Manage Ticket Relationships

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Serviceaide Intelligent Service Management allows you to create and manage some critical relationships between tickets and configuration Items. For example, in tickets, an Incident ticket can be related to other Incident tickets or to a Global ticket. Similarly, a change ticket can be created out of a problem ticket to resolve the problem. As an analyst, you can manage different ticket relationships. 

Intelligent Service Management lets you relate logged tickets to other tickets in different ways. You can create a ticket from an existing ticket; the two tickets are linked as related tickets. You can create a task ticket from an existing ticket; the two tickets share a parent-child relationship. You can see the Parent Ticket Info in the Ticket Information section.

You can create a Task ticket from an open existing ticket to carry out tasks toward the completion of activities for it. Creating task tickets allow you the ability to break down an activity into smaller tasks.

You can mark a ticket as a Global ticket when an issue affects multiple users. You can also mark a ticket as Global when multiple related issues have occurred because of a major issue. When one ticket is declared as Global, other tickets can be related to it as "related to Global". When a Global issue is addressed and resolved, the other tickets also get resolved. You can relate multiple configuration items to a ticket to monitor an issue and also help troubleshoot an issue. 

Relate or Unrelate Tickets

You can relate a ticket to other tickets in your ticket list. Relating a ticket to other tickets allows you to track tickets being logged for related reasons. Hover over the ticket and click the arrow to edit the ticket in a new workspace tab or a new workspace window. Using the Advanced Search option you can easily search for related tickets. You can also switch between Advanced and Normal search at any point of time.

Follow these steps to relate a ticket:

1. Navigate to WORKSPACES> SERVICE DESK> Ticket Center, and open the ticket.
2. Click Related Tickets in the anchor links.
3. Click Relate Tickets in the Related Tickets section. The Search Tickets window is displayed.
4. Select the Use Advanced Search check box to view the list of tickets which you can relate.

Note:

• By default, the Use Advanced Search check box is selected. You can also clear the check box, if you want to use the basic search option.
• You can search for tickets using parameters such as ticket description, ticket ID, and ticket details. You can also search for tickets with parameters such as Reason Code, Requester, and Requested For.

     5. Select the ticket from the list and click Relate.

Create a Child Ticket for a Parent Ticket

When a new ticket is created from an existing ticket - the two tickets share a Parent-Child relationship. You can create a child ticket for a parent ticket by using a Workflow action. 

Note: All ticket types can be considered as child tickets of the parent ticket. The main ticket is considered as the parent ticket and the new ticket created using the Workflow action is considered as the child ticket.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to WORKSPACES> SERVICE DESK> Ticket Center and select the desired ticket.
2. Click Actions> Create Problem Ticket. 
   Note: You can create a child ticket for a Request, Incident, or can Change ticket. The administrator assigns permissions to all the actions.
3. Update the necessary information and click Save. 
   Note: You cannot unrelate two tickets having a Parent-Child relationship.

Create a Task Ticket

Tasks can be assigned to different support groups based on the nature of the task. Once all tasks are complete, the ticket can be progressed further in its lifecycle. You can close a parent ticket without closing a related task ticket according to the workflow. The administrator configures the workflow in the instance of your application. You could be informed about open child tasks that you must close before closing the parent ticket. You could be allowed to close the parent ticket despite an open child task. The application administrator configures task tickets to be created for a ticket.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to WORKSPACES> SERVICE DESK> Ticket Center, and open the ticket.
2. Click Actions> Create Task.
   
3. Enter the Phone, Email, Task Name, other necessary information, and click Save.

Create a Task from Catalog Item - Task Group

Sometimes you are required to perform several tasks to complete an activity. A task group can be configured to group all task templates for a related set of activities. A task group ensures that each ticket within a group is identified and logged separately.  A task group also ensures that a ticket remains a part of a larger group of activities. The application administrator configures permissions to view, relate, unrelate, modify, and delete task templates from a task group.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to WORKSPACES> SERVICE DESK> Ticket Center  and open the ticket.
2. Click Actions> Create Task from Catalog Item> Task Group from the drop-down.
3. Select the Task Group and click Select.
4. Enter the necessary information and click Save.

Create a Task from Catalog Item - Task Flow

A higher level of workflow automation can be achieved by combining task templates and task groups into task flows. A Task Flow enables features such as an execution sequence, action on success, action on failure of a task ticket in progress. The application administrator configures task flows using predefined active task templates and active task groups.

The Task tickets are created progressively, instead of all at once. The Status and Reason code of the task tickets indicate when a task (or task group) in progress is completed. If the task ticket (or task group) fails, the next task template (or task group) is not taken up. If the task in progress is completed successfully, the next task template (or task group) is created.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to WORKSPACES> SERVICE DESK> Ticket Center  and open the ticket.
2. Click Actions> Create Task from Catalog Item> Task Flow from the dropdown.
3. Select the Task Flow and click Select.
4. Enter the necessary information and click Save.

Mark Ticket as a Global Issue or Relate to a Global Issue

If an issue affects multiple users, or if multiple related issues have occurred due to a major issue, one ticket can be marked as Global. The other related issues can be related to the Global Issue. You can only mark or relate a Problem or Incident ticket as a global issue.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to WORKSPACES> SERVICE DESK> Tickets Center and open the Problem or Incident ticket.
2. In the ticket Information section, click Global Issue> This is A Global Issue or Related To A Global Issue.
   You can Unmark as a Global Issue or can Unrelate from Global Issue.
3. Click Save. 
   Note: When a Global Issue is resolved, the Cause and Resolution details get applied to the related tickets.

You can view the history of a ticket and information about the related tickets by viewing the ticket Board.

Relate Configuration Items to a Ticket

Intelligent Service Management enables you to relate a CI to a ticket and to gather historical data about the CI. Tickets are logged against a supported configuration item (CI) and a relevant configuration Item can be related to a ticket. You can also unrelate a CI related to a ticket. CIs in De-provisioned status do not appear in the lookup and cannot be related. The application administrator manages and configures the permissions available to you. For more information about configuration Items, see Creating and Managing Configuration Items.

One CI can be related to several other CI records in a logical, network, power, or service domain. CIs can be associated with contacts based on the role they play regarding the CI, as Owner, User, and Support. For example, you can log problems or change tickets for incidents that are reported for CIs. These incidents can be used in managing the CI. Attachments can be related to a ticket, to provide more information about the ticket.

You can relate multiple configuration items to a ticket. You can view the CI relationship graph to see the relationship between the CIs or view the related CI record.  If a ticket is logged to report issues with a service; the relevant CI is related to the ticket as an Affected Service.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the desired ticket and click Related Assets/CIs in the anchor links. You can view, search, select, and relate a CI to a ticket as an affected service.

2. Search, select, and relate a CI to a ticket by clicking Relate Selected Items or Relate CIs. 
   Note: To view more actions available for the CI, click the mini menu drop-down  for a CI. You can view the other CIs related to the current CI by selecting the View Relationship Graph or View Related CIs options. You can unrelate a CI by selecting the Unrelate CI option.

You can view the details of all configuration items that are related to the ticket. You can view the CI relationship graph to see the relationship between the CIs. You can also view the related CI record in the Related CIs section.

Relate an Attachment to a Ticket

You can relate up to 25 attachments to a ticket. You can use either an existing attachment or a new attachment. The maximum size limit for an attachment is 10 MB.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the desired ticket and click Attachments in the anchor links.
2. Click Relate Existing or Add New.
   Note: The Relate Existing option shows a list of attachments that are added as global records. When adding a new attachment, select the Global Attachment check box, to make it public. 
3. Select the desired attachment.
   Note: You can unrelate and delete attachments, or mark it as private or public through the mini menu for each attachment. Point your mouse over the attachment to view the mini menu.
   

By default, all attachments are visible to the clients. Select the Not Viewable by End-Users check box, if you want to hide the attachment from clients.

You can select an existing public attachment and can hide it from clients by selecting Mark as Private.

You can select an existing private attachment and can make it viewable by clients by selecting Mark as Public. The grid displays (Not Viewable by End Users) in addition to the name of the attachment.

Double-click on an existing attachment to download it. You can click on Download All Attachments to download a copy of all the related attachments in a zip file.

Notifications on Attachments

Notifications are sent to analysts or to the assigned group of the ticket when an attachment is added by unassigned or end users. For more information, see Create and Manage Communication Templates.

Relate Project and Project Task

As an analyst, you can relate existing or new projects and project tasks to the ticket.

Relate Projects

To relate and existing project to the ticket, perform these steps:

1. Select the Projects tab in the Related Projects/Project Task section.
2. Click the Relate Projects button. Relate Projects window is displayed.
3. Select the required project from the list and click Relate.

The project is related to the ticket now.

To relate a new project to the ticket, perform these steps:

1. Select the Projects tab in the Related Projects/Project Task section.
2. Click the Create Project button. Create Project window is displayed.
3. Specify the following information:

•  Type the project name.
• Type the project description.

• Set the priority level for the project from a range of Low to Critical.

• Specify the start date and end date of the project.

• Click Save and Relate.

Relate Project Task

To relate a project task, perform the following steps:

1. Select the Project Task tab.
2. Click the Relate Project Task button. Relate Project Task window is displayed.
3. Type the project name in the Select a Project search bar. After you specify the project name, the list of associated tasks are displayed.
4. Double-click on the required task from the task list to relate it to the ticket. Else, you can also type the task name in the Select a Project Task search bar to search for a specific task. 

The task is related to the ticket.

Create and Update CIs from a Ticket

You can create and update CIs from a ticket and have the ability to perform the following tasks:

• Add multiple CIs to a ticket, before saving the ticket. You can view the custom attributes linked to the CCTI from the Related Assets/CIs section.
• Update the CI status and Organization using the Bulk Action menu, in the Related Assets/CIs section.
• View the Related CI’s custom attribute information during Approval, using the Outstanding Item workspace.

Note: The users who can access this feature depends on Role Based Views. Self Service Users can also access this feature based on Role Based Views.

Enabling Create CIs and Bulk Actions

To enable these features for a particular role, you must perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to MANAGE> Tools> Role Based Views
2. Select the ticket type from the Base Form column.
3. Click Related CIs from Sections.
4. Select the Show check box for the Field Label 'Create, expand and view/update the attributes of the CI' and 'Bulk actions to update status and organization of the CI', respectively.
5. Click Apply Changes.

Creating CIs from a Ticket

After enabling the above features, you can create CIs from a ticket. This feature facilitates the following:

• adding multiple CIs to a ticket.
• specify custom attributes of each CI (Virtual Machine such as CPU, Memory and Disk).

When the ticket is sent for approval, you can view the associated custom attributes of the related CIs.

Follow these steps to create CIs:

1. Navigate to WORKSPACE> Ticket Center
2. Open a ticket.
3. Click Create CI. The Select Attribute Template window appears.
4. Select the template from the Template Name grid. 
5. Specify the attributes as required.
6. Click Save.

Note:

• CI template list is visible based on the Ticket CCTI. 
• CIs that are created from ticket are displayed with a status set as 'Pending' until the status is updated using Bulk Actions.
• CIs with the status set to 'Pending', will not be visible in the Configuration Management workspace.

Enabling Custom Attributes in a CI Template

You can add multiple custom attributes in a CI attribute template and make it visible during creating CIs.

To make the attributes visible, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to MANAGE> Tools> Custom Asset/CI Attribute Templates.
2. Select the template.
3. Select the attribute name.
4. Select the Visible During Ticket Creation check box.
5. Click Apply Changes.

Update CIs Using Bulk Actions

After the ticket is approved, you can update the status and organization of the related CIs using Bulk Actions.