Is a Workaround a Resolution to an Incident

March 28th, 2014 | Posted by Don Boylan in Incident Management | Problem Management
Q:

Should an incident be closed if a work-around is found and an associated Problem record has been created, or should the Incident remain open until the Problem is closed?

A:

According to the strict definition of ITIL (at least according to the way I have interpreted the books), yes. An Incident is defined as interruption or (degradation in quality) in a Service. A Workaround is defined as a means of restoring Service by no longer being reliant on the failed component.

I would say that there needs to be some procedure in place to return the user to a pre-Workaround state (in cases where that is desirable) once the Incident has been closed. This might include a flag on the Incident record that the Workaround results in a less then desirable state, or a report that shows the Incidents resolved to the Workaround that would then need new Service Requests opened for follow up work.

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