There are several IT major incident service models. The end goal is always the same, but some of the people and their roles may vary depending on how your IT operations are organised and serviced. For the purposes of this post we will focus on the most common types. For those of you that are new to the world of IT or have not got to grips with the ever-growing, ever-changing acronyms in this industry we have detailed some definitions. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) An MSP is a company that exists specifically to provide IT services and products to other organisations that choose to outsource their IT services, either in part or completely. There are several variations in the way in...
A long-standing debate in the industry, should Major Incident Managers be technical? This question seems to be firmly dividing with very few people being undecided, they either strongly believe that yes, they should be, or no they should not. Well, we believe the answer is no, they should not be technical, but really it requires a little more explanation than that, and it depends… What size organisation are we talking about? It depends on the size of your organisation and Operations. In an ideal world, and one that most large Managed Service Providers and enterprise In-House Operations find themselves in, there would be dedicated Major Incident Managers, who do nothing but focus on Major Incident Management. After all, the...
It is imperative that processes are in place that ensure a major incident is identified. Typical alert and identification scenarios include:
The Service Desk notices a large volume of similar incidents that seem connected to a single issue
End users contact the Service Desk or use a self-service portal to notify the Service Desk of a critical service outage
Event monitoring alerts business-critical services that there is a failure or potential failure
Technical Resolving Groups identify a major incident or potential major incident during routine maintenance work.
A career in Major Incident Management is exciting and can be high profile. You engage with nearly all of the Operational staff at different stages, with your communications reaching the entire End User community, including C-suite Executives. Whilst the role can be thrilling, it is also easy to let a few bad habits seriously impact on your credibility and career. Here are 3 common mistakes to keep a check on and avoid: 1 . Don’t think win/lose, think win/win It can be difficult to strike the right balance; your primary objective is to restore normal service operations as quickly as possible, and often that means being assertive. However being too dominant with Technical Staff might get you the result...
Note: The Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management and it’s components are a framework and your organisation’s other existing processes should be considered when incorporating Major Incident Management into Operations. Whilst the primary objective of Major Incident Management is to restore normal service to End Users, there are three phases that have sub objectives that contribute to the primary objective. The three phases of the Best Practice Major Incident management Process: The initial 15 minutes (of major incident identification) The post 15 minutes (n.b. this can last hours or sometimes days) The resolution (and closure of the major incident) The initial 15 minutes phase In the initial 15 minutes of major incident identification the key objectives are: Validation (that there...
