Incident Management

Incidents.. hmmm.... Although we use this term vastly in an IT Infra environment, do we really reallise the sense of it? Is the "Incident" and "Problem" all the very same?? We often make this common mistake of perceiving both these terms alike.

In ITIL, both of these has got an altogether different sense and has got its own place in the process-hierarchy. Incidents are the ones which relates to the issues that needs to be restored as quickly as possible as per the agreed SLA's (Service Level Agreements). It focuses on minimizing the impact on the business operations.

But where as, "Problem" is something which is an escalated part of it. When we have a lot many common incidents coming up again and again with an unknown error, it becomes a problem... "Problem Management" makes sure that we minimize the operational impact of incidents and problems which are caused by errors within the IT Infrastructure. It focuses on preventing repeated incidents from happening again and again, after finding out the root cause of the same.

ITSM: IT Service Management

How is ITSM related with ITIL???? Well I would say Wikipedia has come up with the best explanation of what it is... following is a gyst of it...

IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline for managing information technology (IT) systems, philosophically centered on the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business. ITSM stands in deliberate contrast to technology-centered approaches to IT management and business interaction. ITSM is process-focused and in this sense has ties and common interests with process improvement movement (e.g., TQM, Six Sigma, Business Process Management, CMMI) frameworks and methodologies. The discipline is not concerned with the details of how to use a particular vendor's product, or necessarily with the technical details of the systems under management. Instead, it focuses upon providing a framework to structure IT-related activities and the interactions of IT technical personnel with business customers and users.

IT Service Management is often equated with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, (ITIL), an official publication of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom. However, while a version of ITSM is a component of ITIL, ITIL also covers a number of related but distinct disciplines and the two are not synonymous.

ITSM is generally concerned with the "back office" or operational concerns of information technology management (sometimes known as operations architecture), and not with technology development. More info can be obtained from the following link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_Service_Management
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ITIL : IT Infrastructure Library

ITIL : IT Infrastructure Library

I've been pondering on exactly what is it all ablout... and went through the various search engines to get some of the followinig definitions. I found it to be really meaningful and helpful in IT service mgmt. It is a set of concepts and policies for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure, development and operations.

ITIL v3, published in May 2007, comprises five key volumes:

1. Service Strategy
2. Service Design
3. Service Transition
4. Service Operation
5. Continual Service Improvement.

Here is the link that would give a better idea of IT service mgmt.

http://itgovernance.techweb.com/?kw=sem_bc_goog_ITGOV_HomePage_Adver1_kword_itil

Cheers !!!