ITIL 4 Service Desk flashcards
ITIL 4 Service Desk · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Service desk practice purpose
- To capture demand for incident resolution and service requests, acting as the single point of contact between the service provider and its users, and keeping users informed.
- Single point of contact
- The service desk is the one entry point through which users raise incidents and requests and receive communications, avoiding fragmented reporting channels.
- Shift left
- Moving resolution capability closer to the user and to first-line staff through self-service, automation, and knowledge, lowering cost per contact and raising first-contact resolution.
- Service value chain engage
- The activity where the service desk captures user demand and understanding of needs, feeding it into incident, request, and problem management practices.
- Incident versus service request
- An incident is an unplanned interruption or degradation of service; a service request is a user's request for something that is a normal, predefined part of service delivery.
- Service desk as practice
- In ITIL 4 the service desk is a practice, meaning a set of organizational resources designed for performing work, not a physical location or a function.
- Service desk manager accountabilities
- Owns the practice: staffing and rota, performance against service level targets, escalation paths, knowledge quality, and continual improvement of the desk.
- First-line analyst duties
- Logs and classifies contacts, authenticates users, performs initial diagnosis, resolves within authority, and escalates with a complete record when out of scope.
- Functional escalation
- Transfer of a ticket to a group with greater technical skill or specialist knowledge, typically from first line to second or third line.
- Hierarchical escalation
- Escalation upward to management for authority, resources, or to address dissatisfaction, used when functional escalation cannot resolve the issue.
- Centralized service desk model
- A single desk serving the whole organization, giving economies of scale and consistent process, but potentially weaker local presence and language coverage.
- Follow-the-sun model
- Service desk coverage handed over between regions across time zones so users get continuous support; it requires standardized handover records and shared tooling.
- Virtual service desk
- A desk whose staff are geographically dispersed but work as one team using shared ticketing, telephony, chat, and knowledge tools.
- Span of control
- The number of staff reporting to one supervisor; for service desk team leaders this is commonly around eight to fifteen analysts depending on complexity.
- Service desk ownership of communication
- Even when second or third line performs the technical fix, the service desk keeps responsibility for updating the user on status and resolution.
- Priority from impact and urgency
- Priority is derived from impact, the extent of business damage, and urgency, how quickly damage grows; caller seniority alone must not set priority.
- Contact handling sequence
- Greet and authenticate, log, classify, prioritize, diagnose, resolve or escalate, confirm with the user, then close the record.
- Major incident handling
- A separate process with a dedicated coordinator, defined communication cadence, and a single point of contact keeping users and business informed.
- Self-service deflection
- Contacts resolved through self-service channels such as portals, knowledge articles, or chatbots without analyst involvement; it must be measured, not assumed.
- Knowledge-centered service
- An approach where knowledge is captured, structured, and reused during ticket handling so solutions are found faster and consistently.
- Omnichannel intake
- Receiving contacts through phone, email, chat, portal, and walk-up while keeping one consistent ticket record and history across all channels.
- CMDB role in prioritization
- Configuration data links affected users and services to the ticket, allowing the desk to judge impact and set priority accurately.
- Service request fulfilment workflow
- A predefined, often automated path for standard requests, sometimes pre-authorized as standard changes, requiring no further approval per instance.
- Event management integration
- Monitoring tools raise events that can automatically create tickets, letting the desk act on degradation before users report it.
- First-contact resolution formula
- Contacts resolved at first contact divided by total contacts, multiplied by 100; a primary indicator of desk effectiveness and user experience.
- Average handling time formula
- Total handling time across contacts divided by the number of contacts; interpret alongside resolution and quality metrics, not as a standalone target.
- SLA compliance formula
- Tickets resolved within the agreed target divided by total tickets in scope, multiplied by 100; report by priority, channel, and service.
- Abandonment rate formula
- Abandoned contacts divided by offered contacts, multiplied by 100; high values suggest understaffing, long queues, or poorly designed self-service.
- Reopen rate formula
- Reopened tickets divided by closed tickets, multiplied by 100; a proxy for resolution quality and premature or incorrect closure.
- Backlog aging analysis
- Tracking open ticket counts by age bucket over time; growing older buckets reveal capacity shortfalls or stuck escalations before SLAs breach.
- Continual improvement model steps
- What is the vision, where are we now, where do we want to be, how do we get there, take action, did we get there, and keep momentum.
- Metric definition rule
- Every metric needs a stated purpose, a formula, a data source, and a target; review trends over time and watch for behavior the metric distorts.