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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.

Users Guide

June 2006 Part No: 60845

Copyright 19912006 BMC Software, Inc. All rights reserved. BMC, the BMC logo, all other BMC product or service names, BMC Software, the BMC Software logos, and 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 license agreement or nondisclosure agreement for the product and the proprietary and restricted rights notices included in this documentation. For license information about the OpenSource files used in the licensed program, please read OpenSourceLicenses.pdf. This file is in the \Doc folder of the distribution CD-ROM and in the documentation download portion of the product download page. Restricted Rights Legend
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Contacting Us If you need technical support for this product, contact Customer Support by email at support@remedy.com. If you have comments or suggestions about this documentation, contact Information Development by email at doc_feedback@bmc.com. 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 Whats 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

Users 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

Users 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 Users 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 Users Guide.

10 "Preface

Users 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 relationshipsthroughout 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 Users 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 Users 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 Users 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 Users 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

Users Guide

For more information, see the BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Users 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 SMBU-Upgrade@bmc.com.
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. BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0 Concepts BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0 Installing BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Common Data Model Diagram Concepts for using the Action Request System. Procedures for installing the Action Request System.

Administrators Print and PDF Administrators Print and PDF Administrators Print and PDF

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 BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Common Data Model Help

Document provides Description and details of superclasses, subclasses, attributes, and relationships for each class.

Audience

Format

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 Developers Reference Guide Information about creating API programs, C and Web Services API functions and data structures, and a list of error messages. Help for using and configuring BMC Atrium CMDB. Information about installing and configuring BMC Atrium CMDB, including permissions, class definitions, reconciliation, and federation. Administrators PDF and programmers Users and Product administrators Help Administrators Print and PDF

BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Help BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide

BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Javadoc Information about Java classes, methods, Programmers API Help and variables that integrate with BMC Atrium CMDB. BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Master Index Combined index of all books. Everyone Everyone Users

HTML

Print and PDF Print and PDF Print and PDF

BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Release Information about new features and Notes known issues. BMC Atrium CMDB 2.0 Users Guide 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 Procedures for configuring the BMC Remedy IT Service Management applications. Administrators Print and PDF

14 "Preface

Users Guide

Title BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Installation Guide

Document provides

Audience

Format

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. Help for using BMC Remedy Asset Management. Everyone Product Help Print and PDF

BMC Remedy Asset Management 7.0 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. BMC Remedy Asset Management Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Everyone 7.0 Users Guide Asset Management application; includes new features and overview. BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 Help BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 Release Notes Help for using BMC Remedy Change Management. Everyone

Print and PDF Product Help Print and PDF

Information about known issues in each Everyone release of BMC Remedy Change Management. Also provides a list of new features included with the application. Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Change Management application; includes new features and overview. Everyone

BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 Users Guide BMC Remedy Service Desk 7.0 Release Notes

Print and PDF Print and PDF

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. Help for using BMC Remedy Incident Management. Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management application; includes new features and overview. Everyone Everyone

BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 Help BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 Users Guide

Product Help Print and PDF

BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite documents ! 15

BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0

Title BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 Help BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 Users Guide BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Configuration Guide

Document provides Help for using BMC Remedy Problem Management. Procedures for using the BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management application; includes new features and overview. Procedures for configuring the BMC Service Level Management application.

Audience Everyone Everyone

Format Product Help Print and PDF

Administrators Print and PDF Administrators Product Help Administrators Print and PDF PDF

BMC Service Level Management Help for configuring the BMC Service 7.0 Configuration Help Level Management application. BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Installation Guide BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Release Notes Procedures for installing the BMC Service Level Management application.

Information about known issues in each Everyone release of BMC Service Level Management. Also provides a list of new features included with the application. Everyone

BMC Service Level Management Help for using the BMC Service Level 7.0 User Help Management application. BMC Service Level Management 7.0 Users Guide BMC Remedy 7.0 Task Management Administrators Guide

Product Help Print and PDF

Everyone Procedures for using the BMC Service Level Management application; includes new features and overview. Procedures to configure Task Management.
Note: This guide also includes steps to

Administrators Print and PDF

configure seamless authentication between BMC Remedy Change Management and the other components of BMC Remedy Change and Configuration Management (CCM).

16 "Preface

Chapter

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) Whats 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

Whats new in Incident Management 7.0


The new features in this release of Incident Management include:
!

Improved ITIL conformanceA new process flow tool helps you follow ITIL processes for incident management. Enhanced user interfaceThe 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 consolesSupport staff, managers, and requesters have separate consoles. The Requester console provides customer access. Permission modelPermissions 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 managementYou 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 CMDBThis allows you to manage configuration items (CIs) from Incident Management. Cost trackingThe 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 1Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0

Users Guide
!

ReportingIncident Management now includes the reports described in the following table.
Description This report lists incidents and their assigned support groups for a specified date range. This bar chart displays the number of open incidents for each assignee. This report lists all open incidents and the amount of time since the reported date. This bar chart displays the number of resolved and closed incidents for each assignee. This report lists incidents that were caused by changes.
Note: This report is available only if

Report Group Assignment to Incidents

Open Incident volume by Assignee Incidents by activity times

Resolved and Closed Incident Volume by Assignee Change induced incidents

Change Management is installed.


!

Service Level ManagementIf Service Level Management is installed, the Incident form displays the status of service targets. Enhanced audit logYou can now filter the audit log, for example, to see only date field audit records or assignment changes. Terminology changesYou can find terminology changes in the following table.

Table 1-1: Key terminology changes in Incident Management

Previous term Associate Associations Automatic Routing Delete

New term Relate Relationships Auto Assign RemoveThis change applies only to the Relationship and Financial tabs, to clarify the action being performed. Operational Categorization

Service Categorization

Whats new in Incident Management 7.0 ! 19

BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 Table 1-1: Key terminology changes in Incident Management

Previous term Work Log Work Log Action

New term Work Info Task

Whats new for Help Desk users?

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 managementProblem 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 paneLocated on the left side of consoles and forms, this provides access to common functions, such as assigning an incident to yourself. Multi-tenancyThis 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 users perspective is accessed by selecting the appropriate company from the list next to the Company field. Incident matchingFrom 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. CategorizationThis 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 treeThis 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.

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!

ScriptsThese 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 templatesThese 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. PrioritizationIncident 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 changesYou can find a terminology change in the following table.

Table 1-2: Key terminology change between Help Desk and Incident Management

Help Desk term Bulletin Board

Incident Management term 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.
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The Requester console provides access based on the following permissions:


!

Request Console MasterThis 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 UserThis user has a record in the People form, and the users login information is in the Login/Access Details tab of the People form. Guest UserAll other users are considered to be guest users even if a user has a record in the People form. If a users 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.

! !

! ! !

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Support can also participate in the problem management process, as described in the BMC Remedy Service Desk: Problem Management 7.0 Users Guide. They can also participate in the change management process, as described in the BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 Users 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.

! !

! ! !

! !

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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 1Introducing BMC Remedy Incident Management 7.0

Users 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 Identification and recording 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.

Tasks
! !

Next stage Enter pending (or resume) Select template

Investigation and diagnosis

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 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.

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Chapter

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)

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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 applications main console from the IT Home page, by way of BMC Remedy User.

" To open the applications 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.

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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

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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 browsers 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.

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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

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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:
!

CHGIdentifies change requests. BMC Remedy Change Management must be installed for you to be able to create and view change requests. SDBIdentifies solution database entries. BMC Remedy Problem Management must be installed for you to be able to create and view solution entries. TASIdentifies tasks. Tasks can be attached to incidents, problem investigations, or change requests. INCIdentifies incidents. BMC Remedy Incident Management must be installed for you to be able to create and view incidents.

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!

PBIIdentifies problems. BMC Remedy Problem Management must be installed for you to be able to create and view problems. PKEIdentifies known errors. BMC Remedy Problem Management must be installed for you to be able to create and view known errors. PRIdentifies 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 tables contents by using the Company filter and Console View fields at the top left corner of the console:
!

CompanyShows records associated with a particular company (useful in a multi-tenancy environment). PersonalShows all the records that are assigned to you. Selected GroupsThe 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 AllShows all records for the groups you select. Show UnassignedShows all the records that are unassigned to an individual, but which are assigned to the groups you select.

All My GroupsShows 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 AllShows all records. Show UnassignedShows 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.

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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 applications user guide.

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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.

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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 ValuesLets 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 ProfileLets you set your profile. See Viewing your profile on page 37. Application PreferencesLets 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 ManagementOpens the Incident Management application. Change ManagementOpens the Change Management application. Problem ManagementOpens the Problem Management application.

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! ! ! !

Asset ManagementOpens the Asset Management application. ApprovalAllows you to view all requests pending approval. CMDBOpens the BMC Atrium CMDB Class Manager console. SLMOpens 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 tables 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.

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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.
!

PrintLets you select records and print their contents. See Printing records on page 41. Home PageOpens 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.

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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 groups 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.

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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.

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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 groups 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.

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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 records 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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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 Get Related Relationships

Effect Copies the relationships of the selected record to the current incidents relationships. Prompts you to modify the relationship type, as described in Modifying relationships on page 48.

Modify Relationship Type

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 CI Relationship Viewer

Effect Opens a graphical relationship viewer that shows a selected CIs relationship with other records. If Asset Management is installed, you can create CI unavailability for the selected CI. Copies the impact and urgency of the selected CI. Copies the product categorization from the selected CI to the classification of the current incident. Copies the product categorization from the selected CI to the resolution of the current incident. If Asset Management is installed, prompts you to select impacted areas, as defined in the selected CI, into the current incidents impacted areas.

Create New CI Unavailability Get CI Impact/Urgency Get CI Product Categorization

Get CI Resolution Product Cat.

Get 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 InformationNotes about the record; for example, you might want to add a note that a particular CI was deployed, and include the date. Vendor communicationNotes 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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 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.
! !

InternalIf you want users within your organization to see the entry. PublicIf 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 consoleYou can view all reminders that you created. Incident formYou 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 applications 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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 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 persons 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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 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.


!

CompanySelect 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.

! ! ! !

SubjectA short description of what the broadcast is about. Broadcast MessageThe text of your message. Broadcast TypeSelect a broadcast type from the list. Broadcast Start Date and Broadcast End DateTo 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 FromThis 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 IDThis 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 AccessSelect 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. NotifySelect 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 recipients 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.

PrioritySelect 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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3 Select either:
! !

Page By PersonTo page an individual. Page By On-Call GroupTo 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 recipients 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 ProviderSelect the recipients pager service provider from the list. If you are sending a page to a person, you can find this information by selecting the persons 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 providers website. This link is configured by your administrator, as described in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management 7.0 Configuration Guide.
!

Pager TypeThe application populates this field automatically, using information about the recipient already in the application. Pager NumberThe application auto-populates this field with the pagers 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 EmailIf 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 NumberIf the pagers telephone number is not available automatically from the paging system, type the pagers telephone number here. Alphanumeric Pager Message or Numeric Pager MessageType 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 ContactWhen you open the Email System form, if there is a current contact assigned to the record, the contacts name with contact information appears in the table and is the default recipient. Current AssigneeTo select the current assignee, click Select Current Assignee. The current assignees 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 recipients 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 EmailThis displays the recipients 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 LineBy default, the subject line contains the incident ID number, to which you can append text or over-type. Email Message BodyYou 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 AttachmentYou 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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 Figure 2-17: Report console

2 From the Report Name list, select the report you want to generate. Report Incidents by Activity Time Description This report lists all open incidents and the amount of time since the reported date. This bar chart displays the number of open incidents for each assignee. This bar chart displays the number of resolved and closed incidents for each assignee. This report lists incidents and their assigned support groups for a specified date range. This report lists incidents that were caused by changes.
Note: This report is available only if

Open Incident Volume by Assignee Resolved and Closed Incident Volume by Assignee Group Assignment to Incidents

Change Induced Incidents

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:
! !

ScreenYour report appears in a separate dialog box. PrinterThe report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup dialog box. FileThe 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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 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:
! !

ScreenYour report appears in a separate dialog box. PrinterThe report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup dialog box. FileThe 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:
! !

ScreenYour report appears in a separate dialog box. PrinterThe report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup dialog box. FileThe 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:
! !

ScreenYour report appears in a separate dialog box. PrinterThe report is sent to the printer you specified in the Print Setup dialog box. FileThe report is saved to the path and file you specify.

5 Click Run Report.

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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 MasterThis 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 UserThis user has a record in the People form, and the users AR login information is in the Login/Access Details tab of the People form or in the AR System User form. Unknown UserAll other users are considered to be unknown users even if the user has a record in the People form. If a users 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 users 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 browsers 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 View Requests Function 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:
!

! !

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.

Request Errors

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 Broadcasts

Refreshes the Broadcasts and My Requests tables. Click Refresh to refresh the data in the tables. 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 Create a New Request button

Function 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 View button

Displays details about the request that is selected from the My Requests table. 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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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 users 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 RequiredEnter a date by when you require that this request be completed. PhoneEnter or edit your phone number. EmailEnter 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:
!

OpenDisplays 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.

AllDisplays 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 requestSee Canceling a service request on page 87. Update the work informationSee To update the work information of a service request on page 85. Reopen the requestYou 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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 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 formEntries 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 requestsSee 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 onSee 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 eventSee 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 formCompleted 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 InfoDisplays 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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Add Work InfoDisplays 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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 Figure 3-12: Request Work Info formAdding Work Information

2 View or add information to the fields (field names in bold with asterisks are

required fields).
Field name Date+ Source Summary Notes View Access Description Date and time when work information was created. Where work information came from, for example, Email, Web, or some other source. A brief description of the Work Info entry. This character field contains a maximum of 100 characters. A more complete description of the Work Info entry. Sets the View Access to the work information.
! !

PublicLets the requester view the work information. InternalOnly 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. System-generated field containing the login name of the person who submitted the Work Info entry. System-generated field that contains the date the Work Info entry was created.

Submitter Submit Date

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 Summary Description 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 Setup form.

Note: Categorization data is mapped in the Operational Catalog

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Field name Request ID

Description 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 applications Request ID. This provides consistent IDs for reference across the Requester console and the back-end application. 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. 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 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.

Category Tiers 1 through 3 Request Type

Impact

Urgency

The importance of the service request to the requester:


!

UrgencySelected by the user when creating the service request.

Date Required

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 Status Further details about the service request. 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 Status Reason

Description 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. Provides information from the back-end application for the service request record. The actual back-end Change or Incident request information appears. 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. Displays work information for the service request record.

Change/ Incident Data tab Manager tab

Work Info tab

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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 users company. If the logged-in users 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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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 paneProvides display filters, links to functionality, and links to other applications. Search Criteria areaProvides area where you can search for assigned work. Broadcast areaDisplays broadcasts and provides broadcast functionality. For details, see Broadcasting messages on page 55. Assigned Work areaDisplays 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 consoleSupport 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 Company

Explanation 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. You can view incidents for which you are the Assignee, the Owner, or both at the same time.

Console View

Status

SLM Status

Dates

Role

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 Console View Description 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:
! !

PersonalDisplays incidents assigned to you. Selected GroupsPrompts 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 GroupsDisplays 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 Search Criteria Default If there are multiple data sets, such as production and training data sets, select the appropriate data set. 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 statusSelect whether to display open, pending, resolved, closed, or all incidents. Open incidents include assigned, in progress, and pending incidents. SLM statusSelect 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. RoleSelect whether to display incidents where you are the assignee, the owner, or either. Task statusThis 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 After New Save

Description This setting controls the action after you click Save on the Incident form. The following selections are available from this list:
!

No ActionLeaves the Incident form open and it is ready for you to record a new incident. Reopen in NewOpens the current incident in modify mode in a new window. The original window is ready for you to record a new incident. Reopen in CurrentLeaves 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. You can choose whether to show the Vendor, Financials, or Date System tabs. 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.

Tab Views Overview Console

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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 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 customers 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 customers 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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Users Guide 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 scriptsSelect an initiator script when you record an incident after you indicate the customer. Assignment scriptsSelect 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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Users Guide 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 customers 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 individuals 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 customers profile.


Figure 4-12: People form used to modify a customer profile

5 Change the information, as required.

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Accessing the individuals 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:
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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 Click the incident. Click the incident, then click View. Result The Details tab displays details about the selected incident. 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.


Description Assigns the incident to you and your default group. Opens a list of all groups to which you belong. Select the appropriate group from this list. Assigns the incident to the typical groups to which your support group assigns incidents. The same as the Auto Assign link in the navigation pane, this assigns the incident based on predefined mapping. 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.

Set Assignment using My Default Group My Group List Favorite Groups Auto Assign

Current Owner

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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 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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BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management 7.0 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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Users Guide 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 Green Yellow Red Gray

SLM status Within the Service Target Service Target Breached All Service Targets Breached No Service Target Assigned

Description Incident does not violate the conditions of the service targets. At least one service target has been breached. The terms of all service targets have been breached. 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 Users 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 incidents operational categorization, in the Search By

Operational Categorization area, click Current Operation. The operational categorization fields populate with the current incidents operational categorization.
6 To search using the incidents product categorization, in the Search By

Product Categorization area, click Current Product. The product categorization fields populate with the current incidents 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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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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Users Guide 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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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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Users Guide 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 Resolution Method Cause Description Method to resolve the incident, such as Service Desk assisted. 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 Users 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 Users 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 ReasonIf appropriate, select Infrastructure Change Created. Closure SourceThis 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 RatingSelect the customers 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 Users 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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Users Guide 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

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 paneProvides display filters, links to functionality, and links to other applications. Search Criteria areaUsed to search for assigned work. Broadcast areaDisplays broadcasts and provides broadcast functionality. For details, see Broadcasting messages on page 55. Assigned Work areaDisplays a summary of assigned incidents. Flashboards areaProvides a high-level graphical overview.

! !

! !

Figure 5-1: Incident Management consoleManager 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 Company Console View

Explanation If you support multiple companies, leave this blank to display work for all companies, or select the appropriate company. 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. 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. 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. Incident managers can select either the Incident Manager or Assignee role.

SLM Status

Dates

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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Users Guide 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 incidents 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

Status New

Description 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. The incident has been assigned to a support group or individual but has not yet been acknowledged. The assignment has been accepted and the assignee is working toward resolution. Work on the incident has been temporarily suspended. A resolution or work-around to restore the service has been determined and is awaiting customer validation. A resolution or work-around has restored the service and the customer has validated the resolution. Restoration of service is no longer required.

Assigned In Progress Pending Resolved Closed Canceled

Assignment log

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:


!

InitiatedThis 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. AssignedThis assignment log is generated by the application when the incident is reassigned or resolved. AssistedThis 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 Users Guide and BMC Remedy Change Management 7.0 Users 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 incidents 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 Users 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

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 Users 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.

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Users 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 CIs 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 companys 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 Received Description The CI was received in shipping.

Being Assembled The CI is being assembled. Deployed In Repair Down End of Life Transferred Delete The CI was installed. The CI is down for maintenance. The CI is down, but not yet in maintenance. The CI is no longer being deployed. The CI was transferred to another location. 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. The CI is in inventory but not yet deployed. When you select this status, you are prompted to select the inventory location. The CI is on loan to another location. The CI is no longer available and was disposed of. The CI was reserved and taken out of inventory. The CI must be returned to the vendor as damaged or unwanted.

In Inventory On Loan Disposed Reserved Return to Vendor

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 Tag Number Description The CI tag number. This is the number usually placed on the product by a member of your IT department to track the CI. The CI serial number. The CI part number.

Serial Number Part Number

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Field name System Role Status Reason 13 Click the General tab.

Description The role this CI plays in your company. The reason this CI has the status it does.

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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3 Complete the following required fields. Field name CI Name Description Enter the name of the bulk inventory item, for example, Microsoft Windows XP. Categorize the item. Enter the number of items received.

Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 Received Quantity 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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Users Guide 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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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 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

Any method of depreciation that allows greater deductions in the earlier years of a CIs life cycle. See also depreciation and configuration item (CI).
access permission

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

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.
administrator

An individual responsible for the management of the ITSM applications, including setting up forms, setting access rights for users, and creating configurations.

See application administrator.

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Application Administration console

availability service target

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 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)

A process that generates electronic signature lines for items that require approval, and tracks who has approved or rejected a given request.
asset manager

An infrastructure built on AR System and used to build data models and define datasets.
book value

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 value of a CI equal to the purchase cost minus the accumulated depreciation.
broadcast message

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

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

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

Assets that you order in quantity, such as power cables.


bulk items

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.

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.

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business service management (BSM)

change manager

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.
CAB

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

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

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.
charge-back

The process of charging departments or cost centers for the IT infrastructure required to support their business processes.
charge-back invoice

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

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

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).
change management

A report used by a cost manager to track information and find entries that might need to be adjusted.
charge-back summary

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.

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.
CI

See configuration item (CI).

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CI browser

collection point

A component of ITSM. The CI browser lets you search for and view CIs and their relationships.
CI unavailability

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 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

The component in the SLM application that manages the collection points and retrieves data.
Company field

Metadata in the BMC Atrium CMDB that defines a type of object, usually a configuration item (CI) or relationship.
client tier

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

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 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 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.

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.

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configuration

contract

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

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 organizations costing and charging requirements.
currency code

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

The three-letter code that represents a currency type, such as USD for United States Dollars.
dashboard

See BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (BMC Atrium CMDB).

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.

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data provider

double-declining balance depreciation

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 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 step-by-step guide set up by an administrator. It guides the user through a questionnaire and, based on the users answers, completes part of the form for a new incident.
declining balance depreciation

A CI out of service for repairs or not working.


DSL

See definitive software library (DSL).


escalation

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 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

A central repository of approved product dictionary entries (PDEs). See also product dictionary entry (PDE).
dependent change request

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 change request that must be completed in sequence, as defined by the change manager.
depreciation

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.

The loss of an assets value resulting from the passage of time.

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form

incident management

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

As a concept, a reactive process typically initiated in response to a customers 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 defined role used for notifications and to extend access granted by permission groups.
global

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 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

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)

Users who have not been configured with login information in the People form. Guest users cannot create change requests.
impacted area

A set of guidelines for the management and provision of operational IT services.


instance

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.

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).

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key performance indicator (KPI)

navigation pane

A data point used to measure whether performance-monitoring service targets meet their goals. See also service level agreement (SLA).
known error

An area on the left side of consoles that provides links to functionality and links to other programs.
New Request Wizard

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

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

See key performance indicator (KPI).


life cycle asset management

Stand-alone configuration items, for example, a single server or laptop.


notification

Managing the life of a CI through its purchase, deployment, and disposal.


maintenance schedule

A schedule used to perform maintenance on CIs.


measurement

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

The metric by which supervisors measure the ability of the support staff to meet their agreements.
milestone

See operational level agreement (OLA).


operational catalog

A feature in which operational categories for service requests are defined.


operational categorization

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.

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.

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operator

permission group

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 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

A parent, or main, contract that has other children, or subcontracts, associated with it.
PDE

See product dictionary entry (PDE).


peer change request

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 dependent change request that can be completed at the same time as another change request.
peer-to-peer

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

Devices that are on the same level in an organizations 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

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 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.

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.

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process flow

reminder

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 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 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)

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

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

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 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.

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).

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review period

service catalog

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

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)

See return on investment (ROI).


role

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 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 organizationrequester, support, managementyou work with a different application (or view) on your desktop.
root cause

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

The underlying cause of an IT-related problem experienced by a customer.


row level locking

See Requester console.

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.

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service target

solution entry

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

A reusable solution to a customer product problem. This is stored in the solution database.
split cost center

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 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 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

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

See software library item (SLI).


SLM

A person who reports a problem, makes a request, or enters information into a database. See also change request.
submitter group

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

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-years digits depreciation

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.

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.

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task

time-based service target

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 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 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

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 total cost of ownership (TCO).


template

See underpinning contract (UC).


underpinning contract (UC)

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 users support group and the type of incident or change request.
terms and conditions

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

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.

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.

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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 106108 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 120132 accepting 122 incidents, reassigning 124 incidents, viewing 121 logged 158 assignments (continued) managing 155159 receiving notification of 121 recording time worked 122 vendors 126 working with 121123 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

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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 164169 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 154155 Support Console tab 104105 Overview 31 Report 66 Requester 76 copying relationships 46 Costs form 140

costs, recording 139141 Create Incident form 110 creating broadcasts 55 CIs 164169 customer profiles 117 incident records 108112 infrastructure change from incidents 146 known errors from incidents 149 problem investigations from incidents 144 records 34 reminders 5355 service requests 80 solution entries from incidents 150 tasks 127129 customer profiles adding 117 modifying 119

D
decision trees defined 20 using 114 defining relationships 43 diagnosing incidents 132 documents available for ITSM 1316 duplicating incidents 114

E
email, sending messages about CIs with 6365 enhanced problem management, defined 20 errors, known, creating 149 event logs, viewing 97

F
features, new 1821 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

190 "Index

Users 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 139141

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 2426 matching 20, 135 monitoring status 157 moving from investigation to resolution 137 ownership, about 125 process flow status 133 reassigning 124 recording 108120 recording time worked 122 records 108112 relating as duplicates 114 reopening 147, 159 resolving 135, 141147 resolving with Solution database 101 status 158 templates 21 unassigned, viewing 155 using decision trees 114 using templates 112 viewing 133135 assignments 121 changes through audit logs 162 infrastructure changes 146 inventory bulk inventory CI 167 location CIs 169 managing 170173 reserving 173 using 173 viewing locations 170 Inventory Location form 169, 171 investigations 132 IT Service Management, about product family 1013

Index ! 191

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K
Known Error form 149 known errors, creating 149

L
life cycle of an incident 2426 limiting number of broadcast messages 59 location of CIs 169 logs assignment 158 audit 162 event 97

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 3138 functions 36 opening from a browser 32 opening from a desktop 32 ownership for incidents 125

M
main consoles URL for browser 77 Manager console, about 154155 manager role 23 managing inventory 170173 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

P
paging on-call groups 6062 one person 6062 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 2426 accelerators, best practice 24 monitoring incident status with 157 status area 133

N
navigation pane about 3638 defined 20, 104 new features 1821 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

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Users 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 108120 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 5355 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 7679 requester role 21, 74 reserving inventory 173 resolution stage, moving incidents to 137 resolving incidents 135, 141147 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

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searching for all records 41 records 35, 38 records associated with people or groups 39 service requests 86 solutions 135141 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 134135 status and indicators 134

Solution database creating entries 150 resolving incidents 101 Solution Database form 151 solutions creating solution database entries 150 searching for 135141 sorting service requests 83 status values changes during life cycle of incidents 158 selecting 37 Support console, about 104105 support staff role, about 22 surveys, service request 88

T
Task form 128 tasks assigning 129 creating 127129 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 2123 unknown 74 using inventory 173

194 "Index

Users Guide

V
vendors assigning incidents to 126 communicating assigned incidents to 127 viewing broadcasts 58, 102 event logs 97 incidents 133135 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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