IT Service Management and Professional Practice
This domain tests how work is recorded, prioritised and communicated, and the professional conduct expected when you hold access other people do not.
Core rules
- Incident vs problem - an incident is an unplanned interruption; restore service fast. A problem is the underlying cause; manage it to closure. A known error is a problem with a documented root cause and workaround.
- Change - any addition, modification or removal affecting services goes through assessment, approval and a rollback plan; significant changes go to the change advisory board.
- Priority - derived from impact multiplied by urgency, not from who complains loudest or how senior they are.
- Agreements - an SLA is with the customer, an OLA is internal between teams, an underpinning contract is with a supplier.
- Continual improvement - measure, analyse, act; review major incidents for lessons rather than blame.
- Conduct - confidentiality, accurate and timely records, no unapproved changes, and honest status updates even when the news is bad.
Worked example
Twenty users cannot log in; one user has a cracked laptop screen. Reasoning: the first is a high-impact incident, likely a major incident, so declare it, assemble responders, communicate a holding update and restore service before investigating cause. The second is low-impact and can be handled as a standard request. Only after recovery does problem management examine root cause.
Traps that cost marks
- Raising every incident as a problem ticket, or closing the incident only after root cause is found.
- Logging a change after it was already made.
- Promising a fix time you cannot verify with the resolver team.