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ITIL and IT service management: incident, problem and change

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tagsglossar, it-betrieb, prozesse

2 min read

ITIL and IT service management: incident, problem and change

In short: IT service management organises IT operations as a service with clear processes; ITIL is the best-known framework with incident, problem, change and service request management.

In more detail: When many users need help, “shout and improvise” is not enough. ITSM describes how incidents, changes and requests are handled traceably. ITIL (version 4) is a collection of proven practices; ISO/IEC 20000 the certifiable standard.

In Depth

Important processes

  • Incident management: fix a disruption quickly (restore the service), ticket, priority (impact × urgency), 1st/2nd/3rd-level support, workaround.
  • Problem management: find the cause behind recurring incidents and remove it permanently (root cause analysis), known error database.
  • Change management (change enablement): carry out changes planned, assessed, approved, tested and documented (standard, normal, emergency change), CAB (change advisory board).
  • Service request: standard requests (password reset, software, access).
  • Configuration/asset management (CMDB): which systems exist, how are they connected?
  • Release/deployment, service level management (SLA), knowledge management, capacity and availability management.

Ticket system and priorities

A ticket contains reporter, description, category, priority, status, history, solution. Priority matrix: impact (how many users/processes?) × urgency (how fast?) → P1 (critical, immediate) to P4. SLA: response/resolution times per priority. Tools: Jira Service Management, OTOBO/OTRS, GLPI, Zammad, ServiceNow, Freshservice. Good tickets: unambiguous, reproducible, with screenshot/error message; documented resolution → knowledge base.

Procedure in support

  1. Accept & record (all details), categorise, prioritise.
  2. Initial diagnosis (repeat, known solutions, checklist).
  3. Solve or escalate (level 2/3, vendor).
  4. Inform the user (status, schedule, workaround).
  5. Close (confirmation), document.
  6. Evaluate (frequent topics → problem/training/automation). Soft skills: calm, friendly, understandable, do not lecture, manage expectations, privacy (remote access only with consent).

Change example and exam

Change: update router firmware. Request → risk analysis (outage? fallback?) → maintenance window (e.g. Sunday 6:00) → test in test environment → rollback plan → approval → execution → verification → documentation/communication. In the IHK exam terms (incident vs. problem, SLA, CMDB, escalation) and priorities/procedures are asked. Related: DevOps (shorter cycles, automation, SRE), agile and ITIL complement each other.

See also: SLA, support level and ticket system, Helpdesk

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