Assigning and Taking Ownership of Tickets

Ticket assignment determines who is responsible for completing the work on a ticket. A ticket can be assigned to a group, an individual, both a group and an individual, or left unassigned. Responsibility can be changed at any time throughout the ticket lifecycle.

Understanding how assignment works helps ensure the right people are working on the right issues and that tickets don't fall through the cracks.

In this article, we'll cover:

• Ticket Assignment Concepts
  • Groups and Individual Assignment
  • Understanding the Responsibility and Reviewer Fields
  • Ticket Assignment Actions 
• Managing Ticket Assignment
  • Assign or Reassign a Ticket
  • Take a Ticket
  • Unassign a Ticket
  • Add to My Work
• Add a Ticket to a Workspace
• What Happens to Group Assignment When Reassigning

 

Ticket Assignment Concepts

Groups and Individual Assignment

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.

Understanding the Responsibility and Reviewer Fields

When you view a ticket's details, the Responsibility field shows who is assigned to the ticket. Depending on how the ticket was assigned, this field may show only a person, only a group, or both. For example, if a ticket comes in unassigned and a technician assigns themselves directly, only that person's name will appear. If a ticket is assigned to a group and a group member takes it, both the group and the individual will be listed.

Two related concepts are worth understanding:

• Primary Responsibility refers specifically to the person or group assigned to the ticket record itself. Filtering or reporting by primary responsibility returns only tickets where that resource is the designated owner of the ticket.
• Responsibility (broader) includes anyone who is either primarily responsible for the ticket or assigned to an active task on the ticket. An active ticket task is one that is not blocked by an incomplete predecessor. Filtering by responsibility returns both the ticket owner and anyone assigned to the ticket's active tasks.

The Reviewer is a user who can be notified about ticket activity but is not directly responsible for completing the work. Some ticket types automatically assign a Reviewer. Reviewers also have permission to assign or unassign the ticket.

Ticket Assignment Actions

On any ticket, the Actions menu (located below the navigation tabs on the ticket details page) provides access to the following assignment options. Note that the labels for these actions update dynamically based on the ticket's current classification (for example, "Take Incident" or "Assign Change Request").

• Add to My Work adds the ticket to your My Work list. This option appears only when the ticket is assigned to you or to a group you belong to, and the ticket is not complete or canceled.
• Take [ticket classification] assigns the ticket to you as the primary responsible person. This option appears only when the ticket is assigned to a group you are a member of.
• Assign [ticket classification] / Reassign [ticket classification] allows you to assign or change responsibility for a ticket to any person or group — including yourself if Take is not available. When reassigning, you can add a comment and choose whether to notify the newly responsible party by email.
• Unassign [ticket classification] removes all responsible persons and groups, leaving the ticket unassigned.

Unassigning a ticket can cause it to be overlooked. The best practice is to reassign rather than unassign tickets whenever possible.

Managing Ticket Assignment

Assign or Reassign a Ticket

To assign or reassign a ticket:

1. In Work Management, click View Applications.
2. Click the desired Ticketing application.
3. Click Search in the left navigation.
4. If necessary, modify the search criteria and click Apply.
5. Click the ticket title to open the ticket details.
6. Click the Actions menu.
7. Select Assign [ticket classification] or Reassign [ticket classification].
8. In the New Responsibility field, start typing a name or group name, or click the magnifying glass to search.
9. By default, the newly assigned resource will receive an email notification. Uncheck the Notify the new resource of the assignment box if you do not want to send a notification.
10. Enter any comments about the assignment. These will be included in the notification email and saved to the ticket Feed.
11. Click Save.

'Take' a Ticket

If the ticket is assigned to your group but not to you individually, “Taking” the ticket will assign it to you specifically, and the group will remain in the Responsibility field.

To take ownership of a ticket:

1. In Work Management, open the ticket details in the appropriate Ticketing application.
2. Click Actions > Take [ticket classification].
3. Confirm that you want to take responsibility.

The ticket will now appear in the "Assigned to Me" ticket search.

Unassign a Ticket

To mark a ticket as unassigned:

⚠️ Leaving a ticket unassigned increases the risk of it being overlooked. Reassigning is strongly preferred.

1. In Work Management, open the ticket details in the appropriate Ticketing application.
2. Click Actions > Unassign [ticket classification].
3. Confirm that you want to remove the responsible resource(s) from the ticket.

Add to My Work

The Add to My Work action appears only when the ticket is assigned to you or to a group you belong to, and the ticket is not complete or canceled.

When you add a ticket to My Work, it appears in your My Work list alongside other assignments. If the ticket is assigned to your group but not to you individually, adding it to My Work will assign it to you specifically — the group will remain in the Responsibility field as well.

To add a ticket to My Work:

1. In Work Management, open the ticket details in the appropriate Ticketing application.
2. Click Actions > Add to My Work

The ticket will now appear in your My Work list.

See Getting Started with My Work for more details.

Add a Ticket to a Workspace

If you are a workspace member, you can add a ticket directly from the Action menu to help manage your work with your team.

1. In Work Management, open the ticket you want to add to the workspace. 
2. In the Actions menu, select Add to Workspace. 
3. Choose the appropriate workspace and click Save. 

See the Workspaces Overview for more details.