Administering Knowledge Management › Knowledge Management Roles and Functions › Self-Service Knowledge Options › Incidents and Problems

Incidents and Problems

Customers sometimes encounter problems that cannot be solved simply by searching for knowledge. Not all problems have a direct solution in the knowledge base. When a customer has a problem that cannot be solved, they can create an incident that is sent to an analyst for further processing. The incident describes the problem, and it can also be based on an existing knowledge document. The more information that is added to an incident, the easier it is for the analyst to solve.

Many ITIL-defined activities are supported in Knowledge Management, including the following activities:

• Incident Management
  • Knowledge searches can help find known errors during further incident investigation and diagnosis
  • Incident categorization
• Problem Management
  • Accessing information about known errors, and helping with problem matching to obtain the resolution when the problem has occurred before
  • Maintaining and providing access to information about workarounds
  • Recording information about procedures, work instructions, diagnostic scripts, and known errors (while supporting rich content, editing tools, measurement, and a definable approval process for the development of resolutions)
  • Problem analysis (through the linkage and analysis of incidents)