This article explains the foundational concepts technicians need to understand when working with tickets in TeamDynamix. Before diving into ticket workflows and day-to-day operations, it's important to understand the building blocks of the ticketing system—how tickets are classified, prioritized, assigned, and tracked throughout their lifecycle. These concepts apply across all ticketing applications and will help you effectively manage incoming requests and route them for resolution.
In this article, we'll cover:
Ticket classifications define the type of service management process being followed. TeamDynamix supports six ticket classifications. The names may vary based on your organization’s needs:
- Incident: Used to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible with minimal disruption to the business. An incident is an unplanned interruption or reduction in the quality of a service.
- Major Incident: A higher-priority incident that causes significant disruption to business operations and requires immediate attention and resolution.
- Problem: Used to identify and address the root cause of one or more incidents. Problem management aims to minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented and to prevent recurrence of incidents related to errors.
- Change: Used to manage changes to the IT infrastructure or services in a controlled manner. Change management ensures that standardized methods and procedures are used to handle all changes efficiently.
- Release: Used to manage the deployment of new or updated hardware, software, or services into the production environment.
- Service Request: Used to fulfill a request from a user for information, advice, a standard change, or access to a service.
Technicians can change a ticket's classification as needed to match the type of work being performed, provided they have the appropriate permissions.
Ticket types identify the specific nature of the work being done on a ticket. While classification defines the service management process, the type provides more granular categorization within that process.
Ticket types are organized into Ticket Type Categories for easier management. Each ticket type is tied to services in the Service Catalog, which determines which ticketing application the ticket will be created in when a customer submits a request.
Examples of ticket types might include: Hardware Issue, Software Installation, Account Access, Password Reset, or Network Connectivity.
Status values represent the current state of a ticket in its lifecycle. Status tracking allows technicians and requestors to understand where a ticket is in the resolution process.
Common status values include:
- New: The ticket has just been created and has not yet been reviewed
- In Progress: Work is actively being performed on the ticket
- On Hold: Work has been paused, often waiting for information or external dependencies
- Resolved: The issue has been addressed, and a solution has been provided
- Closed: The ticket has been completed, and no further action is required
Organizations can customize status values to match their specific service delivery processes. When updating a ticket, technicians select the appropriate status to reflect the current state of work.
These three factors work together to help technicians determine which tickets require immediate attention:
Impact measures the effect of an incident on business processes. Impact criteria include:
- Amount of potential financial losses
- Number of affected users
- Severity of business disruption
Urgency measures how quickly an incident needs to be resolved before it has a significant impact on the business. Urgency considers:
- Time sensitivity of the issue
- Business deadlines or critical timing
- The rate at which the impact is growing
Priority is calculated based on both impact and urgency. Priority determines the order in which tickets should be addressed and helps ensure that the most critical issues receive immediate attention while less urgent matters are handled appropriately.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) often use priority to establish response and resolution timeframes for tickets.
Tickets can be assigned in several ways to ensure the right people are working on the right issues:
Group Assignment: Tickets assigned to a group are visible to all group members. This is useful when:
- Multiple technicians have the expertise to handle the request
- You want to distribute work among team members
- The specific technician isn't yet determined
- You're routing tickets to a specialized team (e.g., Network Team, Dashboard Support)
Individual Assignment: Tickets assigned to a specific person indicate that the individual is the primary responsible party. This is useful when:
- A specific technician has the expertise or context needed
- You're escalating to a subject matter expert
- Accountability needs to be clearly established
Combined Assignment: A ticket can be assigned to both a group and an individual. The individual is the primary responsible party, while the group assignment maintains visibility for the team.
Unassigned: Tickets can remain unassigned in a queue until a technician takes responsibility for them.
Best practice: Tickets should be assigned to the owning group and remain with that group throughout the ticket lifecycle, even when assigned to individuals within that group.