The ITIL Service Desk provides the focal point of communication for both the IT external customer community as well as those internal customers within the IT department. The incidents reported to the Service Desk are recorded and relevant data gathered including the unique configuration item (CI) identifier, the symptoms, the customer contact details, time the incident occurred and so forth.

 

If the Service Desk is unable to resolve the incident it is usually passed to a second or third line support team who work on the incident through to resolution, updating the incident periodically with the actions undertaken throughout. Once resolved the incident is normally allocated a resolution or closure code with the opportunity to add a brief description.

 

The resolution / closure codes provide invaluable information for ITIL Problem Management as they are able to provide trend analysis and initiate Service Improvement Plans with internal IT departments or third party suppliers as necessary.

 

A recommended activity of ITIL Problem Management is to periodically review the resolution / closure codes. Often a code is provided that is used by the Service to close incidents if none of the existing codes are appropriate, an example of this code is 'Other'. The 'Other' code can be used as a 'dumping ground' for those incidents that are not easily categorized. Reviewing those incidents that are closed under the 'Other' category provides the opportunity to amend and update the existing closure codes and educate Support and Service Desk staff accordingly. Whilst reviewing seize upon the opportunity to remove any unused 'closure codes' from the list.

 

Care should be taken not to dilute closure codes as this can result in excessive time spent on deliberating which code to select and can potentially become confusing and subjective regarding the correct code to use.

 

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