PUU Helpdesk

2.19 Linking tickets with problems and changes

Simply put, a “problem” is a cause of one or more incidents.

Let’s say, many similar incidents get reported, and after troubleshooting, you discover that they were caused by a larger underlying problem. Check to see if the problem has been documented in Dworkin helpdesk under the Problems tab. If not, create one, and link all the tickets to it.

Doing this helps the team prioritize and manage the problem better.

1. To create a new problem for an incident, click on the Problem button at the top and select New Problem.

2. Fill the form to create the problem and click on Link.

Some problems might already documented.  If that’s the case, click on Problem and select Existing Problem.

Then select the problem from the list and click on Link.

When a problem is documented, root cause analysis is done for it. This often results in the problem  management  team  suggesting  a  “change”  that  is  required  to  resolve  the  problem (thereby preventing more incidents from being caused by it).

Linking all associated incidents to a change helps manage the change better. And doing this is pretty similar to linking incidents to problems.

1. To attach a change to an incident, click on the Change button at the top and click either New Change or Existing Change.

2. If you need to create a new change, fill the form and click on Link.

3. For linking the incident to an existing change, select the change from the list and then click Link.

Sometimes, an incident might be caused by a particular change. If this happens, choose the Change causing this incident option in the drop-down. Then select the change from the list and click on Link.