console is the navigation pane.
Changing the console view
The links under Console View help you filter records that appear in the
Assigned Work table. For more information about using the Console View
functions, see “Using the Assigned Work table” on page 32.
Using console functions
The following links are under the Console Functions heading:
!
Select Status Values—Lets you see only those records in a certain state,
which you specify from the Select Status Values dialog box. See “Selecting
status values” on page 37.
!
My Profile—Lets you set your profile. See “Viewing your profile” on
page 37.
!
Application Preferences—Lets you set your application preferences and
options. This function is also available from the Incident Management
console, as described in “Setting application preferences” on page 106.
Opening other applications
Use the Other Applications links to open other, available ITSM applications.
The links that appear under the Other Applications heading are determined
by the applications that are installed on your system:
!
Incident Management—Opens the Incident Management application.
!
Change Management—Opens the Change Management application.
!
Problem Management—Opens the Problem Management application.
36 "Chapter 2—Using functions common to all ITSM applications
User’s Guide
!
Asset Management—Opens the Asset Management application.
!
Approval—Allows you to view all requests pending approval.
!
CMDB—Opens the BMC Atrium CMDB Class Manager console.
!
SLM—Opens the Service Level Management application.
Selecting status values
You can use the Select Status Values dialog box to filter the requests that
appear in the Overview console based on their status.
" To select status values
1 From the navigation pane in the Overview console, choose Console
Functions > Select Status Values.
The Select Status Values dialog box appears.
2 Select the status values for each category from the lists, then click OK.
The dialog box closes.
3 If the Assigned Work table does not refresh with the filtered records, click
Refresh to reload the table’s contents.
Viewing your profile
You can view and modify your personal profile. When you click My Profile,
the People (Search) form appears. In this form, you can:
!
Update company information such as organization, business, and home
address, and so on.
!
View permissions.
For detailed information about the People form, see the BMC Remedy IT
Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
" To modify your profile
1 From the navigation pane, choose Console Functions > My Profile.
The People form appears.
2 Update the information at the top of the form, or click the tab corresponding
to the area in which you want to change the profile information.
Working with the Overview console ! 37
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
Make your changes by selecting from the various lists that are available.
3 When you finish making the changes, click Save.
Using quick actions
The Overview console lets you perform certain quick actions. From the
Quick Actions list, select the appropriate action, then click Execute.
!
Print—Lets you select records and print their contents. See “Printing
records” on page 41.
!
Home Page—Opens the Home Page.
Auto-filling fields
As you work with the forms and dialog boxes, you might see a plus sign (+)
included in a field label. You can type part of the information next to these
fields and press ENTER. If an exact match is located, the application
automatically completes the field. If a selection list appears, double-click the
item you want to put in the field. Using auto-fill fields and lists is faster, more
consistent, and more accurate than typing the information.
Working with records
This section discusses some of the common functions related to record
handling.
Searching for records
Two types of searches are available from the Incident Management console.
One type of search looks only through records that are in some way
associated with you through your login ID or group ID (for example, records
created by you, assigned to you or to your support group, and so on) and that
meet your specific search criteria. You execute this type of search from the
Search area near the top of the console. For a description of how to run this
type of search, see “Searching your records” on page 39.
38 "Chapter 2—Using functions common to all ITSM applications
User’s Guide
Note: To view the support groups you belong to, from the navigation pane,
choose Console Functions > My Profile, then on your profile click the
Support Groups tab. For more information about this function, see
“Viewing your profile” on page 37.
The other type of search looks through all of the records that meet your
search criteria, regardless of their associations to people or groups. You run
this type of search by using the Search Incident link in the navigation pane of
the Incident Management console. For a description of how to run this type
of search, see “Searching all records” on page 41.
Searching your records
The following procedure describes how to search the application for records
associated with you or your group and that meet your specific search criteria.
Use this type of search when you are looking for a record that you know is
associated with your ID or with your group’s ID.
" To search records assigned to your groups
1 From the console Search area, select your search criteria from the various
selection boxes.
Figure 2-6: Search Criteria area
Note: The most commonly searched-upon record fields appear in the Search
Criteria area of the console. More record fields are available as search
criteria under the Advanced Search option, as described in “Using the
Advanced Search feature” on page 40.
2 Click Search.
Working with records ! 39
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
The Assigned Work table updates with the results of your search.
3 Scroll through the Assigned Work table to find the specific record you want.
Note: If the search returns a large number of records, use the Advanced
Search feature to help you narrow the results.
You can also search for another record from within an open record by using
the standard BMC Remedy User search function.
Using the Advanced Search feature
If your search returns too broad a range of records, you can perform an
advanced search to narrow the results.
" To use the Advanced Search feature
1 From the Incident Management console, click Advanced Search.
The Advanced Qualification Builder dialog box appears.
Figure 2-7: Advanced Qualification Builder dialog box
2 From the Keywords or Fields selection boxes, select the keywords or record
fields on which you want to search.
To insert operators (+, =, >,<, and so on), click the appropriate operator
button. Do not forget to place literal values between quotation marks. For
example, to search for an incident with a priority of “high,” you would
construct the following search:
'Priority' = "High"
3 Click Select.
The dialog box closes and you return to the main console.
40 "Chapter 2—Using functions common to all ITSM applications
User’s Guide
4 Click Search.
The search results table updates with the results of your search.
Searching all records
The following procedure describes how to search all incidents. Use this type
of search when you are looking for an incident that is not associated with
your ID or your group’s ID, or anytime you need to search all incidents.
" To search all records
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Search Incident.
A form appears that allows you to perform the search.
The form is laid out in a similar way to the Incident form, and contains the
same tabs and fields. You can use any of the tabs and fields in the form to
specify your search criteria.
2 Using the tabs and fields, build your search condition.
To reduce the number of records found by the search, enter as much
information into the form as you can.
3 When you finish entering your search criteria, click Search.
When the search finishes, the search results table lists all of the records that
match the search criteria.
4 Scroll through the table to find the specific record you want.
5 When you find the record, open it in the Incident form by double-clicking it
in the search results table.
Printing records
You can print a copy of a record to keep for filing purposes or to share with
someone who does not have access to the application.
Use this procedure to print a record.
" To print a record
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Search Incident.
Working with records ! 41
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
2 Select the record you want to print.
Note: If you already have the record open and want to print it, click Print at
the bottom of the form to open the Business Objects Report Preview
dialog box, then go to step 4.
3 At the bottom of the console, from the Quick Actions list, select Print, then
click Execute.
The Business Objects Report Preview dialog box appears, allowing you to
view the record before you print it.
4 Click the Print icon on the menu bar at the top of the dialog box.
When the print confirmation dialog box appears, click the Print icon to send
the record to your local printer.
5 Close the Business Objects dialog box.
Modifying records
After you generate a record, you can modify or update the information it
contains. Use the following procedure to modify a record.
" To modify a record
1 From the Incident Management console, open the record that you want to
modify.
2 Click the tab that contains the information you want to update.
3 Make the appropriate changes.
4 Click Save.
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Working with relationships
By defining and maintaining relationships among records, you can create a
more sophisticated overview of the connections and interdependencies
among the current record and other service issues being tracked by the
application.
An incident can be related to any of the following record types:
!
Configuration item
!
Another incident
!
Solution database entry
!
Known error
!
Problem investigation
If you have Asset Management and Change Management, an incident can
also be related to the following record types:
!
CI unavailability
!
Infrastructure change
Defining relationships
Use the following procedure to define a relationship.
" To define a relationship
1 From the Incident Management console, open the incident from which you
want to define a relationship.
2 Click the Relationships tab.
Figure 2-8: Relationships tab
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3 From the Request Type list at the bottom of the Relationships tab, select the
type of record to which you want to relate the current record.
For example, to relate your incident to a configuration item, select Problem
Investigation from the Request Type list.
4 Click Search.
A dialog box appears that allows you to perform a search.
Figure 2-9: Example of Completed Relationship Search
Note: The content of the dialog box depends on the type of record you chose
in the Request Type list.
5 Complete the search criteria tabs with the relevant information, then click
Search.
Try to supply as much information as possible in the search dialog box to
reduce the overall number of records returned by the search.
The matching results appear in a search results table.
6 From the search results table, select the configuration item with which you
want to create the relationship.
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7 From the Relationship Type list at the bottom of the search dialog box, select
the type of relationship you want to create.
8 Click Relate.
An information message dialog box appears, displaying a confirmation
message.
9 Click OK to dismiss the dialog box.
10 Click Close to close the search dialog box.
The Relationships tab appears with the newly created relationship visible in
the Relationships table.
If there are events for the related item, the Current Events dialog box appears.
This dialog box shows all current broadcasts that have been generated and
related to the associated item. Broadcasts can be generated from other ITSM
application modules, too.
11 In the Current Events dialog box, select one of the following options:
!
Relate the current record to the originating record.
!
Link a record.
!
Relate the current record to the selected unavailability record.
The lower table lists any current Unavailability recorded in an incident.
To relate the current record to the origination record
a Select the broadcast from the list.
b Click Originating Record.
To see additional details about the originating record, click Details.
To link a record
a Click Linked Incident.
To relate the current record to the selected unavailability record
a Click Relate.
b To see additional details about the unavailability, click View CI
Unavailability.
c To see information about the record that generated the unavailability,
click Details.
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An administrator can disable Current Events functionality in the Configure
Incident Rules form. See the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0
Configuration Guide for information about how to do this.
Copying relationships
When you define a relationship between the current record and another
record, the other record might also have one or more records related to it.
Using the Copy Related Relationships form, which you open from the
Relationships tab, you can look at the related record’s other relationships. If
you determine that any of these other relationships should be related to the
current record, you can define the relationship from this form.
By doing this, you can more thoroughly document all of the record
relationships.
Note: You cannot use this procedure to copy related CIs.
" To copy relationships
1 From the Incident Management console, open an incident.
2 Click the Relationships tab.
3 From the Relationships table, select a record related to the current incident.
4 From the Quick Actions list, select Get Related Relationships, then click
Execute.
The Copy Related Relationships dialog box appears. This dialog box contains
a table of all other records related to the record you selected in step 3.
5 From the table of related records, select the other record that you want to
relate to the current record.
Note: To see the details of the other record, select it, then click View. A form
appears with detailed information about the selected record. Use this
feature to help you determine whether you want to relate the other record
to the current record.
6 Click inside the Relationship Type field.
A list of relationship types appears.
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Note: The contents of the Relationship Type list depends on the type of
record you are trying to create the relationship with.
7 Select the type of relationship you want to create, then click Select.
A note appears confirming the relationship creation. Click OK to dismiss the
note.
8 Close the Copy Related Relationships form.
The newly created relationship appears in the Relationships table.
Indicating impacted areas
The Impacted Areas dialog box gives you a place to show the region, site,
location, and so on, that are affected by the content of the record. Use the
following procedure to indicate the impacted areas.
" To indicate an impacted area
1 From the Incident Management console, open the incident for which you
want to indicate an impacted area.
2 In the navigation pane, choose Advanced Functions > Impacted Areas.
The Impacted Areas dialog box appears.
Figure 2-10: Impacted Areas dialog box
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3 Select items from the various lists that help to describe the impacted area
appropriate for the incident you are working on, for example, Company,
Region, and so on.
Note: Required fields are marked with an asterisk.
4 Click Add.
You can add as many impacted areas as necessary. You can also delete areas
that you have previously chosen in this dialog box.
5 When you are finished indicating the impacted areas, click Close.
Modifying relationships
After you define a relationship, you change the relationship type and update
the relationship description. Use the following procedure to modify the
relationship.
" To modify a relationship
1 From the Incident Management console, open the incident that has the
relationship you want to modify.
2 Click the Relationships tab.
3 From the Relationships table, select the relationship you want to modify.
4 From the Quick Actions list, select Modify Relationship Type, then click
Execute.
The Modify Relationship dialog box appears.
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Figure 2-11: Modify Relationship dialog box
5 Enter the new relationship details according to the on-screen instructions.
6 Click Save to save your changes.
Performing quick actions on a relationship
You can perform many other actions on a relationship. For a list of these
actions, see Table 2-1 and Table 2-2.
" To perform a quick action
1 From the Incident Management console, open an incident.
2 Click the Relationships tab.
3 From the Relationships table, select the relationship entry for which you
want to perform the action.
4 From the Quick Actions list, select the action you want to perform, such as
Get Impacted Areas.
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The following table lists available quick actions for any related item.
Table 2-1: Effects of general relationship actions
Relationship action
Effect
Get Related Relationships
Copies the relationships of the selected
record to the current incident’s
relationships.
Modify Relationship Type
Prompts you to modify the relationship
type, as described in “Modifying
relationships” on page 48.
Additional quick actions are available when you select a related configuration
item, as indicated in the following table.
Table 2-2: Effects of relationship actions for related CIs
Relationship action
Effect
CI Relationship Viewer
Opens a graphical relationship viewer that
shows a selected CI’s relationship with
other records.
Create New CI Unavailability
If Asset Management is installed, you can
create CI unavailability for the selected CI.
Get CI Impact/Urgency
Copies the impact and urgency of the
selected CI.
Get CI Product Categorization
Copies the product categorization from
the selected CI to the classification of the
current incident.
Get CI Resolution Product Cat.
Copies the product categorization from
the selected CI to the resolution of the
current incident.
Get Impacted Areas
If Asset Management is installed, prompts
you to select impacted areas, as defined in
the selected CI, into the current incident’s
impacted areas.
5 Click Execute.
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Removing relationships
Use the following procedure to remove a relationship.
" To remove a relationship
1 From the Incident Management console, open the incident that contains the
relationship you want to remove.
2 Click the Relationships tab.
3 In the Relationships table, select the relationship you want to remove.
4 Click Remove. Click Yes when the application prompts you to confirm the
removal.
The application refreshes the Relationships tab.
Adding work information
Work Info is a new feature that replaces the Notes and Notes log fields from
ITSM 6.0. You access this feature from the Work Info tab of the current
record.
Use this feature to add work information regarding activities performed on
the current record. For example, you might want to add work information
about the following activities:
!
General Information—Notes about the record; for example, you might
want to add a note that a particular CI was deployed, and include the date.
!
Vendor communication—Notes about communication with a vendor,
such as a bulletin received from a vendor.
These are just some of the options available from the Work Info Type list on
the Work Info tab.
" To add work information
1 From the Incident Management console, open the incident that you want to
add the work information to.
2 Click the Work Info tab.
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Figure 2-12: Work Info tab
3 From the Work Info Type list, select the type of work information you want
to add.
4 From the Source list, select the source of this information.
Information sources can include, for example, email, phone, or the Web.
5 Enter the details of your work information record in the Summary and
Details fields.
6 To add an attachment to the record, right-click in the attachment table and
select Add from the menu that appears.
7 From the Locked list, select Yes or No to lock the log.
Important: If you select Yes, you cannot modify the work log after you save it.
8 From the View Access list, select Internal or Public.
!
Internal—If you want users within your organization to see the entry.
!
Public—If you want everyone with access to the application to see the
entry, including requesters from the Requester console.
9 Click Save.
10 To see a report of selected work information entries, select one or more
entries, and click Report.
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Creating reminders
Use reminders to create notes for yourself and others. You can send the
reminders by email or by BMC Remedy Alert, and can specify when they will
be sent. You can create generic reminders, or you can create reminders that
are associated with a specific request.
For example, you can send yourself a note about a specific incident to remind
yourself to follow up on it.
You can create and view reminders from either the Incident Management
console or from within a specific incident. The location from which you
create or view a reminder determines which reminders you see:
!
Incident Management console—You can view all reminders that you
created.
!
Incident form—You can view all reminders associated with that incident.
This includes reminders created by other users of Incident Management.
" To create a reminder
1 To open the Reminders dialog box, perform either of the following steps:
!
From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Reminders.
!
From the navigation pane in the Incident form, choose Functions >
Reminders.
Note: If you create a reminder from the application’s main console, the
reminder is general in nature. If you open a record and create a reminder,
the reminder is specific to the open record.
2 Click the Create Reminder tab.
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Figure 2-13: Completed Create Reminder tab
Note: If you are creating the reminder from the main console, skip the next
step.
3 To remove the link between the reminder you are creating and the open
record, select, then delete the contents of the Link to Request-ID field. The
Request-ID and Form fields are populated automatically by the application.
The Request-ID field links the reminder to the open record.
4 From the Notify list, select either Individual or Group, depending on
whether you are sending the reminder to a single person, or a support group.
5 In the Recipient field, type the name of the person or group to whom you
want to send the reminder.
If you type a person’s name and press ENTER, the application automatically
populates the AR Login field. If the application discovers multiple matches
with the name you entered, another dialog box appears that allows you to
specify which of the matching names you want to receive the reminder.
6 In the Time field, enter the date and time you want the application to send
the reminder.
You can type the information directly into the field, or you can click the
button next to the field and select the date and time from the calendar that
appears. By default, the Time field contains the current date and time.
7 In the Subject field, enter information about the reminder.
If you need more space to type the entry, click the Browse button next to the
field. A larger text entry box appears.
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The information in this field appears in the subject line if the reminder is sent
by email.
8 In the Message field, type the reminder message text.
If you need more space to type the entry, click the ellipsis button next to the
field. A larger text entry box appears.
9 Click Save.
A confirmation message appears.
10 Click Close to close the Reminders dialog box.
The reminder is sent at the time you specified.
Broadcasting messages
This feature lets you send messages to your entire organization, selected
groups within the organization, and to external customers as well. You can
use this feature to send messages about work in progress, system status,
planned work, and so on. You can also use this feature to view messages that
were broadcast to you from other groups in your organization.
Creating broadcast messages
This section describes how to create a broadcast message using the
New/Modify dialog box. To create a broadcast, you must have the functional
role of Broadcast Submitter. See the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0
Configuration Guide for details.
" To create a broadcast message
1 You can open the New/Modify Broadcast dialog box from two locations, as
follows:
!
From the Incident Management console, click Create, which appears
below the Broadcast table. If you create a broadcast from the main
console, it is not related to a specific record.
!
From the current record, in the navigation pane, choose Functions >
Broadcast Incident. If you create a broadcast from an incident, a
relationship is created between the broadcast and the incident.
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Figure 2-14: Completed New/Modify Broadcasts form
2 Enter information in the required fields.
Required fields appear in bold on the Broadcast Details tab.
!
Company—Select the company to which this broadcast pertains. Only
users with access to this company will see the broadcast. If you select
Global from the Company list, the broadcast is sent to everyone.
The Company field is mandatory. If you complete the other location
fields, however, you can indicate a very specific part of the company. For
example, you can specify the site, organization, or department.
!
Subject—A short description of what the broadcast is about.
!
Broadcast Message—The text of your message.
!
Broadcast Type—Select a broadcast type from the list.
!
Broadcast Start Date and Broadcast End Date—To start the broadcast
now, click in the Broadcast Start Date field, and press ENTER. To select a
date from the calendar, click the Browse button next to the field, then use
the calendar that appears to select the date on which the broadcast is to
start and the date on which you want it to end. You can also specify times
of the day using the Time feature at the bottom of the calendar.
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!
Broadcast Originated From—This field is completed by the system. The
contents depend on where you are creating the broadcast. If you broadcast
from an incident, this is set to Incident.
!
Broadcast Originated From ID—This field is populated by the system,
but only when you create a broadcast from within a record. If you create a
broadcast from the main console, the field appears disabled.
!
View Access—Select Internal if you want the broadcast visible only to
members of your organization. Select Public if you also want the broadcast
visible from the Requester console.
!
Notify—Select Yes if you want a broadcast notification automatically sent
to an individual or group.
If you select Yes, an Email button and the Notify Support area appears.
!
!
Use the Manual Email button to manually send an email about the
broadcast to a person or group. When the Email System form appears,
enter the recipient’s email address in the Internet Email field, then click
Send Email Now.
!
Use the Notify Support area to indicate the group you want to notify of
the broadcast. You must complete all three fields, Support Company,
Support Organization, and Support Group. The notification is sent at
the time and on the date specified in the Broadcast Start Date field.
Priority—Select a priority level for the broadcast. The choices are Low,
Medium, and High.
3 To add an attachment to the broadcast message, right-click inside the table
and choose Add from the menu that appears.
The Add Attachment dialog box appears. Use this to indicate the file you
want to attach. Click Open to attach the indicated file. You are limited to one
attachment for each broadcast.
4 If you want members of another group to be able to modify the message,
perform the following steps:
a Click the Authoring Groups tab.
b Click Manage Authoring Groups.
The Authoring Group dialog box appears.
c Indicate the group that you want to have authoring rights by selecting
from the menus. Click Add when you are finished.
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Note: The support group you belong to appears in the table by default.
You can indicate another group, or click Close to dismiss the dialog box.
5 Click Save to save the broadcast message and close the dialog box.
Viewing broadcasts
This section describes how to view broadcast messages. While viewing
broadcasts, you can modify the message (if you belong to an authorized
authoring group), create a new broadcast message, and under some
circumstances (when viewing the message from the current record) relate the
broadcast message to the current record.
When viewing a broadcast from either the Incident Management console or
the Incident form, you can create a new incident from the broadcast. If the
broadcast was created from a problem investigation, CI (configuration item),
CI unavailability, or another incident, the application asks whether you want
to relate the new incident to the originating record.
" To view broadcasts
1 You can view broadcast messages from two locations, as follows:
!
From the Incident Management console, select the message you want to
view from the Broadcast table, then click View.
!
From the current record, in the navigation pane, choose Quick Links >
View Broadcasts. The View Broadcasts dialog box appears. Select the
message you want to view from the broadcast messages table; the
Broadcast Details tab displays the details of the selected broadcast.
Note: When viewing broadcast messages from the current record, you are
looking at all of the broadcast messages, not just the ones related to the
current record. If the list contains a large number of messages, use the
Broadcast Search Criteria tab to limit the number of messages. For
information about how to do this, see “Limiting the number of messages”
on page 59.
2 To view another message, perform either of the following steps:
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!
When viewing from the main console, close the View Broadcasts dialog
box, select the broadcast message you want to view from the table, then
click View.
!
When viewing from the current record, in the broadcast messages table,
click the message you want to view. The message details appear.
Creating or modifying a broadcast message
To create or modify a broadcast message from the View Broadcasts dialog
box, click either Create or Modify. Both actions open the New/Modify
Broadcast dialog box.
!
If you are creating a new message, follow the instructions provided in
“Creating broadcast messages” on page 55.
!
If you are modifying the message, edit the fields according to the changes
you want to make. Click Save when you finish making your changes.
Limiting the number of messages
When viewing broadcast messages from the current record, you can limit the
number of messages that appear in the Broadcast table by opening the
Broadcast Search Criteria tab and defining a set of criteria that filters out
messages that do not match.
" To limit the number of messages
1 From the Incident Management console, open an incident.
2 Click the Broadcast Search Criteria tab.
This tab contains search fields where you can specify criteria to reduce the
number of broadcast messages displayed in the table.
3 Complete the fields in the tab.
To return the smallest number of broadcast messages, complete as many of
the fields as possible.
4 When you finish specifying the search criteria, click Search.
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Sending pages and email messages
Incident Management gives you two methods of sending messages to either
individuals or organizations:
!
Pages
!
Email
This section describes how to send both types of messages manually.
Note: Notification messages to individuals, based on incident assignments
and other events, can be sent by the application as pages or emails. For
information about configuring notification to be sent as pager or email
messages, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration
Guide.
Paging a person or on-call group
You can page individuals or the on-call member of a group about the current
record using the Incident Management Paging System feature.
" To page a person or an on-call group
1 From the Incident Management console, open the incident from which you
want to send the page.
2 In the navigation pane, choose Functions > Paging System.
The Paging System dialog box appears.
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Figure 2-15: Paging System dialog box
3 Select either:
!
Page By Person—To page an individual.
!
Page By On-Call Group—To page the on-call member of a specified
group.
4 Select the recipient.
To do this, complete the fields in the Search Criteria area, then click Search.
When the search finishes, click the recipient’s name in the search results
table, then click Select.
If you are sending a page to a person (instead of an on-call group) and need
help determining the correct person, you can see more information about an
individual by selecting his or her name from the list, then clicking View. This
opens the People form, which contains detailed information about the
recipient.
5 Complete the fields in the Paging Information area, as follows, then click
Send Page Now.
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!
Pager Service Provider—Select the recipient’s pager service provider from
the list.
If you are sending a page to a person, you can find this information by
selecting the person’s name from the search results list, then clicking View
(as described in step 4). When the People form appears, click the
Notifications tab and look for the Pager Service Provider field.
Note: To learn more about the service provider, click the button with the
globe icon beside the field to open a link that takes you to the service
provider’s website. This link is configured by your administrator, as
described in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration
Guide.
!
Pager Type—The application populates this field automatically, using
information about the recipient already in the application.
!
Pager Number—The application auto-populates this field with the
pager’s telephone number, when possible. If the pager number is
unavailable to the application, you must enter the pager number
manually. See Manual Pager Number.
!
Pager Email—If the pager has an email address, type it here. If you are
sending the page to a person, this information is available on the
Notifications tab, as described previously.
!
Manual Pager Number—If the pager’s telephone number is not available
automatically from the paging system, type the pager’s telephone number
here.
!
Alphanumeric Pager Message or Numeric Pager Message—Type your
message in this field. Be aware that only one of these fields is enabled,
depending on the type of pager the recipient carries.
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Sending email
You can send messages about the current record using the Incident
Management Email System.
You can use this function to send email to any valid email address. This might
include an SMS recipient or wireless PDA user, if you can send email to the
device.
" To send an email message
1 From the Incident Management console, open the incident from which you
want to send an email message.
2 In the navigation pane, choose Functions > Email System.
The Email System dialog box appears.
Figure 2-16: Completed Email System dialog box
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3 Indicate the recipient by selecting one of the following options:
!
Current Contact—When you open the Email System form, if there is a
current contact assigned to the record, the contact’s name with contact
information appears in the table and is the default recipient.
!
Current Assignee—To select the current assignee, click Select Current
Assignee. The current assignee’s name with contact information appears
in the table.
4 To select another recipient, perform the following steps:
a Complete the fields in the People Search Criteria area.
b Click Search.
c When the search finishes, select the recipient’s name in the search results
table.
If you need help determining the correct name in the list, you can see more
information about an individual by selecting their name from the list, then
clicking View. This opens the People form, which contains detailed
information about the recipient.
5 Complete the email information fields. See the list that follows for a
description of the fields.
!
Internet Email—This displays the recipient’s email address.
When you select the email recipient, as described in steps 3 and 4, the
internet email address updates from the people record.
!
Email Subject Line—By default, the subject line contains the incident ID
number, to which you can append text or over-type.
!
Email Message Body—You type the message text here. A series of buttons,
to the right of the Email Message Body field, lets you automatically insert
text from the record into the message text; these buttons let you insert the
following values:
!
Status
!
Summary
!
Details
!
Resolution
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Note: If one or more of these buttons appear disabled, it means the
corresponding field in the record contains no information.
!
Email Attachment—You can attach a file to the email message (you are
limited to just one attachment). To do this, right-click inside the Email
Attachment table, then click Add. The Add Attachment dialog box
appears. Navigate to, and then select, the file you want to attach. Click
Open. Details of the attached file appear in the table.
6 Click Send Email Now.
Working with reports
Incident Management provides a variety of predefined reports to give you
quick and easy access to information the application. You use the Report
console to generate these reports. If the predefined reports return more
information than you need, you can manage the scope of the report using
qualifications. For information about using qualifications, see “Using
qualifications to generate a report” on page 67.
Important: If you use Crystal Reports software to modify the prepared
reports supplied with Incident Management, Customer Support can
provide only limited assistance if you have a reporting problem. In
addition, there is no guarantee that problems resulting from these
modifications can be solved. The standard reports included with Incident
Management are designed to be used without modification.
Generating a report
Use this procedure to generate a standard report without using qualifications
(for information about generating reports with qualifications, see “Using
qualifications to generate a report” on page 67).
" To generate a report
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Reports.
The Report console appears.
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Figure 2-17: Report console
2 From the Report Name list, select the report you want to generate.
Report
Description
Incidents by Activity Time
This report lists all open incidents and
the amount of time since the reported
date.
Open Incident Volume by Assignee
This bar chart displays the number of
open incidents for each assignee.
Resolved and Closed Incident Volume
by Assignee
This bar chart displays the number of
resolved and closed incidents for each
assignee.
Group Assignment to Incidents
This report lists incidents and their
assigned support groups for a
specified date range.
Change Induced Incidents
This report lists incidents that were
caused by changes.
Note: This report is available only if
Change Management is installed.
3 If you select a report that requires a date range, the date range field appears.
Select a start date and end date for the report.
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4 From the Destination list, select one of the following output destinations:
!
Screen—Your report appears in a separate dialog box.
!
Printer—The report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup
dialog box.
!
File—The report is saved to the path and file you specify.
5 Click Run Report.
Using qualifications to generate a report
You can manage the scope of a report by adding qualifications to the criteria
used by the report engine to generate the report content. You can tell the
report to search only certain specified fields for particular values, or build
advanced qualifications using field names, keywords, and operators. By
saving the qualifications, you can rerun the qualified report without having
to re-specify the qualifications.
The following procedure describes how to create basic report qualifications
from the Define Report Qualification area of the Report console. To create a
report using advanced qualifications, see “Using advanced qualifications to
generate a report” on page 69.
" To use qualifications to generate a report
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Reports.
The Report console appears.
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Figure 2-18: Report console
2 From the Report Name list, select the name of the report you want to
generate.
3 In the Define Report Qualification area, create your qualifications from the
lists.
For example, to create the qualification
“Cost Center = 001”
select “Cost Center” from the list in the left column, select “=” from the
operand list (middle column), then type “001” in the right column.
You can use all five rows in the area to define qualifications.
4 To save the qualification, click Save Qualification.
You are prompted to name the qualification.
Note: By saving the qualification, you can rerun this report without defining
the qualification again. See “Generating a report using saved
qualifications” on page 70.
5 In the Qualification Name field, enter a name for your qualification, and
click OK.
A message appears stating that your qualification is saved.
6 Click OK.
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The Report console reappears.
7 From the Destination list, select one of the following output destinations:
!
Screen—Your report appears in a separate dialog box.
!
Printer—The report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup
dialog box.
!
File—The report is saved to the path and file you specify.
8 Click Run Report.
Using advanced qualifications to generate a report
The following procedure describes how to generate a report using advanced
qualifications.
" To generate a report using advanced qualifications
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Reports.
The Report console appears.
2 From the Report Name list, select the name of the report you want to
generate.
3 Click Advanced Qualification.
The Advanced Qualification Builder dialog box appears.
Figure 2-19: Advanced Qualification Builder dialog box
4 Using the buttons in the qualification builder, construct your qualification.
5 Click Save.
The Report console reappears.
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Note: By saving the qualification, you can rerun this report without defining
the qualification again. See “Generating a report using saved
qualifications” on page 70.
6 From the Destination list, select one of the following output destinations:
!
Screen—Your report appears in a separate dialog box.
!
Printer—The report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup
dialog box.
!
File—The report is saved to the path and file you specify.
7 Click Run Report.
Generating a report using saved qualifications
You can generate a report using qualifications that you created and saved
previously.
" To generate a report using a saved qualification
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Reports.
The Report console appears.
2 Click Select Saved Qualification.
The Saved Qualifications dialog box appears.
Figure 2-20: Saved Qualifications dialog box
3 Select the qualification from the table, and click Return Selected.
The Report console reappears.
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4 From the Destination list, select one of the following output destinations:
!
Screen—Your report appears in a separate dialog box.
!
Printer—The report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup
dialog box.
!
File—The report is saved to the path and file you specify.
5 Click Run Report.
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72 "Chapter 2—Using functions common to all ITSM applications
Chapter
3
Working with the Requester
console
The Requester console serves as the front end for the BMC Remedy Change
Management and BMC Remedy Incident Management applications. It
provides an easy, user-friendly interface that allows users to quickly submit
requests for change or incidents to IT through the two back-end applications.
The following topics are provided:
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Requester role (page 74)
Service Request Management users (page 74)
Understanding the Requester console (page 76)
Working with service requests (page 80)
Working with service requests as the Request Master (page 91)
Service Request form (page 98)
Working with the Solution database (page 101)
Viewing broadcast messages (page 102)
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Requester role
Requesters are usually employees who need assistance from the IT support
staff. The requester is typically an employee in the organization who must
have a change implemented or an incident resolved. Any member of your
organization can be a requester.
However, the user might not be an employee. Non-employees can also be
requesters, since non-registered users can also submit a service request.
Traditionally, after a requester made a telephone call to a central help desk, a
support staff member logged the request. The BMC Remedy Incident
Management and BMC Remedy Change Management applications provide
user self-provisioning. Using the Requester console, requesters can submit,
track, and (in some cases) resolve their own requests, and, as a result,
improve the overall efficiency. Out of the box, the Change Management and
Incident Management applications are preconfigured to work with the
Requester console. However, the Requester console is not enabled if your
organization turns off this option.
The Requester console is the primary interface from where requesters can
create and view their requests. From the Requester console, you can create a
request and submit it to the back-end application, view previously created
requests, and respond to a survey form after the request has been resolved.
Service Request Management users
There are currently three types of user permissions for accessing the
Requester console to submit service requests:
!
Request Master—This user is responsible for troubleshooting service
requests. The request master can view all the requests submitted by other
users and open the Service Request form directly to view the details of a
record. This user is more of an administrator, than a support user.
!
Registered User—This user has a record in the People form, and the user’s
AR login information is in the Login/Access Details tab of the People form
or in the AR System User form.
!
Unknown User—All other users are considered to be unknown users even
if the user has a record in the People form. If a user’s login information
does not exist in the People record, then the user is considered a unknown
user.
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Important: For unknown users who do not have an AR System login to be
able to access the Requester console, the AR System server option “Allow
Guest User” option must be turned on. The Allow Guest User option is
available only when the server is set to single-tenancy mode. Also the
AR Submitter locked mode must be enabled for users with read-only
license to respond to surveys. The Incident Management and Change
Management applications must also set up a default People record with a
valid AR System login to be used for unknown users. For more
information, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0
Configuration Guide.
If a user meets any of the following conditions, the user type is “unknown
user”:
!
The user has entries in the People form and in the AR System User form,
but does not have an AR System Login ID in the People form.
!
The user has an entry in the People form, but has neither an entry in the
AR System User form nor an AR System Login ID in the People form. This
type of user is also an AR System Guest User.
!
The user does not have an entry in the People form, but has an entry in the
AR System User form.
!
The user does not have an entry in the People form or in the AR System
User form. This type of user is also an AR System Guest User.
Some other factors that control allowing unknown users access to the
Requester console follow:
!
Unknown users are not allowed access if the multi-tenancy option is
turned on. Multi-tenancy provides restricted access of data from different
companies or business units. This feature makes it possible to host
multiple companies and their data on a single server. Multi-tenancy is
limited to the company level. Configuration can differ on a per-company
basis. Multi-tenancy from the user’s perspective is accessed by selecting
the appropriate company from the list next to the Company field.
The Tenancy Mode has to be set by a user with administrator and general
access permissions on the System Settings form. For more information
about ITSM foundation settings, see the BMC Remedy IT Service
Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
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!
In addition to setting the Tenancy Mode to Single-Tenancy, the Allow
Unknown Users option must be set to Yes and the login information
added. This is set by a user with Request Config permissions on the
Application Settings form.
!
Unknown users are only allowed within the Requester console framework,
which means that if the Change or Incident form is directly accessed, it
does not allow unknown users.
Understanding the Requester console
The Requester console serves as the front end to the Change Management
and Incident Management applications.
Figure 3-1: Requester console
The console is the entry point for users to create, view, update, or cancel their
own service requests. For more information about the Requester console, see
the following topics:
!
Opening the Requester console (page 77)
!
Functional areas and tasks (page 78)
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Opening the Requester console
You can view the Requester console through the BMC Remedy User client or
through a browser. See the following instructions for information about
opening the Requester console.
" To open the Requester console from BMC Remedy User
1 Log in to BMC Remedy User using your AR System Login information.
Unknown or guest users need to log in using the default set up by their
company.
2 From the IT Home page, click Requester console.
The Requester console appears.
3 Create, view, modify, print, or cancel a request as needed.
For more information, see “Working with service requests” on page 80.
" Using a browser to open the Requester console
1 To open the Requester console from a browser, type the following URL in to
your browser’s address bar:
http://<web_server>:<port>/arsys/apps/<arsystem_server>/Home Page
where:
<web_server> is the fully qualified name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier
system, specified in the format server_name.company.com.
<port> is an optional port number, which is needed if the web server is not
on the default port (port 80).
<arsystem_server> is the name of your BMC Remedy AR System server.
For a list of supported browsers, see the compatibility matrix at:
http://supportweb.remedy.com/Rem/IssuesAndSolutions/
CompatibilityMatrix/index.jsp
2 Enter your user name and password, then click Login.
3 When the IT Home page opens, click the Requester Console link in the
navigation pane.
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Functional areas and tasks
The Requester console has the following functional areas.
Console Area
Function
View Requests
Use the View Requests links to filter the requests in the
Requests table. Requests can be sorted by the following
options:
!
!
Open
All
For more information, see “Filtering service requests”
on page 83.
General Functions
Use the General Functions links to do the following
actions:
!
!
!
!
Request Errors
Update the information in your requests, by creating a
new work info entry. See “Modifying a service
request” on page 85.
Search for requests by Request ID. See “Searching for
service requests by Request ID” on page 86.
Save the console view.
Work on a survey. See “Completing surveys” on
page 88.
If you have Request Master permissions, the Request
Errors function appears in the navigation pane.
For more information, see “Viewing service requests
with errors” on page 90.
Refresh button
Refreshes the Broadcasts and My Requests tables.
Click Refresh to refresh the data in the tables.
Broadcasts
Displays broadcasts or bulletin board messages. The
View button displays the selected broadcast in a dialog
box, from where you can view details about the
broadcast.
Note: No internal broadcast messages appear in the
Requester console.
For more information, see “Viewing broadcast
messages” on page 102.
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Console Area
Function
Create a New Request
button
Click this button to display the New Request wizard,
from where you can create a new service request.
For more information, see “Creating a service request”
on page 80.
My Requests
Displays the requests submitted by the logged in user.
When performing Request form searches, only
administrators and users who have Request Master
permissions can view other users’ submitted requests.
Request Details
Displays details about the request that is selected from
the My Requests table.
View button
Displays the record that is selected from the My Requests
table.
For more information, see “Viewing a service request
record” on page 84.
Print button
Prints the record that is selected from the My Requests
table.
For more information, see “Printing a service request”
on page 86
Cancel button
Cancels the service request that is selected from the My
Requests table.
For more information, see “Canceling a service request”
on page 87.
Reopen button
Lets you reopen requests that are in Completed or
Rejected state.
For more information, see “Reopening a service request”
on page 87.
Close button
Closes the console window.
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Working with service requests
The following topics are provided:
!
“Creating a service request” on page 80
!
“Filtering service requests” on page 83
!
“Viewing a service request record” on page 84
!
“Modifying a service request” on page 85
!
“Printing a service request” on page 86
!
“Canceling a service request” on page 87
!
“Reopening a service request” on page 87
!
“Completing surveys” on page 88
Creating a service request
You can create service requests from the New Request wizard, which is the
recommended way to create a service request. The New Request wizard is a
simplified user interface for submitting your service requests. You can also
create service requests from the Change and Incident forms.
A user with Request Master permissions can directly open the SRM:Request
form from the File > Open > Object List menu to view service requests.
However, service requests cannot be created from the SRM:Service Request
form.
For more information about the Service Request form and the role of the
Request Master, see “Working with service requests as the Request Master”
on page 91.
" To create a service request
1 From the Requester console, click Create a New Request.
The New Request wizard appears.
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Figure 3-2: New Request wizard
Pay careful attention to the following items for the Requester section:
!
If you are a registered user, the fields in the Requester section are
populated from the user’s People record. All the fields are read-only,
except the Phone and Email fields, which are editable.
!
If you are an unknown user, the First Name and Last Name fields are
pre-populated with their login information. The Company is prepopulated with the single-tenancy company name. Unknown users
must enter information in the Phone and Email.
2 Complete the required fields:
Note: Required field names are in bold with an asterisk. You must enter
information in the required fields to be able to successfully submit the
request.
a Select a definition from the Summary list that best describes your issue
from the Summary list.
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If the list does not list the specific request you want to log, enter a
summary of the request manually in the Summary field.
Note: Manually entering a summary or “ad hoc request” always creates an
incident request if Incident Management is installed. If Incident
Management is not installed, a change request is created.
If you select a summary definition that is an incident, then related solution
database entries appear in the Possible Solutions table, based on the
categorization of the summary. Possible solutions do not appear for
manually entered summaries.
Important: The Possible Solutions table appears only if the Problem
Management application is installed.
If a matching solution appears and you choose to use this solution, the
solution entry is related your request and the request is resolved
automatically. See “Working with the Solution database” on page 101.
b Select an Urgency level for your request from the list.
c If you do not have a record in the People form, then the Company, First
Name and Last Name fields might not be populated, but you must
complete them.
3 (Optional) Click Add Attachment to enter request work information.
You can include a note or an attachment. For more information about the
Request Work Info dialog box, see “Modifying a service request” on page 85.
4 Complete the optional fields:
!
Date Required—Enter a date by when you require that this request be
completed.
!
Phone—Enter or edit your phone number.
!
Email—Enter or edit your email address.
Note: Unknown users must enter information in the Phone or Email fields
5 Click Save to save the request.
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The New Request wizard closes, and the request you just saved appears in the
My Requests table.
Service request states
For changes and incidents, the My Request table console lists the status of its
underlying service request. Users are notified whenever a service request
undergoes a status change, for example, when a service request is moved
from In Progress to Completed after an incident or a change request reaches
the Completed state.
The notification method is always by email.
Filtering service requests
When registered and unknown users access the Requester console, they can
see a list of only their own service requests.
" To filter your service requests
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 Filter your service requests by clicking the appropriate link from the View
Requests section, located on the left navigation pane of the Requester
console.
The options are:
!
Open—Displays all your open requests.
This is the default view. You can choose to change the default view by
selecting another sort option, then clicking Save As Default View.
!
All—Displays all your requests.
The My Requests table displays the requests that fall under the selected status.
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Viewing a service request record
From the Requester console, you can view your submitted service requests.
The My Requests table displays only the requests that the logged in user has
submitted. Change requests are prefixed with CRQ and Incident requests are
prefixed by INC.
" To view a service request record
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 If necessary, sort the service requests to display the ones that you want to
view, as described in “Filtering service requests” on page 83.
3 From the My Requests table, select the service request record that you want
to view.
4 View some details of the record in the Request Details section of the console.
Figure 3-3: Request Details
1. Select a record.
2. View some details in the
Request Details section.
3. Click View to display the
record in the Request
Details window.
5 Click View to display the record.
!
To update the service request, see “Modifying a service request” on
page 85.
!
To print the service request record, see “Printing a service request” on
page 86.
!
To cancel a submitted service request, see “Canceling a service request” on
page 87.
6 Click Close.
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Modifying a service request
There are limited updates you can make to your service request after you
have submitted it. You can make only the following changes:
!
Cancel the request—See “Canceling a service request” on page 87.
!
Update the work information—See “To update the work information of
a service request” on page 85.
!
Reopen the request—You can reopen a service request, but only when it is
advanced to a certain state. For information, see “Reopening a service
request” on page 87.
" To update the work information of a service request
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 From the list of your requests in the My Requests table, select the record that
you want to modify.
3 Perform one of the following actions:
!
Click the Add Work Info link from the Console Functions section on the
left navigation pane.
!
Click View, click the Work Info tab, and then click Add Work Info.
The Request Work Info dialog box appears.
Figure 3-4: Request Work Info dialog box
4 Enter a summary of the work log in the Summary field.
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5 Optionally, you can do the following steps:
a Enter additional information in the Notes field.
b Add an attachment. You are limited to one attachment for each work
information entry. If you need to add multiple attachments, you can add
multiple work information entries.
6 Click Save.
Searching for service requests by Request ID
You can quickly search for a service request by its Request ID.
" To search by Request ID
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 Click Search by Request ID.
3 Enter the complete Request ID or the numeric part of the ID.
The matching request appears in the My Requests table.
Printing a service request
To enable the print functionality, be sure to follow steps 1 through 4.
" To print a service request
1 Log in to BMC Remedy User with your server name in the Preference Server
field.
2 Choose Tools > Options.
The Options dialog box appears.
3 Click the Advanced tab.
4 Make sure that ODBC Use Underscores is checked.
5 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
6 Select the record you want to print from the My Requests table.
7 Click Print.
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The report appears in the Report Preview window.
8 Review the report, and then click the Print icon on the toolbar.
Canceling a service request
You can only cancel a service request that is open. You cannot reopen a
canceled service request until it reaches the Completed or Rejected state.
" To cancel a service request
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 If necessary, sort the requests to show all Open requests, as described in
“Filtering service requests” on page 83.
3 Select the service request record that you want to cancel.
4 Click Cancel.
You are prompted if you are sure you want to cancel to request.
5 Click Yes.
6 Refresh the My Requests table, if necessary, to view the status of all your
service requests.
Reopening a service request
You can only reopen service requests that are in the Completed or Rejected
state.
" To reopen a request
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 If necessary, sort the requests to show all Open requests, as described in
“Filtering service requests” on page 83.
3 Select the service request record that you want to reopen.
Note: The Cancel button changes to Reopen when you select a completed or
rejected record.
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Figure 3-5: Reopening a record
1. To reopen a
canceled record, select
the record.
2. Click Reopen.
4 Click Reopen.
Note: You can only reopen records that are in Completed or Rejected state.
The following note appears: The selected request has been reopened.
5 Click OK to dismiss the note.
The request now appears as In Progress or Open. The status shown depends
on whether the request is a change or an incident
Completing surveys
You will be notified through email to respond to a survey after your service
request is marked Completed. Each service request generates a separate
survey.
Note: Surveys must be set up for your company and the option must be
turned on. If surveys are not set up and the survey option is not turned on,
no surveys are generated.
" To complete a survey
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 Click View Survey.
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The Survey dialog box appears.
Figure 3-6: Survey dialog box
3 Select a survey, and then click Respond.
4 Type your responses to the questions.
Figure 3-7: Requester survey
5 Click Save.
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Viewing service requests with errors
If you have Command Event Master and Request Master permissions, you
can view which service requests contain errors, for example, if there is a
problem with a back-end application.
" To view requests with errors
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 From the navigation pane, choose Request Errors > View Requests with
Errors.
The Service Request form opens. It displays those service requests that
contain errors of various types.
Figure 3-8: Service Request form—Entries containing errors
3 To view the error status and its possible source, click the Change/Incident
Data tab.
4 If you have Command Event Master permissions, click Reset Error to restart
the service request.
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Users can now continue to work on the service request.
5 If you have Command Event Master permissions, click View Events to review
the event log and troubleshoot the service request.
For more information, see “Viewing the event log and troubleshooting” on
page 97.
6 Save any changes.
Working with service requests as the Request Master
Only users with Request Master permissions can access the Service Request
form directly. All other users need to use the New Request wizard to create
service requests.
The Service Request form is accessed by the Request Master users to
troubleshoot system errors. See “Opening a service request record” on
page 92. For information about the Service Request form, see “Service
Request form” on page 98.
Request Masters can do the following actions with the Service Request form:
!
Add Work Info entries for service requests—See “To view or add work
information” on page 94.
!
Use the accelerator links on the navigation pane to reopen a request,
cancel a request, and so on—See “Canceling a service request” on page 87
and “Reopening a service request” on page 87.
!
View the event log if a service request event has failed or is in error state,
and either retry the event or ignore the event—See “To view the event log”
on page 97.
Note: The Request Master user must have Request Master permissions.
Request Masters, however, cannot directly update any other form fields.
Only users with AR System Administrator permissions are allowed to delete
service request records.
Important: Delete service requests with caution. They cannot be recovered.
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Opening a service request record
Note: Only Request Masters can directly access the Service Request form.
This user needs Request Master and Command Event Master permissions.
Figure 3-9: Service Requests form
Note: Request Masters can view records that they have access to, granted by
company access in the People form. Request Masters with unrestricted
access (that is, they have access to all companies) can view all service
requests, as can the AR System administrator.
" To open a service request record
1 Log in to the AR System.
2 Choose File > Open > Object List.
The Object List dialog box appears.
3 Click the Find tab.
4 Enter Service Request in the Search what keywords? field, and then click
Find.
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5 Select the service request entry, and click Search.
Note: New service requests are created from the Service Request console,
using the New Request wizard. If you try to select the service request entry
and click New, you get an error message.
The Service Requests form appears in Search mode. For more information
about the service request form, see “Service Request form” on page 98.
6 Enter search criteria, and then click Search.
7 Select the service request record you want to view or troubleshoot from the
search results.
8 Follow these steps as needed:
!
“Reopening a service request” on page 93
!
“Viewing or adding work information” on page 94
!
“Viewing the event log and troubleshooting” on page 97
9 Click Save.
Reopening a service request
You can reopen a completed or rejected service request. You can cancel a
Pending, In Progress, or Staged request.
" To reopen or cancel a request
1 Complete steps 1 through 7 from the procedure “To open a service request
record” on page 92.
2 On the appropriate record, take the appropriate action:
!
Click Reopen Request if you need to reopen a completed or rejected
request.
!
Click Cancel Request if you need to cancel a request.
Note: The appropriate action link is enabled, depending on the state of the
service request.
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The service request shown has a Status of Completed, so the Reopen Request
link is enabled.
Figure 3-10: Service Request form—Completed Status
Reopen Request action is enabled when Status is set to Completed.
3 Click OK to dismiss the confirmation message.
!
If you clicked Reopen Request, the Status changes to New, Staged, or In
Progress.
!
If you clicked Cancel Request, the Status changes to Canceled.
4 Click Save to save your changes.
Viewing or adding work information
You can quickly add to the Work Info dialog box of an existing service
request by clicking View Work Info or Add Work Info from the left
navigation pane.
" To view or add work information
1 Do steps 1 through 7 from the procedure “To open a service request record”
on page 92.
2 Click the appropriate link:
!
View Work Info—Displays the Request Work Info dialog box and existing
work information. Select the entry in the History table that you want to
view, and view its details. (The View Work Info link is enabled only if there
is existing information for the selected record.)
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Figure 3-11: Request Work Info dialog box
!
Add Work Info—Displays the Request Work Info dialog box and allows
you to add information.
See “Adding or viewing work information from a service request” on
page 95.
3 Click Save to save your changes.
Adding or viewing work information from a service
request
The Request Work Info dialog box has a different view when the Request
Master opens it from the Service Request form than when the user accesses it
from the Requester console.
" To add or view work information from a service request
1 Complete steps 1 and 2 from the procedure “Viewing or adding work
information” on page 94.
The Work Info form appears. It looks slightly different, depending on
whether you clicked View Work Info or Add Work Info.
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Figure 3-12: Request Work Info form—Adding Work Information
2 View or add information to the fields (field names in bold with asterisks are
required fields).
Field name
Description
Date+
Date and time when work information was created.
Source
Where work information came from, for example, Email,
Web, or some other source.
Summary
A brief description of the Work Info entry. This character
field contains a maximum of 100 characters.
Notes
A more complete description of the Work Info entry.
View Access
Sets the View Access to the work information.
!
!
Public—Lets the requester view the work information.
Internal—Only the request master can view the work
information.
Attachments
Includes any attachments that pertain to the Work Info
entry. Only one attachment can be added per Work Info
entry.
Submitter
System-generated field containing the login name of the
person who submitted the Work Info entry.
Submit Date
System-generated field that contains the date the Work
Info entry was created.
3 Click Save.
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Viewing the event log and troubleshooting
If the service request cannot be completed because of an error from the backend application, you can review the event log and troubleshoot the service
request. Overall event status is indicated by the App Event Status on the
Change/Incident Data tab.
Note: You need Command Event Master permissions in addition to Request
Master permissions.
" To view the event log
1 Complete steps 1 through 7 from the procedure “To open a service request
record” on page 92.
2 Click View Events.
The Event History dialog box appears.
Figure 3-13: Event History dialog box
3 View the event details:
!
Protocol
!
Access Mode
!
Error Code
!
Error Message
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4 Take any of the following actions for events that are in error:
!
Retry
!
Ignore
It is best to retry each event in the order the events are created. By default, the
event table is sorted with the recent event on top, in reverse chronological
order. Typical events should be retried when the problem indicated by the
error message has been fixed.
5 Click Close.
Service Request form
Only users with Request Master permissions can open the Service Request
form directly and perform certain actions. For more information, see
“Working with service requests as the Request Master” on page 91.
Note: You cannot create a service request from this form.
This section describes the form fields for reference.
Field name
Description
Summary
Summary of the request. This is populated from the New Request
wizard.
Requesters can select a summary definition from the Summary
list. This list displays a list of summary definitions that have a
status of Active. If a summary value from the Summary list is
selected, the following fields are automatically completed:
Category Tiers, Service Type, and Impact.
Users can also enter data in the Summary field without making a
selection from the Summary list. If summary data is typed in, the
following values are set:
!
!
!
Categorization Tiers 1 through 5 = NULL
Impact = 3-Moderate/Limited
Service Type = User Service Request
Note: Categorization data is mapped in the Operational Catalog
Setup form.
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Field name
Description
Request ID
A unique identifier for the service request. User-defined prefixes
are not supported. After a service request is submitted from the
New Request wizard and the appropriate back-end application
entry is created, the service request Request ID is updated with
the back-end application’s Request ID. This provides consistent
IDs for reference across the Requester console and the back-end
application.
Category Tiers
1 through 3
Classification of the request based on the Summary. If the user
does not select a summary from the preconfigured summary list,
the value is set to NULL.
Request Type
This value is derived from the selected summary definition (each
summary definition has been mapped to an appropriate request
type, either change or incident). If the user does not select a
summary from the preconfigured summary list, the value is set to
Incident. If only Change Management is installed, the value is set
to Change.
Impact
Impact of the request based on the selected summary definition.
If the user does not select a summary from the preconfigured
summary list, the value is set to 3-Moderate/Limited.
This setting indicates the impact to IT operations, not the impact
to the user requester.
Urgency
The importance of the service request to the requester:
!
Date Required
Urgency—Selected by the user when creating the service
request.
The date by which the requester requires the service request be
completed.
Note: This field is for informational purposes; there is no service
level workflow related to this field. The only workflow
associated with this field is that an error message appears if the
Required Date is set to a date earlier than the current date.
Notes
Further details about the service request.
Status
The status of the service request. This is a system field (Field ID
7). All of the state transition data for SRM:Request is stored in the
SYS:Status Transition form. Whenever the service request Status
data is changed, SRM:Request Form workflow retrieves the
appropriate entry from the SYS:Status Transition Lookup form
for the previous state and current state and determines if the
transition is valid.
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Field name
Description
Status Reason
A further description of the Status.
Date Submitted The date and time the service request was submitted. This is a
system-generated field.
SLA Responded Service level data pushed from back-end SLM forms. If set to Yes,
change request must be responded to. This is particularly
important in the case of a response-time goal, where a blank SLA
Responded field might indicate that the service target goal has
been missed.
Not applicable if SLM is not installed.
Requesters tab
The two tabs, Requested For and Requested By/Service Location,
contain the same information, or information of the user who
submitted the service request.
Requested By/Service Location data is automatically copied to the
Requested For fields based on the type of Submitter.
!
!
If the Submitter is an Unknown User (a user who is not
registered in the People form with an AR System Login and
People ID), the Submitter's data is copied to the Requested For
fields. The Requested By fields are set to default user data set in
Application settings.
If the Submitter is not an Unknown User (the user is registered
in the People form with an AR System Login and People ID),
the Submitter's data is copied to the Requested For as well as
the Requested By fields.
Only service requests for individuals are supported, so the Add
Request For field is automatically set to Individual.
SLM tab
Displays the service targets and milestones for the restoration of
the unavailability. Service targets and milestones are defined
from within the Service Level Management applications.
Escalations can be set up to notify the assignment group prior to
acknowledgement or resolution breach times.
Change/
Incident Data
tab
Provides information from the back-end application for the
service request record. The actual back-end Change or Incident
request information appears.
Manager tab
Provides manager information for the service request record.
This value is pushed from the change or incident and indicates
the owner of the request. This person is notified if the SLA is
breached. The service request itself does not populate this field.
Work Info tab
Displays work information for the service request record.
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Working with the Solution database
If you are creating a service request that falls into the request type of Incident,
you might be able to resolve the request immediately if a valid solution exists
in the solution database. After you select a summary, possible solutions
appear only if they exist in the solution database under the same category.
Note: The Solutions table only appears if Incident Management and Problem
Management are installed. If you have only Change Management
installed, this table does not display.
" To resolve an incident request by using the Solution database
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 Click Create a New Request.
The New Request wizard appears.
3 Select a Summary that can be classified as an incident.
Figure 3-14: Possible Solutions entry
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If there is a solution database entry that matches the summary definition, it
appears in the Possible Solutions table.
4 If the solution entry appears to be valid, select the entry and then click View.
5 Review the solution entry.
6 If the solution entry resolves your request, click Use Solution.
The following AR Note appears:
Your request has been submitted and will be marked Resolved.
7 Click OK to dismiss the note.
The request appears in the My Requests table as Resolved.
Viewing broadcast messages
Broadcasts (or bulletin board messages) appear in the Broadcasts table.
Broadcasts are filtered by the logged-in user’s company. If the logged-in
user’s company cannot be determined, then only Global broadcasts appear.
The View button opens the Broadcasts form in dialog mode, where you can
see details of the broadcasts, depending on your permissions. If you have
sufficient permissions on this form, you can create, modify, or delete
broadcasts.
For more information about working with broadcasts, see “Viewing and
creating broadcast messages” on page 36.
" To view broadcasts from the Requester console
1 Open the Requester console, as described in “Opening the Requester
console” on page 77.
2 View the broadcasts in the Broadcasts table.
3 To refresh the list of broadcasts, click the Refresh button above the table.
4 Select a broadcast entry, and click View to view more details.
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Chapter
4
Working with Incident
Management as support staff
This section describes functions that are available to support staff. Managers
can also perform these functions from the Support Console tab.
The following topics are provided:
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Understanding the Support Console tab (page 104)
Setting application preferences (page 106)
Recording a new incident (page 108)
Understanding assignments (page 120)
Investigating and diagnosing an incident (page 132)
Resolving an incident (page 141)
Closing an incident (page 147)
Creating known errors and solutions (page 149)
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Understanding the Support Console tab
The Incident Management Support console tab has been redesigned for
version 7.0. It includes:
!
Navigation pane—Provides display filters, links to functionality, and links
to other applications.
!
Search Criteria area—Provides area where you can search for assigned
work.
!
Broadcast area—Displays broadcasts and provides broadcast
functionality. For details, see “Broadcasting messages” on page 55.
!
Assigned Work area—Displays a summary of assigned incidents. The
color of the incident indicates whether the response and resolution time
are within the Service Level Management (SLM) agreed-upon service
targets. When you select an incident, the summary details appear below it.
Figure 4-1: Incident Management console—Support Console tab
Navigation pane
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Both the navigation pane and the Search Criteria provide options to filter the
Assigned Work on the console, as summarized in the following table.
Table 4-1: Options to filter display of assigned work
Option
Explanation
Company
If you support multiple companies, leave this field in the
navigation pane blank to display work for all companies, or
select the appropriate company to display work for a single
company.
Console View
This menu in the navigation pane provides you with options to
look at the Personal view for work assigned to you, or to view
work assigned to your support groups. You can display work
assigned to all your support groups or to selected support
groups.
Status
Instead of viewing All Open Incidents, you can view all
incidents, or all that are pending, resolved, or closed. When you
view All Open Incidents, you view incidents available for you to
work on, which includes assigned, in progress, and pending
incidents.
SLM Status
To view incidents regardless of SLM status, leave this blank.
Otherwise, select the appropriate SLM status. The SLM Status
filter is available only if SLM is installed.
Dates
You can view incidents that were opened Any Time. You can
also restrict the display to incidents opened within the selected
time, such as within the last 24 hours.
Role
You can view incidents for which you are the Assignee, the
Owner, or both at the same time.
Advanced search You can specify one or more values on the form to search for
specific incidents. For details, see “Using the Advanced Search
feature” on page 40.
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Setting application preferences
You can set preferences to:
!
Automatically use decision trees, if available, whenever you record a new
incident.
!
Set defaults for the consoles.
!
Determine the action that occurs after you save an Incident form.
" To set your preferences
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > Application
Preferences.
The Application Preferences form appears.
Figure 4-2: Application Preferences form
3 Update the form as appropriate.
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The following table describes the settings available on the form.
Setting
Description
Console View
The default console view, in conjunction with the search
criteria, controls which incidents appear in the Assigned Work
area. You can temporarily change this setting from the
navigation pane of the console. The following selections are
available from this list:
!
!
!
Personal—Displays incidents assigned to you.
Selected Groups—Prompts you to select any support groups
to which you belong. You can select to display all incidents
assigned to your group, or incidents assigned to your group
that are not yet assigned to an individual.
All My Groups—Displays incidents assigned to all of your
support groups. You can choose to display all incidents, or
incidents that are not yet assigned to an individual.
Manager Console If you select Yes, when you open the Incident Management
console, it opens to the Manager Console tab. Otherwise, it
opens to the Support Console tab.
Data Set Name
If there are multiple data sets, such as production and training
data sets, select the appropriate data set.
Search Criteria
Default
Search criteria, in conjunction with the console view, control
which incidents appear in the Assigned Work area. You can
temporarily change these settings from the Search Criteria area
on the console. You can set the default values for the following
settings:
!
!
!
!
Incident status—Select whether to display open, pending,
resolved, closed, or all incidents. Open incidents include
assigned, in progress, and pending incidents.
SLM status—Select whether to display incidents with no
service target assigned, within the service target, with a service
target breached, or with all service targets breached. Clear this
selection to display incidents regardless of SLM status.
Role—Select whether to display incidents where you are the
assignee, the owner, or either.
Task status—This selection controls which tasks are
displayed on the Tasks tab of the console. Select whether to
display open tasks, closed tasks, or all tasks.
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Setting
Description
After New Save
This setting controls the action after you click Save on the
Incident form. The following selections are available from this
list:
!
!
!
No Action—Leaves the Incident form open and it is ready for
you to record a new incident.
Reopen in New—Opens the current incident in modify mode
in a new window. The original window is ready for you to
record a new incident.
Reopen in Current—Leaves the Incident form open. If this is
a new incident, the form changes from New to Modify.
Enable AutoDecision Tree
If you select Yes from this list and a decision tree is set up, you
are prompted by the decision tree when you record a new
incident. For more information about decision trees, see “Using
the decision tree” on page 114.
Tab Views
You can choose whether to show the Vendor, Financials, or
Date System tabs.
Overview
Console
You can choose whether to show incidents or incident tasks on
the Overview console. For information about the Overview
console, see “Working with the Overview console” on page 31.
4 Click Save.
Recording a new incident
This activity is the starting point of the Incident Management process. The
purpose of this activity is to accurately record and recognize disruptions to
services provided by IT to its customers. When recording a new incident, you
classify the incident and record customer information, configuration item
(CI) information, and a description of the incident. The key to this activity is
the accuracy and completeness of the information recorded.
This section describes several tools to assist you in recording a new incident:
!
“Using the Process Flow Status wizard to record a new incident” on
page 109
!
“Using a template” on page 112
!
“Using the decision tree” on page 114
!
“Using scripts” on page 114
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This section also describes activities you might need to perform while
recording a new incident:
!
“Relating incidents as duplicates” on page 114
!
“Recording CI unavailability” on page 116
!
“Adding or modifying a customer profile” on page 117
Using the Process Flow Status wizard to record a new incident
By using the Process Flow Status wizard when recording a new incident, you
are prompted to enter the required fields and optional recommended fields
to move the incident to the next stage.
Tip: The Process Flow Status wizard provides one method of recording and
updating incidents. All fields in the dialog box are also available on the
Incident form. You can complete these fields directly from the form, if you
prefer.
" To record an incident with the Process Flow Status wizard
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > New Incident.
The New Incident form appears.
3 In the Process Flow Status area, click the arrow in the Identification and
Recording box.
4 Choose Next Stage > Investigation and Diagnosis.
You can move directly to the Resolution and Recovery stage or the Incident
Closure Stage by selecting the appropriate stage.
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Figure 4-3: Selecting the next stage from the Process Flow Status wizard
The Create Incident form appears. The two tabs on this form prompt you to
enter required and optional information.
Note: This is a dynamic form. The fields on the Required and Optional tabs
depend on the information to move from the current stage or state to the
selected stage or state.
Figure 4-4: Create Incident form displaying completed Required Information tab
5 Type the customer’s last name in the Last Name field and press ENTER.
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If there are multiple customers with the same last name, you are prompted
to select the appropriate customer. The Company, First Name, and Phone
Number fields are completed from the customer record. The company drives
the selection on other menus, such as Operational, Product, and Resolution
Categorization.
6 Type a brief description in the Summary field.
7 You can type additional details in the Notes field.
8 Select values from the Impact and Urgency lists.
9 If appropriate, select a different service company.
When you select the customer, the service company is set to the customer’s
company.
10 If appropriate, change the service type from the default value of user service
restoration. You can select user service request, infrastructure restoration, or
infrastructure event.
11 To enter optional recommended information:
a Click the Optional Information tab.
Figure 4-5: Create Incident form displaying completed Optional Information tab
b Select the appropriate operational categorization.
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Operational categorization is based on a three-tier hierarchy that is
defined in the Operational Catalog configuration form.
c Select the appropriate product categorization.
Product categorization is based on a five-tier hierarchy that is defined in
the Product Catalog configuration form.
12 Click Save.
If you did not assign the incident, the incident is automatically assigned
based on predefined assignment routing. If there is no appropriate
predefined assignment routing, you are prompted to assign the incident.
13 If prompted, assign the incident, then click Save.
Using a template
You can use templates to populate the incident with standard information
that is entered on a regular basis. A template can also set a relationship to a
CI. Your administrator can create templates for commonly occurring
incidents, as described in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0
Configuration Guide.
" To use a template
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 From the navigation pane, choose General Functions > New Incident.
The New Incident form appears.
3 In the Process Flow Status area, in the Identification and Recording box,
choose Select Template.
If you belong to more than one support group, you are prompted to select
the appropriate support group first.
A list of templates available to your support group appears.
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Figure 4-6: Incident Template Selection dialog box
4 Highlight the appropriate template, then click Select.
Part of the incident is completed, as defined by the template.
Figure 4-7: Incident form partially completed by template
5 Complete the incident as appropriate.
6 Click Save.
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Using the decision tree
A decision tree takes you step-by-step through a questionnaire, and, based on
your answers, completes part of the form for a new incident. Each element in
the decision tree displays a list of items. Your final selection completes part
of the incident.
Decision trees are built by a manager or administrator at your company.
You can set up your preferences to use available decision trees whenever you
start a new incident. For details, see “Setting application preferences” on
page 106.
Using scripts
Scripts are detailed instructions that have been set up at your company to
help you record important information about an incident. You have access
to scripts that have been set up for your support group. Scripts might include
a list of questions to ask the customer. These questions can assist you in
resolving or assigning the incident.
There are two types of scripts:
!
Initiator scripts—Select an initiator script when you record an incident
after you indicate the customer.
!
Assignment scripts—Select an assignment script when you assign or
reassign an incident after you indicate the assignee. The assignment scripts
correspond to the group to which you are assigning the incident. For
example, a networking group might have specific questions for you to ask
the user when you assign the incident.
Relating incidents as duplicates
You can relate an incident to another as a duplicate. The original incident
resolves all of its duplicates. When someone resolves or closes the original
incident, its Operational and Product Categorizations and Resolution fields
are copied to the related duplicates, marking them with a status of Resolved.
" To relate an incident as a duplicate
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 From the navigation pane, open an incident currently being investigated.
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3 Click the Relationships tab.
4 From the Request Type list, select Incident, then click Search.
The Incident Relationship Search dialog box appears.
5 Enter the search criteria to locate the original incident, then click Search.
Incidents matching the search criteria appear on the bottom half of the form.
Figure 4-8: Incident Relationship Search dialog box with results displayed
6 Select the duplicate incident.
7 If the current incident is a duplicate of the original incident, from the
Relationship Type list, select Duplicate of.
8 If the current incident is the original incident, which the selected incident
duplicates, from the Relationship Type list, select Original of.
9 Click Relate.
The Incident Relationship Search dialog box closes. The two incidents are
related as duplicate and original. The status of the duplicate incident is
Pending, with a status reason of Pending Original Incident.
10 Click Save.
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Recording CI unavailability
CI unavailability is the actual down-time of a CI. You can record CI
unavailability due to an unexpected circumstance from the incident.
Note: You can record CI unavailability only if Asset Management is installed.
" To record CI unavailability
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Click the Relationships tab.
4 To search for a CI, choose Quick Links > CI Search.
The CI Relationships Search form appears.
5 Select the CI in the CIs table.
Figure 4-9: CIs table
6 In the Relationship Type field, select the relationship type.
7 Click Relate with Unavailability.
Note: Relate with Unavailability is available only when you are searching for
CIs to relate to an incident.
The Configuration Item Unavailability form appears.
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Figure 4-10: Configuration Item Unavailability form
8 In the Unavailability Type list, select whether the unavailability is scheduled
or unscheduled, and whether it is full or partial unavailability.
9 Select the actual start date of the unavailability.
10 Complete other fields of the form, as appropriate.
11 Click Save.
12 Close the CI Relationship Search dialog box.
13 On the Incident form, click Save.
Adding or modifying a customer profile
Before you can record an incident, the customer must be listed in the People
database. This access is configured by your administrator, as described in the
BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
Adding a new customer profile
If a customer is not listed in the database, you can add a customer’s profile.
" To add a new customer profile
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
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2 Open an incident.
3 Click the Contact tab.
4 Click Create.
The People form appears.
Figure 4-11: People form used to add a customer profile
5 Complete the required fields.
You do not need to add all of the information for this individual’s profile,
only what is necessary to submit the record.
Note: You cannot define a Support Person record here. See the BMC Remedy
IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide for further details.
6 After you have finished entering the information, click Save.
The status of the person you added has a default value of Proposed. Your
People/Contact administrator must verify those in proposed status, update
them to Enabled, and add any other information that is necessary.
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Modifying a customer profile
To modify a customer profile, you require access to the People database.
Note: You can modify the customer and contact phone number and location
on the Incident form without modifying the customer profile. A
modification on the Incident form, however, applies only to the current
incident.
" To modify a customer profile
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Search for and select a customer in the Contact Information section.
4 Click Modify.
The People form appears, displaying the customer’s profile.
Figure 4-12: People form used to modify a customer profile
5 Change the information, as required.
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Accessing the individual’s People Profile this way gives you limited
information that you can change. You can change the information in the top
of the form and the information in the General and More Details tabs.
6 Click Save.
Understanding assignments
An incident can be assigned to an individual or a support group. The
Assignment tab displays details of the current assignment.
Version 7.0 adds tasks to Incident Management. You can attach tasks to an
incident and assign them to individuals without changing the assignment of
the incident.
Figure 4-13: Assignment tab
This section includes the following topics:
!
“Receiving notification of assignments” on page 121
!
“Working with assignments” on page 121
!
“Reassigning an incident” on page 124
!
“Working with tasks” on page 127
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Receiving notification of assignments
When an incident is assigned to you, you can receive notification through:
!
BMC Remedy Alert
!
Email
You configure how you receive each notification from the People form, as
described in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration
Guide.
All incidents assigned to you or your support groups appear in the Incident
Management and Overview consoles.
For additional information about notifications sent from Incident
Management, see “Understanding notifications” on page 160.
Working with assignments
When you work on open incidents, you are working on incidents assigned to
you or to your support group. You can also assist with an incident assigned
to another support group when a task is assigned to you.
This section includes the following topics:
!
“Viewing incidents assigned to you” on page 121
!
“Accepting an assignment” on page 122
!
“Recording time worked on an incident” on page 122
Viewing incidents assigned to you
You can view the summary and detail of incidents assigned to you.
" To view incidents assigned to you
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 From the navigation pane, choose Console View > Personal.
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3 To view additional details about an incident, perform any of the following
actions.
Action
Result
Click the incident.
The Details tab displays details about the
selected incident.
Click the incident, then click View.
The Incident form appears, displaying the
incident. You can modify the form and
perform other actions, as appropriate.
Accepting an assignment
You can accept any incident assigned to your support group.
" To accept an assignment
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Change the Status to In Progress.
4 In the navigation pane, choose Quick Links > Assign to Me.
5 Click Save.
Recording time worked on an incident
On the Assignment tab, use the Current Assignee Effort Time area to track
the effort time that you spend on an incident. You can enter the time in the
Effort Time Spent Minutes field, or you can use the automatic timer. Your
total effort time is then saved in the Assignment Log.
If you are not assigned to an incident, you can record that you have assisted
with the incident.
The Total Time Spent Minutes field displays the total effort time spent on the
incident per session.
" To record time worked on an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
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3 Click the Assignment tab.
4 Click Update Assignment Log.
The Incident Assignment Log dialog box appears.
Figure 4-14: Incident Assignment Log dialog box
5 Complete the form as appropriate.
You can change the Effort Time Spent (Minutes) field for your own
assignment logs, but not for those of other support groups or individuals.
Alternatively, you can use the automatic timer while you perform work.
While an incident is assigned to you, effort time is being tracked by the
application. To stop the clock when you are not working on the incident,
click Stopped on the Assignment tab. To restart the clock, click Start.
6 Click Add to save your total effort time in the assignment log.
Note: Nobody can delete a completed assignment log.
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Reassigning an incident
You can reassign an incident to either an individual or a support group. You
can also assign an incident to a vendor. Use the shortcut in the navigation
pane to reassign an incident to yourself (Assign to Me) or to reassign an
incident based on automatic routing (Auto Assign).
" To reassign an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 To assign the incident to yourself, in the navigation pane, choose Quick Links
> Assign to Me.
Figure 4-15: Navigation pane links to assign incidents
Click here to assign an
incident to yourself.
Click here to reassign the
incident based on
automatic routing.
4 To reassign the incident based on automatic routing, in the navigation pane,
choose Functions > Auto Assign.
This assigns the incident based on predefined mapping. Automated
assignment can be based on the customer organization, incident location,
operational categorization, or product categorization.
5 Otherwise, follow these steps to reassign the investigation.
a Click the Assignment tab.
b Reassign the investigation.
You have several options available, as follows:
!
Select the Assigned Group from the list.
!
After selecting an Assigned Group, select the Assignee from the list.
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!
Select from Set Assignment using, as indicated in the following table.
Set Assignment using
Description
My Default Group
Assigns the incident to you and your default group.
My Group List
Opens a list of all groups to which you belong. Select
the appropriate group from this list.
Favorite Groups
Assigns the incident to the typical groups to which
your support group assigns incidents.
Auto Assign
The same as the Auto Assign link in the navigation
pane, this assigns the incident based on predefined
mapping.
Current Owner
Resets the incident assignee to the incident owner.
For example, if several people have worked to
resolve the incident, you might assign the incident
back to the owner to communicate the resolution to
the customer. For details on the default value for the
Incident owner, see “Understanding incident
ownership.”
6 Click Save.
Understanding incident ownership
Incident ownership is set when the incident is submitted. The incident owner
depends on the support group membership of the person submitting the
incident, as well as the support group being assigned the incident.
For example, consider the following three support groups:
!
Support Group A has a support group role of Help Desk. Person A is in
Support Group A.
!
Support Group B does not have a support group role of Help Desk; for
example, it might have a support group role of Tier 2. Person B is in
Support Group B.
!
Support Group C does not have a support group role of Help Desk; for
example, it might have a support group role of Tier 3.
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Based on these support groups, the following example events show how the
incident owner is set:
!
Person A submits an incident. Because Person A is a member of a support
group with the role of Help Desk, ownership of the incident is set to
Support Group A, regardless of who is assigned this incident.
!
Person B submits an incident and assigns it to Support Group A.
Ownership of the incident is set to Support Group A because the group
has the role of Help Desk.
!
Person B submits another incident, and assigns the incident to Support
Group C. Support Group B becomes the owner, because Person B is the
submitter.
Assigning an incident to a vendor
When you work with a vendor to resolve an incident, you can indicate that
the incident is assigned to the vendor. The following procedure is used to
track incidents that require vendor support.
" To assign an incident to a vendor
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Click the Vendor tab.
Figure 4-16: Vendor tab
4 To assign the incident to a vendor support group, select the vendor company,
organization, and group.
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Note: If you select a vendor company, organization, and group, the
application sends email notification to the vendor. Otherwise, you must
must communicate with the vendor as appropriate.
5 If you selected the vendor from the menus, you can press ENTER in either of
the vendor name fields to select the vendor contact. If the vendor is not listed,
you can type the vendor contact information.
If you type the vendor contact, the Vendor Email field is for information
only; Incident Management does not send email to this contact.
6 Enter any other information you need to track, such as the vendor incident
number.
7 Click Save.
The Vendor Assignment Status field is set to Assigned. The Reported to
Vendor Date is set to the current date and time, if you did not specify
otherwise.
Working with tasks
You can assign tasks to one or more people without changing the assignment
of the incident.
Creating tasks
You can create tasks for open incidents, as appropriate.
" To create a task
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Click the Tasks tab.
The Tasks tab displays tasks associated with the incident.
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Figure 4-17: Tasks tab
4 Click Create.
The Task form appears.
Figure 4-18: Completed Task form
5 Type a brief description of the task in the Name field.
The task name appears in the summary on the Tasks tab, as well as in
notification messages.
6 Type a detailed summary of the task to be performed in the Summary field.
7 Complete other fields on the form, as appropriate.
8 To record work information for this task:
a On the General tab, click Create Work Info.
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The Work Info form appears.
Figure 4-19: Completed Work Info form
b Complete the form, as described in “Adding work information” on
page 51.
c Click Save.
9 Click Save again.
The task is assigned based on the location and organization. Notification is
sent to the task assignee.
Manually assigning a task
You can manually set the assignment for any task, if appropriate.
" To assign a task
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open a task, as described in “Creating tasks” on page 127.
3 On the Task form, click the Assignments tab.
If you manually assign the task when creating the task, the Assignment and
Dates tabs are combined as the Assignment/Dates tab.
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Figure 4-20: Completed Assignment tab
Figure 4-21: Completed Assignment/Dates tab
4 Select the company, organization, assignee group, and assignee.
5 If appropriate, schedule the start and end dates.
6 Click Save.
Recording work performed on tasks
You might be assigned tasks to perform for incidents not assigned to you.
When a task is assigned to you, notification is sent to you.
" To record work performed on a task
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Click the Tasks tab.
4 Select the task.
5 Click View.
The Task form appears.
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Figure 4-22: Assigned task
6 Select the appropriate status.
Tasks can be staged, assigned, pending, work in progress, waiting, closed, or
bypassed.
Note: The waiting status is used only for automatic tasks, which are not
applicable to incident management.
7 Select the appropriate status reason.
If you close the task, you must select whether you are canceling the task or
completing it as a success or failure.
8 Click the Assignment tab.
Figure 4-23: Tracking effort on the Assignment tab
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9 To track effort spent on the task:
!
When you start working on the task, click Start Clock.
!
When you stop working on the task, click Stop Clock.
!
To record additional details about the effort, to manually record time
spent working on a task, or to view details of past effort, click Effort Log.
The Task Effort Log dialog box appears. Close the dialog box when you are
finished.
10 Click the Work Info tab.
11 Complete the Work Info tab, as described in “Adding work information” on
page 51.
12 Click Save.
Investigating and diagnosing an incident
In this activity, you search existing information to identify a possible
solution. After you identify the possible solution, you can resolve it, as
described in “Resolving an incident” on page 141.
If the incident cannot be resolved or a root cause analysis is required, the
incident can be escalated to Problem Management. You can launch a
problem investigation in conjunction with the incident to discover the root
cause and solution. Keep in mind that the incident is managed as a separate
process, and remains open until it is resolved.
The following topics describe work you might perform while investigating
and diagnosing an incident:
!
“Viewing an incident” on page 133
!
“Adding work information” on page 51
!
“Searching for a solution” on page 135
!
“Recording the cost of working on an incident” on page 139
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Viewing an incident
You can view an incident from the Assigned Work area.
" To view an incident
1 In the Assigned Work area, select the incident.
2 Click View. The Incident form appears.
Figure 4-24: Incident at investigation and diagnosis stage
Fields on the form display the incident status and information that has been
collected about the incident.
Process flow
status
As the incident moves through its life cycle, the Process Flow Status area
displays the current stage of the incident. In Figure 4-24 the incident is at the
second stage, which is the investigation and diagnosis stage. The stage is
highlighted in white and includes the label Normal. If the incident were
pending further action, the current stage would be highlighted in yellow and
include the label Pending.
For more information about the incident process flow, see “Process flow and
the life cycle of an incident request” on page 24.
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Service Level
Management
(SLM)
If SLM is installed, the Incident form displays both overview and in-depth
information about the incident in relation to applicable service targets.
The SLM Status area shows whether the incident breaches service targets
defined in SLM, as described in Table 4-2. An incident can have service
targets for response time and resolution time.
Table 4-2: Service targets indicator colors and SLM status
Color
SLM status
Description
Green
Within the Service Target
Incident does not violate the
conditions of the service targets.
Yellow
Service Target Breached
At least one service target has been
breached.
Red
All Service Targets Breached
The terms of all service targets have
been breached.
Gray
No Service Target Assigned
Incident has no applicable service
targets.
If the incident was recorded directly from an email, fax, voicemail, or web
self-serve request, the Responded field appears next to the Service Target
indicator. After you respond to the incident, select Yes.
Important: If you respond to an incident and leave the Responded field set to
No, the incident might breach the response service terms.
For additional information about the relevant service targets, click the SLM
tab. The Service Targets table displays all service targets applicable to the
incident. Select a service target to see the status, next target date, exception
details, and applicable milestones.
Figure 4-25: SLM tab
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The Next Target Date field indicates the next deadline out of all the service
targets attached to the incident. The SLM Status displays the status
corresponding to the Service Target indicator on the top of the form.
If the service terms have been breached, select the breach reason and breach
exception.
For more information about service targets and milestones, see the BMC
Service Level Management 7.0 User’s Guide.
Searching for a solution
You can search for information that might help resolve the current incident.
You can search for this information in other incidents, problem
investigations, known errors, and solution database entries.
" To search for a solution
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 In the navigation pane, choose Functions > Incident Matching.
The Incident Matching dialog box appears.
4 Select the appropriate check boxes to search for incidents, problem
investigations, known errors, or solution database entries.
5 To search using the incident’s operational categorization, in the Search By
Operational Categorization area, click Current Operation.
The operational categorization fields populate with the current incident’s
operational categorization.
6 To search using the incident’s product categorization, in the Search By
Product Categorization area, click Current Product.
The product categorization fields populate with the current incident’s
product categorization.
7 To further filter the search results, you can specify the other fields in the
search criteria pages.
8 Click Search.
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Matching incidents, problem investigations, known errors, and solutions are
listed in the tabs at the bottom half of the dialog box.
Figure 4-26: Incident Matching dialog box displaying search results
9 To view details of a matching record, perform the following steps:
a On the bottom half of the screen, click the appropriate tab, such as the
Known Errors tab.
This tab lists matching records, such as matching known errors.
b Select the appropriate record.
c On the top half of the screen, click the appropriate Search and Solution
tab, such as the Known Error Search and Solution tab, then within that tab
click the solution tab, such as the View Known Error Solution tab.
This tab displays details of the selected record.
10 If the record resolves the current incident, from the Relationship Type list,
select Resolved by.
11 To relate the record and copy the solution to the resolution of the incident,
click Relate with Solution.
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12 Alternatively, to relate the record without the solution, click Relate Without
Solution.
13 If a solution or work-around is available, then continue with “Moving the
incident to the resolution stage.”
Moving the incident to the resolution stage
When you find a possible solution or work-around for the incident, you are
ready to move it to the resolution stage.
" To move the incident to the resolution stage
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 In the Process Flow Status area, in the Investigation and Diagnosis box,
choose Next Stage > Resolution and Recovery.
Figure 4-27: Selecting resolution and recovery
.
The Modify Incident form appears, displaying the required and optional
fields to move the incident to the resolution and recovery stage.
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Figure 4-28: Completed required fields on Modify Incident form
4 If the incident is not assigned, the Modify Incident form also prompts you to
assign the incident.
5 Type the proposed resolution in the Resolution field.
6 Summarize the work you performed to find the proposed resolution by
completing the fields in the Add Work Info area.
7 To prevent changes to this record of your work performed, change the
Locked status to Yes.
8 If this incident is linked to a request, to allow the customer to see this
summary of work performed, change the View Access status to External.
9 To complete recommended optional information:
a Click the Optional Information tab.
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Figure 4-29: Completed optional information
b Select the appropriate product categorization.
Product categorization is based on a five-tier hierarchy that is defined in
the Product Catalog configuration form.
c Select the appropriate resolution categorization.
d Click Save.
Recording the cost of working on an incident
You can record the cost involved in working on an incident on the Financials
tab of the Incident form.
" To record the cost of working on an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Click the Financials tab.
4 Click Create.
The Costs form appears.
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Figure 4-30: Completed Costs form
The Cost Category field is set to Incident. This indicates the form from which
you are entering the charge. You cannot change this value.
5 Select the appropriate cost center code from the list.
This is the code name for the business unit or organization within the
company to be charged for servicing the incident. When you select the cost
center code, the Company and Cost Center Name fields display the values
attached to the cost center code.
6 From the Cost Classification list, select either Actual or Budget.
7 In the Related Cost field, type the rate, and select the currency from the list.
8 If appropriate, you can also:
!
Select the cost type. Cost types are defined by your organization for
reporting purposes.
!
Enter a description.
!
Select the unit type. The unit type indicates whether cost is measured as a
flat rate, or in hours or minutes. If you select a unit type of hours or
minutes, you must type the number of hours or minutes in the Related
Units field.
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!
Enter the date the charge was incurred. If you leave this field blank, it is set
to the current date when you save the cost.
9 Click Save.
The totals for budgeted and actual costs appear at the bottom of the table.
10 Repeat steps 4 through 9 for each cost associated with the incident.
Resolving an incident
The main purpose of this activity is to resolve and recover from the service
disruption to enable the customer to resume work.
" To resolve an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 In the Process Flow Status area, in the Resolution and Recovery box, choose
Next Stage > Incident Closure.
The Modify Incident form appears.
Figure 4-31: Modify Incident form
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The Resolution field shows the resolution that was proposed when the
incident was moved to the resolution and recovery stage.
4 If appropriate, change the resolution.
The resolution is included in the email notification sent to the customer. If
you leave this field blank, you must specify the resolution categorization on
the Optional Information tab.
5 Select the appropriate status reason.
The status reason can indicate action required before the incident is closed.
6 In the Add Work Info area, specify the work performed to resolve the
incident.
7 You can click the Optional Information tab to enter additional information
as follows:
a In the Resolution Product Categorization area, select from up to five lists
to specify the product categorization of the underlying CI that caused the
incident.
The default value is the same as the incident product categorization.
b In the Resolution Categorization area, select either:
!
Actions taken to resolve the incident.
!
Service categories of the underlying causes.
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Figure 4-32: Completed Optional Information tab
8 Click Save.
The status of the incident is set to Resolved.
If CI unavailability was created from this incident and your support group is
responsible for the CI unavailability, then you are prompted to update the CI
unavailability.
Figure 4-33: Selecting CI unavailability to update
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!
To update the CI unavailability, for example, if the CI is now available,
click Update. For details on CI unavailability, see “Recording CI
unavailability” on page 116.
!
To continue resolving the incident without updating the CI, click Close
and Continue Save.
!
To return to the Incident form without saving, click Close and Cancel
Save.
9 If appropriate, you can complete additional fields on the Resolution tab of
the Incident form as follows.
Field name
Description
Resolution Method
Method to resolve the incident, such as Service Desk
assisted.
Cause
Cause of the incident.
10 If you complete additional fields on the Incident form, remember to click
Save to save your changes.
11 If appropriate, publish the resolution into the solution database, as described
in “Creating known errors and solutions” on page 149.
Creating a problem investigation from an incident
If you are not able to resolve the incident, you should escalate it to the
problem management process. For example, root cause analysis might be
required to identify the underlying problem. If you have access to Problem
Management, you can create a problem investigation from an incident.
If the incident is still open when the related problem investigation is
completed, the assignee is notified. If the problem investigation results in a
known error, the incident assignee is notified when a work-around or
permanent solution is found.
" To create a problem investigation from an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
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3 In the Process Flow Status area, in the Resolution and Recovery box, choose
Generate Problem.
Figure 4-34: Selecting Generate Problem
A Problem Investigation form appears. The Description, Impact and
Urgency, Product and Service Categorization, and Resolution fields from the
incident are copied to the problem investigation. A relationship is created
between the problem investigation and the incident.
Figure 4-35: Problem investigation generated from incident
4 Complete the Problem Investigation form.
For information about recording problem investigations, see the BMC
Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 User’s Guide.
5 Click Save.
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Creating infrastructure change from an incident
If infrastructure change is required to permanently resolve the incident, you
should initiate the change management process. If the Change Management
application is installed and you have permission to use the Change
Management application, you can create an infrastructure change from an
incident.
If the incident is open when the change is completed, the assignee is notified.
" To create infrastructure change from an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 In the Process Flow Status area, in the Resolution and Recovery box, choose
Generate Change.
A Change Request form appears. The Product and Operational
Categorization are copied from the incident to the infrastructure change. A
relationship is created between the change and the incident.
Figure 4-36: Change generated from incident
4 Complete the Change Request form.
For information about recording change requests, see the BMC Remedy
Change Management 7.0 User’s Guide.
5 Click Save.
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Reopening a resolved incident
If the recorded resolution did not resolve the incident, you can reopen the
incident. This moves the incident back to the resolution and recovery stage.
Note: If the incident is closed, it can be reopened only by a support group
lead or support group manager for the group that owns the incident, or by
someone with Incident Master permission.
" To reopen a resolved incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 In the Process Flow Status area in the Closure box, choose Reopen.
The incident moves back to the resolution and recovery stage, and the status
changes from Resolved to In Progress.
Closing an incident
The main purpose of this activity is to make sure that the incident has
successfully restored the service to the customer and that the customer is
satisfied with the outcome. When the customer agrees that the incident can
be closed, review the incident record for completion and, if appropriate,
create a solution database entry.
If you leave an incident as resolved, after 15 days the Incident Management
application closes the incident.
Note: After you close an incident, it can be reopened only by a support group
lead or support group manager for the group that owns the incident, or by
someone with Incident Master permission. You can continue to add Work
Info entries, but you cannot modify the incident.
" To close an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
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2 Open an incident.
3 Review the Incident form to make sure that it is complete and accurate.
Figure 4-37: Incident being reviewed for closure
Optional fields include:
!
Status Reason—If appropriate, select Infrastructure Change Created.
!
Closure Source—This list is located on the Resolution tab. Select Support
Agent. If the customer closes an incident from the Request console, this
field is set to Customer. The system might be configured to close an
incident a number of days after the incident is resolved; when this
happens, the Closure Source value is System.
!
Satisfaction Rating—Select the customer’s reported satisfaction with the
handling of the incident.
4 In the Process Flow Status area, in the Incident Closure box, choose Close.
The status to now set to Closed. If the incident was broadcast, the broadcast
is removed.
5 Click Save.
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Creating known errors and solutions
If the incident resolution is a known error or a good candidate for the
solution database, you can propose an entry.
Creating a known error from an incident
If you have access to Problem Management, you can create a known error
from an incident.
" To create a known error from an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 In the navigation pane, choose Create Other Requests > Create Known error.
The Known Error form appears. The relevant details from the incident are
copied to the known error.
Figure 4-38: Known error created from incident
4 Complete the Known Error form, as described in the BMC Remedy Service
Desk: Problem Management 7.0 User’s Guide.
5 Click Save.
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Creating a solution database entry from an incident
If you have access to Problem Management, you can publish the resolution
from an incident into the solution database.
" To create a solution entry from an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Support Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Click the Resolution tab.
Figure 4-39: Incident form open to the Resolution tab
4 Click Create and Edit Solution.
The Solution form appears. The resolution details are already copied into the
form.
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Figure 4-40: Solution created from incident
5 Edit the form as required.
6 Click Save.
Tip: To avoid editing the Solution Database form, click Quick Create
Solution. This copies the resolution details into the form, submits the
solution entry as Inactive, sets the view access to Internal, and assigns the
solution entry to the appropriate support group.
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Chapter
5
Working with Incident
Management as a manager
This section describes functions that are available to managers. An individual
is defined as an incident manager by giving the user the functional role of
incident manager or Support Group Manager for the support groups to
which he or she belongs. For details, see the BMC Remedy IT Service
Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
The following topics are provided:
!
!
!
!
!
!
Understanding the Manager Console tab (page 154)
Managing assignments (page 155)
Reopening a closed incident (page 159)
Understanding SLM calculations (page 160)
Understanding notifications (page 160)
Viewing the audit log (page 162)
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Understanding the Manager Console tab
With Incident Management version 7.0, managers now have a separate
console. This console includes:
!
Navigation pane—Provides display filters, links to functionality, and links
to other applications.
!
Search Criteria area—Used to search for assigned work.
!
Broadcast area—Displays broadcasts and provides broadcast
functionality. For details, see “Broadcasting messages” on page 55.
!
Assigned Work area—Displays a summary of assigned incidents.
!
Flashboards area—Provides a high-level graphical overview.
Figure 5-1: Incident Management console—Manager Console tab
Navigation pane
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Both the navigation pane and Search Criteria area provide options to filter
the assigned work on the console, as summarized in the following table.
Table 5-1: Options to filter display of assigned work
Option
Explanation
Company
If you support multiple companies, leave this blank to display
work for all companies, or select the appropriate company.
Console View
You can look at the personal view for work assigned to you, or
you can change to view work assigned to your support groups.
You can also view work that has been assigned to your support
group, but is still unassigned to an individual.
SLM Status
To view incidents regardless of SLM status, leave this blank.
Otherwise, select the appropriate SLM status. The SLM Status
filter is available only if SLM is installed.
Dates
You can view open assigned incidents that were opened any
time. You can also restrict the display to incidents opened
within the selected time, such as within the last 24 hours.
Role
Incident managers can select either the Incident Manager or
Assignee role.
Managing assignments
An incident can be assigned to an individual or a group.
Viewing unassigned incidents
An incident can be assigned to your support group without being assigned to
an individual. View the unassigned incidents, then assign them as described
in “Assigning an incident” on page 156.
" To view unassigned incidents
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Manager Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 From the navigation pane, perform one of the following steps:
!
Choose Console View > Select My Groups > Show Unassigned.
!
Choose Console View > All My Groups > Show Unassigned.
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3 If you are viewing unassigned incidents, from the Selected Groups list, you
must confirm the selected groups, as follows.
The My Group Selection dialog box appears.
Figure 5-2: My Group Selection dialog box
a In the View Group column, for each group, select Yes to indicate display
incidents assigned to that group.
b Click Update.
The Assigned Work area shows unassigned incidents for the selected support
groups.
Assigning an incident
You can assign the incident to anyone within your support group. To
reassign the incident to another support group or to an assignee in another
support group, see “Reassigning an incident” on page 124.
" To assign an incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Manager Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 Click the Assignment tab.
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Figure 5-3: Completed Assignment tab
4 Select the appropriate assignee or support group.
5 Click Save.
Monitoring an incident's status
You can monitor an incident’s status through process flow, the Status field,
and the assignment log. Process flow indicates the current stage and state of
an incident. The Status field provides additional information. The
assignment log indicates the history of assigned work that has been
performed on the incident.
Process flow
Process flow provides a quick visual indicator of the current stage and state
of an incident. When you open an incident, the Process Flow Status area
appears toward the top of the form.
Figure 5-4: Process Flow status area
For additional information, see “Process flow and the life cycle of an incident
request” on page 24.
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Status field
The Status field changes during the life cycle of the incident.
Table 5-2: Significance of the status field
Assignment
log
Status
Description
New
The incident is unassigned. You can see this status only while
completing a new incident. After you save the incident, the status
changes to Assigned.
Assigned
The incident has been assigned to a support group or individual
but has not yet been acknowledged.
In Progress
The assignment has been accepted and the assignee is working
toward resolution.
Pending
Work on the incident has been temporarily suspended.
Resolved
A resolution or work-around to restore the service has been
determined and is awaiting customer validation.
Closed
A resolution or work-around has restored the service and the
customer has validated the resolution.
Canceled
Restoration of service is no longer required.
The assignment log displays a list of all the groups and individuals that were
assigned to work on the incident during its life cycle. One unique entry is
generated for each individual and group assigned to work on the incident,
but they are not arranged chronologically. To access the assignment log, click
the Assignment tab, then click Update Assignment Log.
Figure 5-5: Incident Assignment Log dialog box
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There are three types of assignment logs:
!
Initiated—This assignment log is generated by the application when the
incident is submitted. It indicates who generated the incident and how
long it took for the incident to be submitted to the application.
!
Assigned—This assignment log is generated by the application when the
incident is reassigned or resolved.
!
Assisted—This assignment log is manually generated when a user follows
the procedure described in “Recording time worked on an incident” on
page 122. It tracks the amount of time spent by an individual who assisted
with the incident, but who was not officially assigned to the incident.
The fields for Group Transfers, Individual Transfers, and Total Transfers
track the reassignments of the incident.
Reopening a closed incident
If you are a support group lead or support group manager, you can reopen
closed incidents that your support group owns. If you have Incident Master
permission, you can also reopen incidents owned by other support groups.
If an incident is resolved, but not yet closed, anyone with access to the
incident can reopen it, as described in “Reopening a resolved incident” on
page 147.
" To reopen a closed incident
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Manager Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 In the navigation pane, choose Functions > Reopen Incident.
This creates a new incident, copying information from the closed incident to
the new incident, and defining a relationship between the two incidents.
4 Make any required changes to the new incident.
5 Click Save.
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Understanding SLM calculations
From the Incident form, you can view incident service targets defined in
SLM, as described in “Viewing an incident” on page 133. Service targets can
be defined in SLM for response time, and resolution time. Service targets for
an incident can be determined by related CIs, product and service
categorization, and many other criteria.
The service target response time applies when an incident is recorded from
an email, fax, voicemail, or web self-serve request. In this case the Responded
Date is blank until someone indicates that the incident has been responded
to (in the Responded field next to the SLM status indicators). When support
staff record an incident, the Responded Date is set to the date that the
incident is recorded.
In general, the service target resolution time is calculated from when the
incident is recorded until it is resolved. The following scenarios can affect the
calculated resolution time:
!
When an incident is in a pending state, it might not be included in SLM
calculations, depending on the Status Reason.
!
When a resolved incident is reopened, the SLM calculations account for
time spent in the resolved state.
Understanding notifications
The purpose of the notification policy is to inform key IT support staff and
customers about incidents that have caused a service disruption.
Notifications from the application are automated and driven by events of the
application. There might be some circumstances when you must manually
send a notification.
Automated notifications are sent to individuals or groups, such as when an
incident is created, assigned, or resolved. If you are using SLM, escalating
notifications can be sent, as described in “Notifications defined in SLM” on
page 161.
Individual and system-wide preferences indicate whether to send
notifications by alert, email, or pager. The administrator can configure the
notification method, as to whether business hours and holidays are
respected, and whether to send individual or group notifications. For details
on configuration, see the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0
Configuration Guide.
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The following scenarios are examples of notifications sent from Incident
Management:
!
Customers are notified by email when the incident is resolved. The email
includes the resolution.
!
The incident owner is notified when an incident is resolved, if the assignee
group is different from the owner group.
!
The Problem assignment group or assignee is notified when a solution
entry is created from an incident.
Assignees of incidents related to problem investigations, known errors, and
change requests can receive notification from Problem Management or
Change Management. See the BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem
Management 7.0 User’s Guide and BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0
User’s Guide for details.
Notifications
defined in SLM
Notifications can also be sent out based on milestone actions that are defined
as part of service targets in the SLM application. Service target escalations
occur when the incident’s responded date is in danger of breaching the
service terms. For example, this happens when:
!
The target response time has elapsed and the incident is still assigned.
!
The target resolution time has elapsed and the incident is still open (not
resolved, closed, or canceled).
You can view the Responded Date on the Date/System tab. For details on
service target calculations, see “Understanding SLM calculations” on
page 160.
You can configure SLM to send notifications to incident assignees, assignee
group managers, incident owners, or owner group managers by using
templates included with the Incident Management integration with SLM.
For details on configuring service targets and notifications in SLM, see the
BMC Service Level Management 7.0 User’s Guide.
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Viewing the audit log
You can view field changes and notifications for the incident. The application
generates an audit entry when notifications are sent, and also when the
record is modified; it creates an audit entry for each field and relationship
that is modified. The Login ID of the individual making the change appears
next to the audit entry.
" To view the audit log
1 On the Incident Management console, click the Manager Console tab if it is
not selected.
2 Open an incident.
3 In the navigation pane, choose Functions > View Audit Log.
The Incident Audit Log dialog box appears. Changes to fields appear on the
Form Audits tab.
Figure 5-6: Incident Audit Log dialog box
4 To filter the list, select the appropriate audit type.
The Audit Type list provides selections for fields, such as Status, and groups
of related fields, such as Key Dates. The filter displays audit records for
changes to the selected field or fields.
5 To see notifications, click the Notification Audits tab.
All notifications that are sent from an incident are audited. The notifications
appear on the Notification Audits tab.
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Chapter
6
Managing configuration items
A configuration item (CI) is any component of an infrastructure, for example,
hardware or software components, a service, an inventory location, a
network (LAN or WAN), and so on.
You can use the information in CIs to diagnose user problems or to
determine if a change to a CI or the IT infrastructure must be made. For
example, if a user calls in with a printing problem, a staff member can check
to see if the printer (CI) is down or in repair.
To record information against CIs, such as CI unavailability or relating an
incident to a CI, the CI must be recorded in the CMDB. If you do not have
BMC Remedy Asset Management, then Incident Management provides
limited ability to manage CIs and inventory.
Note: This functionality is available whether or not BMC Remedy Asset
Management is installed. If you have BMC Remedy Asset Management,
you have access to additional functionality, as described in BMC Remedy
Asset Management 7.0 User’s Guide.
The following topics are provided:
!
!
Creating a CI (page 164)
Managing inventory (page 170)
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Creating a CI
To create a CI, you must have Asset Admin permission. If you have Asset
User permission and you need to modify a CI, your administrator must open
the appropriate CI, and then relate your support group to the CI.
The fields on the CI form vary with the CI type. This section provides
examples of creating three types of CIs:
!
“Creating a computer system CI” on page 164
!
“Creating a bulk inventory CI” on page 167
!
“Creating an inventory location CI” on page 169
Creating a computer system CI
The following procedure is an example of creating a computer system CI. For
creating other types of CIs, the general procedure is similar, with the
exception of specific fields on the CI form.
" To create a computer system CI
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Manage CIs.
The Select a CI Type dialog box appears.
Figure 6-1: Select a CI Type dialog box
2 From the CI Type list, select System > Computer System.
3 Click Create.
The Computer System form appears.
164 "Chapter 6—Managing configuration items
User’s Guide
Figure 6-2: Completed Computer System form
4 In the CI Name field, type a name for the CI.
When creating a CI name, you should follow a consistent naming
convention. According to ITIL guidelines, identifiers should be short but
meaningful, and for hardware, not based on supplier device names. For
example, the name could include an indicator of the CI’s function (such as
“Workstation” or “Monitor”) followed by a numeric code, such as
MONITOR100.
5 In the CI ID field, type a unique alphanumeric value for the CI.
6 Specify whether the CI is supported by selecting Yes or No from the
Supported list.
7 Select the company to which this CI belongs.
8 From the Primary Capability and Capability lists, select the roles this CI
performs in your company’s topology.
9 Select a status from the Status list.
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The default value is Ordered. You can select one of the following options.
Status
Description
Received
The CI was received in shipping.
Being Assembled The CI is being assembled.
Deployed
The CI was installed.
In Repair
The CI is down for maintenance.
Down
The CI is down, but not yet in maintenance.
End of Life
The CI is no longer being deployed.
Transferred
The CI was transferred to another location.
Delete
The CI is marked for deletion. You must be a member of the
APP-Management or APP-Administrator group to mark a CI
for deletion.
In Inventory
The CI is in inventory but not yet deployed. When you select this
status, you are prompted to select the inventory location.
On Loan
The CI is on loan to another location.
Disposed
The CI is no longer available and was disposed of.
Reserved
The CI was reserved and taken out of inventory.
Return to
Vendor
The CI must be returned to the vendor as damaged or
unwanted.
10 Select what impact or urgency this CI will have if it goes down.
11 In the Users Affected field, specify the number of people who use this CI or
will be affected if it goes down.
12 Complete the other fields in this area.
Field name
Description
Tag Number
The CI tag number. This is the number
usually placed on the product by a
member of your IT department to track
the CI.
Serial Number
The CI serial number.
Part Number
The CI part number.
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Field name
Description
System Role
The role this CI plays in your company.
Status Reason
The reason this CI has the status it does.
13 Click the General tab.
14 Categorize your CI using the lists and fields in the Product Categorization
area.
15 Specify the location of the CI using the lists and fields in the Location area.
16 Enter the dates of the CI in the Lifecycle area.
17 Click the Specifications tab.
18 Add additional information about the CI.
19 Click Save.
Creating a bulk inventory CI
Use the following procedure to create bulk inventory CIs.
" To create a bulk inventory CI
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Manage CIs.
The Manage CI Information dialog box appears.
2 From the CI Type list, select Inventory > Bulk Inventory, and click Create.
The Bulk Inventory form appears.
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Figure 6-3: Completed Bulk Inventory form
3 Complete the following required fields.
Field name
Description
CI Name
Enter the name of the bulk inventory
item, for example, Microsoft Windows
XP.
Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3
Categorize the item.
Received Quantity
Enter the number of items received.
4 Click Save.
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Creating an inventory location CI
The following procedure uses the example of creating a location CI. Location
CIs can be used when managing inventory. Use them to indicate where bulk
inventory and other CIs are located.
" To create a location CI
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Manage CIs.
The Manage CI Information dialog box appears.
2 From the Type list, select System > Inventory Location, and click Create.
The Inventory Location form appears.
Figure 6-4: Completed Inventory Location form
3 In the CI Name field, enter the location name.
4 Complete the other, optional fields.
5 Click Save.
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Managing inventory
You can use the Manage Inventory function to track bulk inventory items
and other CIs that are available for deployment.
Before you can track inventory, you must:
!
Create inventory location CIs.
!
Create bulk inventory CIs, or other CIs to be tracked as inventory.
!
For bulk inventory, specify the received quantity and the inventory
locations.
!
For non-bulk inventory CIs, set the inventory status to In Inventory, and
select a location.
Note: For instructions on creating CIs, see “Creating a CI” on page 164.
After items are in inventory, you can use the Manage Inventory function to
view, relocate, and reserve and use CIs and bulk inventory items.
Viewing inventory locations
You can view the location of inventory from the Manage Inventory dialog
box.
" To view inventory locations
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Manage Inventory.
The Manage Inventory dialog box appears.
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Figure 6-5: Search results in the Manage Inventory dialog box
2 Enter your search criteria, and click Search.
Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
3 Select a CI or bulk inventory item from the table, and click View Location.
The Inventory Location form appears.
Figure 6-6: Inventory Location form
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4 View the CIs in the inventory.
5 Click Close.
Relocating CIs
You can relocate CIs or bulk inventory items from one location to another.
" To relocate assets
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Manage Inventory.
The Manage Inventory dialog box appears.
2 Search for inventory in the current location.
3 Select the CI or bulk inventory item you want to relocate, and click Relocate
CIs.
The Search Inventory Locations dialog box appears.
Figure 6-7: Search Inventory Locations dialog box displaying results
4 For the location where you want to relocate the CI, specify search criteria,
and click Search.
Results matching your search criteria appear in the table.
5 Select the location where you want to relocate your CI.
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6 In the Quantity field, enter the number of CIs you want to relocate.
7 Click Relocate.
Reserving and using inventory
You can reserve and use the CIs and bulk inventory items that are in
inventory.
" To reserve and use inventory
1 From the navigation pane in the Incident Management console, choose
General Functions > Manage Inventory.
The Manage Inventory dialog box appears.
2 Select the CI or bulk inventory item you want to reserve and use.
3 Click in the Transaction Qty column and enter the number of assets or bulk
inventory items you want to use.
Figure 6-8: Manage Inventory dialog box with transaction quantity
Enter the number of
assets you want to
use, and click
Reserve/Use
Inventory.
4 Click Reserve/Use Inventory.
The number of CIs or bulk inventory items in the Qty in Stock column is
reduced by the number reserved and used.
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174 "Chapter 6—Managing configuration items
Glossary
This glossary contains terms for all of the
ITSM applications.
For a list of AR System terms, see the glossary
in BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Concepts guide.
For a list of CMDB terms, see the glossary in
BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Concepts and Best
Practices Guide.
accelerated depreciation
Any method of depreciation that allows
greater deductions in the earlier years of a
CI’s life cycle. See also depreciation and
configuration item (CI).
access permission
See permission group.
action
A mechanism, such as an alert or a Set Fields
action, for making sure that SLM
commitments are met. You can define one
or more actions that will be associated with
a milestone.
Administration console
See Application Administration console.
agreement
A documented understanding between two
parties. An agreement can be one of three
types: service level agreement, operational
level agreement, or underpinning contract.
See also service level agreement (SLA),
operational level agreement (OLA), and
underpinning contract (UC).
agreement owners
A feature that allows you to select which
individuals or groups of people to notify at
certain times, for example, when an SLA is
at risk or when an SLA is going to expire.
application administrator
An individual responsible for the
management of the ITSM applications,
including setting up forms, setting access
rights for users, and creating
configurations.
administrator
See application administrator.
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Application Administration console
The main interface for configuring ITSM
applications. The console works like a
control panel from which administrators
can perform common configuration
activities and activities specific to different
ITSM applications and subsystems.
approval
A process that generates electronic
signature lines for items that require
approval, and tracks who has approved or
rejected a given request.
asset manager
The manager responsible for both strategy
and day-to-day CI management functions,
for example, updating CIs and
configurations, running reports, or
negotiating contracts.
assignee
The person assigned the responsibility of
working on any of the following activities:
change request, incident ticket, problem
investigation, known error, solution
database entry, and so on.
assignment
Automatically or manually assigning a
group or individual the responsibility of
resolving an issue or request. ITSM
applications use the Assignment form for
group automatic assignment and the
Assignment Engine for individual
automatic assignment.
audit schedule
A schedule used to perform periodic audits
that check for differences between the
information in the CI database and the CIs
that are deployed in the company.
176 "Glossary
availability service target
A service target that measures the time that
an asset or service is available or
unavailable. This service target applies
specifically to data that is tracked in an
application based on AR System, such as
Asset Management.
BMC Atrium Configuration Management
Database (BMC Atrium CMDB)
An infrastructure built on AR System and
used to build data models and define
datasets.
book value
The value of a CI equal to the purchase cost
minus the accumulated depreciation.
broadcast message
An application feature that enables users to
create messages that can be viewed by the
entire organization or by users in specific
groups.
BSM
See business service management (BSM).
bulk inventory
Assets that you order in quantity, such as
power cables.
bulk items
Items that are not tracked by an individual
record for each unit. Bulk items in
inventory are tracked by quantities of an
item type. For example, items such as cables
do not require individual records but
rather, one record for a bulk quantity of the
specific cable type.
Bulk Performance Manager Node
A feature that allows the administrator to
add multiple nodes to a service target at one
time. This feature is specific to collection
nodes for BMC Performance Manager. See
also collection node.
User’s Guide
business service management (BSM)
A flexible, comprehensive management
approach that links IT resources and
business objectives. BSM makes sure that
everything IT does is prioritized according
to business impact, and enables IT
organizations to proactively address
business requirements.
change manager
A person responsible for filtering,
accepting, and classifying all change
requests. The change manager is also
responsible for planning and coordinating
the implementation of the changes.
Sometimes known as a change supervisor.
change request
The controlled process for the addition,
modification, or removal of approved,
supported, or baselined hardware,
networks, software, applications,
environments, or systems. A change request
can involve multiple change activities.
CAB
See change advisory board (CAB)
CCM
See Change and Configuration Management.
change advisory board (CAB)
A group that advises change management
on the implementation of significant
changes to the IT infrastructure. This group
is often made up of representatives from
various IT areas and business units.
Change and Configuration Management
An application feature that proactively
manages both IT and business-driven
changes, and protects the IT environment.
It does this by using planning and
decision-making data contained in a
dedicated BMC Atrium CMDB.
change authority
The name of a group with the authority to
approve changes. This group can also be
called the Change Advisory Board. See also
change advisory board (CAB).
charge-back
The process of charging departments or
cost centers for the IT infrastructure
required to support their business
processes.
charge-back invoice
A detailed list of charges to cost centers,
including any charge-back percentage.
charge-back percentage
A percentage used to calculate charge-back
costs.
charge-back report
A report used by a cost manager to track
information and find entries that might
need to be adjusted.
charge-back summary
The total charges made to cost centers,
including charge-back percentage. For split
cost centers, it also provides information
about how charges are allocated for source
cost centers and target cost centers.
change management
As a concept, the process of planning,
scheduling, implementing, and tracking
changes to the IT infrastructure, or any
other aspect of service, in a controlled
manner. By using change management, you
can implement approved changes with
minimal disruption to the business
environment.
CI
See configuration item (CI).
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CI browser
A component of ITSM. The CI browser lets
you search for and view CIs and their
relationships.
CI unavailability
The downtime of a CI.
CI unavailability record
The time when a CI is either partially or
completely unavailable to perform its
required function. CI unavailability records
can be broadcast or related to other records.
class
Metadata in the BMC Atrium CMDB that
defines a type of object, usually a
configuration item (CI) or relationship.
client tier
The architecture level where AR System
clients operate within the multitier system.
CMDB
See BMC Atrium Configuration
Management Database (BMC Atrium
CMDB).
Reconciliation Engine
A component of the BMC Atrium CMDB.
The Reconciliation Engine merges data
from different discovery services based on
identification and precedence rules.
collection node
The data source for the information that is
forwarded to the collection points. Some
examples of data sources are BMC
Performance Manager Classic, BMC
Performance Manager Express, BMC
Application Response Time, and SNMP
data sources.
178 "Glossary
collection point
The component in the SLM application that
is responsible for collecting the data. You
can add multiple collection points with
different port numbers.
collector
The component in the SLM application that
manages the collection points and retrieves
data.
Company field
A field in ITSM that controls
multi-tenancy. It shows only data for the
companies for which you have permission.
See also multi-tenancy.
compliance at risk target
A target (such as 99.5 percent) that
identifies when the agreement's compliance
reaches a point that is nearing a breach state
and should be identified as a potential risk.
See also compliance-only service target and
compliance service target.
compliance-only service target
A service target that enables you to access
data already processed by another product
for use in compliance calculations. Using
the compliance-only service target, SLM
calculates compliance results at the
agreement level only, by accessing service
target results that were already processed by
another application. See also compliance at
risk target and compliance service target.
compliance service target
A target (such as 99 percent) that tracks the
performance of the agreement to see the
percentage of time the agreement was met
over specific time periods. See also
compliance at risk target and
compliance-only service target.
User’s Guide
configuration
Sets of CIs that are required by different
groups of people in the company.
configuration catalog
A feature of Asset Management that stores
your standard configurations (such as a
standard desktop, laptop, server, and so on)
for management purposes.
configuration item (CI)
An infrastructure component or an item
associated with the infrastructure that is (or
will be) under the control of configuration
management, for example, a Request for
Change. A CI can be complex or simple,
large or small. CIs can include entire
systems or be a single module or minor
component. CIs can also include records of
people (users and customers) and locations.
configuration management
The process of maintaining detailed IT
inventory records. It involves identifying
and defining the CIs in a system, recording
and reporting the status of all CIs and
requests for change, and verifying the
completeness and correctness of all CIs. See
also configuration item (CI).
Configuration Management Database
See BMC Atrium Configuration
Management Database (BMC Atrium
CMDB).
contract
A documented relationship between two
parties that identifies details about each
party, accounting and budget codes,
purchase cost, and expiration dates, and ties
one or more SLAs, OLAs, or underpinning
contracts to the interested parties. The
contract also makes it possible to segment
and restrict access to the compliance and
service target results so that results can be
viewed by contract.
cost center
An entity tracking cost information within
an organization. See also split cost center.
cost management
All of the policies, procedures, and
deliverables required to fulfil an
organization’s costing and charging
requirements.
currency code
The three-letter code that represents a
currency type, such as USD for United States
Dollars.
dashboard
Web-based, graphical user interface using
flashboards where compliance and service
target results can be viewed by service level
managers, service delivery managers, other
IT professionals, and customers or line of
business owners. See also service level
agreement (SLA), service target, and
flashboard.
data consumer
An application that works with data in
ITSM. It might view the data or modify it.
See also data provider.
Glossary ! 179
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
data provider
An application that loads data into ITSM.
This is often a discovery application. See
also data consumer.
dataset
A logical group of data in ITSM. A dataset
can represent data from a particular source,
a snapshot from a particular date, and so
on. The dataset used by BMC products for
reconciled production data is named BMC
Asset.
decision tree
A step-by-step guide set up by an
administrator. It guides the user through a
questionnaire and, based on the user’s
answers, completes part of the form for a
new incident.
declining balance depreciation
A method of calculating depreciation in
which CIs depreciate at a constant rate per
year, accelerated by a factor of 150 percent.
In this method of accelerated depreciation,
150 percent of the straight-line depreciation
amount is taken the first year, and then that
same percentage is applied to the
undepreciated amount in subsequent years.
See also double-declining balance
depreciation.
definitive software library (DSL)
A central repository of approved product
dictionary entries (PDEs). See also product
dictionary entry (PDE).
dependent change request
A change request that must be completed in
sequence, as defined by the change
manager.
depreciation
The loss of an asset’s value resulting from
the passage of time.
180 "Glossary
double-declining balance depreciation
A method of calculating depreciation in
which CIs depreciate at a constant rate per
year, accelerated by a factor of 200 percent.
In this method of accelerated depreciation,
double the straight-line depreciation
amount is taken the first year, and then that
same percentage is applied to the
undepreciated amount in subsequent years.
See also declining balance depreciation.
down CI
A CI out of service for repairs or not
working.
DSL
See definitive software library (DSL).
escalation
A workflow component that searches at
specified times or at regular intervals for
requests matching a specified condition,
and performs specified operations on all
matching requests. Escalations are generally
used to find records that have exceeded
desired business rules or processes, and take
appropriate action. They run on the
AR System server.
federated data
Data linked from a CI in ITSM but stored
externally. Federated data might represent
more attributes of the CI or related
information, such as change requests on the
CI.
flashboard
A real-time visual monitoring tool that
shows you the state of your service
operations, warns you about potential
problems, and collects and shows trend
data.
User’s Guide
form
A collection of fields that represents a
record of information in the AR System.
AR System administrators can define and
change the fields and workflow associated
with a form. An AR System application can
include many forms.
functional role
A defined role used for notifications and to
extend access granted by permission
groups.
global
A setting that applies changes or defines
certain parameters for all companies in a
multi-tenancy environment. See also
multi-tenancy.
goal
Measurement method that allows you to
track the time taken to resolve an issue or
track how often an asset or service was
available. Goals are used to determine
whether service targets are met.
guest user
Users who have not been configured with
login information in the People form. Guest
users cannot create change requests.
impacted area
Companies, locations, or organizations
affected by changes or updates to CIs.
incident
Any event that is not part of the standard
operation of a service and that causes an
interruption to or reduction in the quality
of that service. See also incident
management and problem investigation.
incident management
As a concept, a reactive process typically
initiated in response to a customer’s call.
The primary goal of the incident
management process is to restore normal
service operation as quickly as possible and
with minimum disruption to the business.
incident manager
A person who monitors incident tickets and
activities to help plan resources and to
identify incident trends. The incident
manager also handles assignments.
incident matching
A search process in Incident Management
that can be used to search for other
incidents, problem investigations, known
errors, and solution database entries that
share some of the same characteristics as the
current incident, such as product
categorization.
incident owner
The user who records the incident. This
user might differ from the current incident
assignee. See also assignee.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library
(ITIL)
A set of guidelines for the management and
provision of operational IT services.
instance
A record in ITSM. An instance is an object
of a particular class. Both CIs and
relationships are considered instances.
inventory
The quantity of CIs available.
ISO currency code
See currency code.
ITIL
See Information Technology Infrastructure
Library (ITIL).
Glossary ! 181
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
key performance indicator (KPI)
A data point used to measure whether
performance-monitoring service targets
meet their goals. See also service level
agreement (SLA).
known error
A problem that has been successfully
diagnosed and for which a temporary
work-around or permanent solution to the
known error has been identified. See also
problem and work-around.
KPI
See key performance indicator (KPI).
life cycle asset management
Managing the life of a CI through its
purchase, deployment, and disposal.
maintenance schedule
A schedule used to perform maintenance
on CIs.
measurement
The metric by which supervisors measure
the ability of the support staff to meet their
agreements.
milestone
A point in time that triggers a set of actions
as you progress toward an agreement
compliance target or service target goal. The
triggered actions are to make sure your
goals are being met.
multi-tenancy
A feature in ITSM that uses the Company
field to limit access by individuals. The
Company field can be used to represent a
company, department, or other group. The
Company field also can be used to control
access in a hosted environment. By default,
ITSM applications operate in multi-tenancy
mode. See also single-tenancy.
182 "Glossary
navigation pane
An area on the left side of consoles that
provides links to functionality and links to
other programs.
New Request Wizard
A simple form for requesters to submit
service requests. Requesters use the New
Request Wizard interface to submit service
requests to IT, which is the only way to
submit a service request from the Requester
console.
non-bulk CIs
Stand-alone configuration items, for
example, a single server or laptop.
notification
A message sent to a user by workflow.
Notification can be in the form of an alert,
email message, or other method using
integrations.
OLA
See operational level agreement (OLA).
operational catalog
A feature in which operational categories
for service requests are defined.
operational categorization
A three-tier hierarchical representation of
operations as defined in the Operational
Catalog configuration form. This
categorization is included in records to
specify the range of operations to which a
record applies.
operational level agreement (OLA)
An internal agreement used to define and
track the level of service provided for an IT
organization. An example is an agreement
between the network management team
and the service desk.
User’s Guide
operator
One of a number of functions that enable
you to define advanced searches or build
qualifications.
Overview console
A central console for ITSM applications.
The console works like a control panel from
which users can access all assigned work and
perform their primary activities.
parent/child contract
A parent, or main, contract that has other
children, or subcontracts, associated with it.
PDE
See product dictionary entry (PDE).
peer change request
A dependent change request that can be
completed at the same time as another
change request.
peer-to-peer
Devices that are on the same level in an
organization’s network (for example, two
workstations). See also notification.
performance-level service target
A service target that compares a service level
to the goals defined in the service target to
determine whether the goal is met. Allows
you to monitor whether a critical
application that you are using has
responded within the time period specified
in the goals. See also goal.
performance-monitoring service target
A service target that compares a goal to a
defined threshold to determine if the goal is
met. For example, it allows you to monitor
whether a critical application that you are
using responds within 4 seconds or if the
application meets other criteria such as
being in a state of “OK.”
permission group
A feature of the ITSM applications that
controls what areas of the application a
users can access. Each permission group can
access only certain areas of the application.
A user can belong to more than one
permission group.
problem
The root cause of an incident or potential
incident. After a resolution or work-around
is identified, the problem becomes a
solution database entry or known error. See
also incident, known error, solution database,
and work-around.
problem investigation
A process that helps an IT organization
diagnose the root cause of incidents and
potential incidents. It initiates actions that
help to improve or correct the situation,
preventing the incident from recurring.
problem management
As a concept, a process that identifies the
cause of problems and initiates actions that
help to improve or correct the situation,
preventing an incident from recurring or
occurring in the first place. The cause
identified by a problem investigation can be
documented in a known error or solution
database record. See also incident, known
error, solution database, and problem.
problem manager
A person who reviews problem
investigations and known errors to
maintain the quality and integrity of the
problem management process. This person
coordinates the assignment of problem
investigations and known errors to support
staff, and also reviews problem
investigation requests and performs
business impact analysis.
Glossary ! 183
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
process flow
Shows the progress of a request as it moves
through the stages of its life cycle. It does
this within a form, such as an incident
request. A diagram shows the stages of the
process, as indicated by best practices,
rooted in ITIL processes. It indicates the
current stage and state of the request. The
process flow diagram also serves as a wizard,
guiding the user through the life cycle.
product categorization
A five-tier hierarchical representation of
products as defined in the Product Catalog
configuration form. This categorization is
included in records to specify the range of
products to which the record applies.
product dictionary entry (PDE)
An entry in the Definitive Software Library
that represents the master name of a
software application. See also definitive
software library (DSL).
push field
An advanced action that allows you to push
information from the “Applies To” form
for which you are creating an SLA to
another form on the same server. See also
service level agreement (SLA).
reconciliation
A feature in Asset Management that checks
for duplicate CI records and enables the
user to delete one and keep the other.
registered user
A user who has an entry in the People form
with an AR System login ID.
relationship
A type of BMC Atrium CMDB class that
defines the relationship between two CIs.
184 "Glossary
reminder
A message similar to an AR System
notification, except that you can define the
content of a reminder and specify when to
send it.
request-based service target
A service target that measures how long a
process takes, such as the time to respond to
or resolve a service desk request, or the time
to respond to or resolve a change request.
requester
A person in the organization who needs
assistance from the IT support staff. A
requester is usually an employee in the
organization who needs to have a change
implemented or an incident resolved.
Requester console
The front end for the Change Management
and Incident Management applications. It
provides an easy, user-friendly interface
that allows users to quickly submit requests
for change or incidents to the two back-end
applications, and to view their submitted
requests.
residual value
The value you can purchase an item for
after its lease expires.
return on investment (ROI)
A method of calculating when the capital
cost of implementing a project, product, or
service will be recovered through the
savings that result from completing the
activity. The ROI can be expressed in terms
of internal savings, increased revenue from
external sources, or some combination of
these types of savings. See also service level
agreement (SLA) and service level
management (SLM).
User’s Guide
review period
A period of time over which the compliance
of an agreement is monitored on a regular
basis. The following review periods are
provided in SLM: Daily, Weekly, Monthly,
and Quarterly. For example, if a Monthly
review period is added to a service level
agreement, then the SLA's compliance
target needs to be met on a monthly basis. If
a Daily review period is also added, then the
SLA's compliance target needs to be met on
both a daily basis and a monthly basis. See
also service level agreement (SLA) and service
level management (SLM).
ROI
See return on investment (ROI).
role
A set of responsibilities, activities, and
authorizations, usually within the context
of a single application or a business system.
Note: Access to Remedy ITSM applications
is based on user roles. Depending on your
role in the organization—requester,
support, management—you work with a
different application (or view) on your
desktop.
root cause
The underlying cause of an IT-related
problem experienced by a customer.
service catalog
A list of IT services, default levels, and
options.
service level agreement (SLA)
An agreement between a service provider
and its customers or lines of business that
formally documents the needs of the
customer and makes sure the correct level
of service is received from the service
provider.
service level management (SLM)
As a concept, the continuous and proactive
process of defining, agreeing, monitoring,
reporting, and reviewing the performance
of IT services to make sure that adequate
levels of service are delivered in alignment
with business needs and at acceptable cost.
service manager
A manager who uses Asset Management to
create service objects used for interpreting
business problems, for example, cost of
unavailability of services to a business area.
service request
A request for service to the IT organization.
Service requests can be requests for change
or requests to resolve incidents that impact
the user.
Service Request console
See Requester console.
row level locking
See multi-tenancy.
salvage value
The estimated value that a CI will realize at
the end of its useful life. See also useful life.
script
Detailed instructions that have been set up
by an administrator to prompt users with
questions that can assist in resolving or
assigning an incident.
Glossary ! 185
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
service target
The individual level of service to achieve. A
service target includes terms and
conditions, goals, costs, and milestones.
Examples of service target goals include
incident resolution time of 30 minutes,
application response time of 4 seconds, and
an application being in a state of “OK.” See
also availability service target,
performance-monitoring service target,
request-based service target, and compliance
service target.
set field
An advanced action that allows you to pull
information from other forms to set in the
form for which you are creating the
agreement.
single-tenancy
A feature that allows selection of a default
company for company fields in ITSM.
Single-tenancy mode is required to give
unknown users access to the ITSM
Requester console. See also multi-tenancy.
SLI
See software library item (SLI).
SLM
See service level management (SLM).
software library item (SLI)
The physical storage locations of the master
copy of a software application and its
versions.
software license compliance
Keeping track of what software your
company has and that it has the legal right
to use it.
solution database
A repository that stores reusable solutions
to customer product problems in an
easy-to-retrieve format.
186 "Glossary
solution entry
A reusable solution to a customer product
problem. This is stored in the solution
database.
split cost center
A cost center that enables a department to
split its costs with other departments. For
example, a project management group
might split its costs with an engineering
department and a sales department. The
project management department would be
a split cost center, and the engineering
department and sales department would be
target cost centers.
straight-line depreciation
A method of calculating depreciation in
which CIs depreciate at a constant value per
year. The annual depreciation is calculated
by subtracting the salvage value of the CI
from the purchase price and then dividing
this number by the estimated useful life of
the CI.
submitter
A person who reports a problem, makes a
request, or enters information into a
database. See also change request.
submitter group
One of several special access control groups
that the AR System provides. Users
automatically belong to this implicit group
for requests they have submitted. See also
assignee.
sum-of-the-year’s digits depreciation
A method of calculating depreciation in
which CIs lose more of their value early in
their lifetime. This method of calculating
depreciation of a CI assumes higher
depreciation charges and greater tax
benefits in the early years of a CI's life.
User’s Guide
task
A unit of work that needs to be completed as
a step in implementing an incident or
problem investigation. In the Change
Management application, you can also
group a number of activities for requests
with a number of actions that need to be
completed before the request can be
resolved. Your administrator creates task
templates and task group templates that you
can reuse for the same types of requests.
Tasks can be manual or automatic.
task management system (TMS)
A sub-system that is used to create task
templates and task group templates. Besides
the ability to set up predecessor-successor
relationships, TMS supports branching and
multiple task paths as well as the data
exchange between activities.
TCO
See total cost of ownership (TCO).
template
1. A set of predefined criteria or settings that
can be used by many agreements or service
targets. See also service level agreement
(SLA).
2. A form set up by an administrator that a
user can select to complete an incident
ticket or a change request with information
consistent with the user’s support group
and the type of incident or change request.
terms and conditions
The conditions that specify whether a
service target should take effect. For
example, the terms and conditions could
specify that the service target applies only to
incidents in which the priority is urgent and
the service is email. Or the service target
applies only to a specific set of KPIs. See also
service target.
time-based service target
A service target that measures the time
taken, for example, to resolve an incident
from the time the incident was reported to
the time it was resolved. Any time that falls
within the “Exclude when” qualification is
ignored and not measured.
TMS
See task management system (TMS).
topology
The pattern of links connecting pairs of
nodes of a network.
total cost of ownership (TCO)
A method of calculating all expenses
associated with a CI over its lifetime. The
calculation considers depreciation,
maintenance, staff costs, accommodation,
and planned renewal.
UC
See underpinning contract (UC).
underpinning contract (UC)
A contract that is used to track performance
against prearranged goals that the IT
organization has with an external service
provider or supplier.
useful life
The number of years that a depreciable CI is
expected to be in use.
wildcard
A character that users can type to represent
other characters in a search. For example, in
search statements in character fields, users
can specify wildcards to match single
characters, strings, or characters within a
range or set.
work info
A record describing work performed.
Glossary ! 187
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
work-around
A temporary resolution to an incident,
problem, or known error.
workflow
The automated set of business processes
used to run a company.
188 "Glossary
Index
A
accelerators for process flows, best practice 24
ad hoc requests 82
adding
customer profiles 117
work information 51
advanced qualifications, using to generate
reports 69
Advanced Search, using to find records 40
answers. See solutions
application preferences, setting 106–108
Asset Management, about 11
Assigned Work area
about 32
defined 104
filtering 105, 121
refreshing 35
assigning
incidents 156
tasks 129
assignment log
about 158
deleting 123
assignments
See also incidents
about 120–132
accepting 122
incidents, reassigning 124
incidents, viewing 121
logged 158
assignments (continued)
managing 155–159
receiving notification of 121
recording time worked 122
vendors 126
working with 121–123
associations. See relationships
Atrium CMDB. See CMDB
audience 13
audit log, viewing 162
auto-filling fields 38
B
Best Practice icon 10
best practices
CI naming conventions 165
retrying events in order 98
using CIs to diagnose user problems 163
using process flow accelerators 24
BMC Atrium CMDB. See CMDB
BMC Remedy User, opening Incident
Management console with 28
Broadcast area, defined 104
broadcasts
creating 55
limiting 59
location in Overview console 36
viewing 58, 102
Index ! 189
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
browsers
entering main console URL 77
using to open Incident Management
console 30
bulk inventory CI 167
Bulk Inventory form 168
bulletin board messages. See broadcasts
Bulletin Board. See broadcasts
C
calculations 160
canceling service requests 87
categorization, defined 20
Change Management
about 11
creating changes from incidents 146
requester role 74
Change Request Information form 146
CIs
bulk inventory example 167
computer system example 164
creating 164–169
inventory location example 169
naming conventions, best practice 165
problem diagnosis and, best practice 163
recording unavailability 116
relocating 172
status 165
closing incidents 147
CMDB, about 10
colors of service targets, explained 134
Command Event Master permission 97
computer system CI 164
Computer System form 165
Configuration Item Unavailability form 117
consoles
changing view of 36
Incident Management
Manager Console tab 154–155
Support Console tab 104–105
Overview 31
Report 66
Requester 76
copying relationships 46
Costs form 140
190 "Index
costs, recording 139–141
Create Incident form 110
creating
broadcasts 55
CIs 164–169
customer profiles 117
incident records 108–112
infrastructure change from incidents 146
known errors from incidents 149
problem investigations from incidents 144
records 34
reminders 53–55
service requests 80
solution entries from incidents 150
tasks 127–129
customer profiles
adding 117
modifying 119
D
decision trees
defined 20
using 114
defining relationships 43
diagnosing incidents 132
documents available for ITSM 13–16
duplicating incidents 114
E
email, sending messages about CIs with 63–65
enhanced problem management, defined 20
errors, known, creating 149
event logs, viewing 97
F
features, new 18–21
Flashboards area, defined 154
forms
Bulk Inventory 168
Change Request Information 146
Computer System 165
Configuration Item Unavailability 117
Costs 140
Incident Creation 110
Inventory Location 169, 171
User’s Guide
forms (continued)
Known Error 149
Modify Incident 138, 141
New/Modify Broadcasts 56
People 118
Problem Investigation 145
Request Work Info 95
Service Request 92, 98
Solution Database 151
Task 128
Work Info 85, 129
G
generating reports
about 65
with advanced qualifications 69
with qualifications 67
with saved qualifications 70
without qualifications 65
Guest User permission 22
H
Help Desk, new features 20
I
icons
Best Practice 10
New 10
impacted areas, indicating 47
Incident Management console
Manager Console tab 154
opening from a browser 30
opening with BMC Remedy User client 28
Support Console tab 104
Incident Management, about 11
incidents
See also assignments
accepting assignments 122
assigning 156
to vendors 126
assignment log 158
closing 147
costs, recording 139–141
incidents (continued)
creating
infrastructure from 146
known errors from 149
problem investigations from 144
solution entries from 150
diagnosing 132
five stages of request 26
investigating 132
life cycle of 24–26
matching 20, 135
monitoring status 157
moving from investigation to resolution 137
ownership, about 125
process flow status 133
reassigning 124
recording 108–120
recording time worked 122
records 108–112
relating as duplicates 114
reopening 147, 159
resolving 135, 141–147
resolving with Solution database 101
status 158
templates 21
unassigned, viewing 155
using decision trees 114
using templates 112
viewing 133–135
assignments 121
changes through audit logs 162
infrastructure changes 146
inventory
bulk inventory CI 167
location CIs 169
managing 170–173
reserving 173
using 173
viewing locations 170
Inventory Location form 169, 171
investigations 132
IT Service Management, about product
family 10–13
Index ! 191
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
K
Known Error form 149
known errors, creating 149
L
life cycle of an incident 24–26
limiting number of broadcast messages 59
location of CIs 169
logs
assignment 158
audit 162
event 97
M
main consoles
URL for browser 77
Manager console, about 154–155
manager role 23
managing inventory 170–173
Modify Incident form 138, 141
modifying
customer profiles 119
incidents 137
profile 37
records 42
relationships 48
service requests 85
multi-tenancy
unknown users 75
multi-tenancy, defined 20
N
navigation pane
about 36–38
defined 20, 104
new features 18–21
New icon 10
New Request Wizard, defined 80
New/Modify Broadcasts form 56
Notes field. See Work Info form
Notes Log field. See Work Info form
192 "Index
notifications
about 160
assignments 121
in SLM 161
viewing through audit logs 162
O
opening
Incident Management console from a
browser 30
Incident Management console from a
desktop 28
other applications 36
Requester console 77
service request records 92
service requests 87, 93
Overview console 31
about 31–38
functions 36
opening from a browser 32
opening from a desktop 32
ownership for incidents 125
P
paging
on-call groups 60–62
one person 60–62
People form 118
permissions
Command Event Master 97
Request Console Master 22
Requester console 74
User, with Requester console 22
printing
records 41
service requests 86
prioritization, defined 21
Problem Investigation form 145
problem investigations, creating 144
Problem Management, about 12
process flow
about 24–26
accelerators, best practice 24
monitoring incident status with 157
status area 133
User’s Guide
Process Flow Status wizard 24, 25
recording new incidents with 109
profile, viewing and modifying 37
Q
qualifications, generating reports with 67
quick actions
about 49
using 38
R
recording
CI unavailability 116
incident with Process Flow Status wizard 109
new incidents 108–120
work performed on tasks 130
records
advanced searching for 40
creating 34
modifying 42
printing 41
relating and unrelating 43
searching for 35, 38
searching for all 41
searching for personal 39
refreshing data 35
Registered User permission 22
registered users 74
relationships
copying 46
defining 43
impacted areas 47
modifying 48
quick actions 49
relating and unrelating records 43
removing 51
relocating CIs 172
Remedy User. See BMC Remedy User
reminders, creating 53–55
removing relationships 51
reopening
closed incidents 147, 159
resolved incidents 147
Report console 66
reports
about 65
generating 65
with advanced qualifications 69
with qualifications 67
with saved qualifications 70
without qualifications 65
Request Console Master permission 22
request masters
adding work information 94
canceling service requests 93
Command Event Master permission 97
defined 74
opening service request records 92
reopening service requests 93
using Service Request forms 91
viewing Work Info tab 94
working with service requests 91
Request Work Info form 95, 96
Requester Console
See also service requests
Requester console
functions 78
opening 77
user permissions
Command Event Master 97
Registered User 74
Request Master 74
Unknown User 74
using 76–79
requester role 21, 74
reserving inventory 173
resolution stage, moving incidents to 137
resolving incidents 135, 141–147
retrying events in order, best practice 98
roles
manager 23
requester 21, 74
support staff 22
S
scripts
about 114
defined 21
Search Criteria area, defined 104
Index ! 193
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
searching for
all records 41
records 35, 38
records associated with people or groups 39
service requests 86
solutions 135–141
Service Level Management. See SLM
Service Request form
about 98
accessing 91
adding work information 95
search mode 92
viewing work information 95
service requests
See also Requester Console
accessing Service Request form 91
ad hoc requests 82
adding work information 94, 95
canceling 87, 93
completing surveys 88
creating 80
finding 86
modifying 85
opening records 92
printing 86
reopening 87, 93
request IDs 86
resolving with Solution database 101
Service Request Wizard 80
sorting 83
states 83
troubleshooting 97
updating work info 85
viewing
event logs 97
records 84
Work Info tab 94
work information 95
service targets, indicator colors explained 134
SLM
about 12
calculations 160
notifications 161
service target indicators 134–135
status and indicators 134
194 "Index
Solution database
creating entries 150
resolving incidents 101
Solution Database form 151
solutions
creating solution database entries 150
searching for 135–141
sorting service requests 83
status values
changes during life cycle of incidents 158
selecting 37
Support console, about 104–105
support staff role, about 22
surveys, service request 88
T
Task form 128
tasks
assigning 129
creating 127–129
recording work 130
working with 127
templates, using 112
terminology changes
Help Desk terms 21
Incident Management terms 19
troubleshooting service requests 97
U
unassigned incidents, viewing 155
unknown users
defined 74
multi-tenancy 75
URL
to Incident Management console 30
to main console 77
users
registered 74
request master 74
roles 21–23
unknown 74
using inventory 173
User’s Guide
V
vendors
assigning incidents to 126
communicating assigned incidents to 127
viewing
broadcasts 58, 102
event logs 97
incidents 133–135
incidents assigned to people 121
inventory locations 170
profile 37
request details 79
service requests 78, 84
unassigned incidents 155
user requests 79
Work Info tab 94
work information 95
W
wizards
Process Flow Status 24, 25, 109
Service Request 80
Work Info form 85, 129
Work Info tab
viewing 94
work information, adding 51
Work Log Assignments. See tasks
Index ! 195
BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0
196 "Index
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