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Improve Your Incident Management

Optimize Incident Resolution with our 6-step guide.
Improve Your Incident Management
Challenges (11) Goals (11) 6 Steps Preview Outcomes Data FAQs (5)
Process: Incident Management
System: ServiceNow Problem Management
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Optimize Incident Resolution in ServiceNow Problem Management

The platform helps identify common bottlenecks that delay incident resolution. It uncovers inefficient workflows and steps that lead to missed service level agreements. By highlighting these areas, you can take targeted actions to streamline processes, improve efficiency, and boost overall satisfaction. This results in faster resolution times and better compliance.

Download our pre-configured data template and address common challenges to reach your efficiency goals. Follow our six-step improvement plan and consult the Data Template Guide to transform your operations.

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Why Optimizing Incident Management is Critical

Effective Incident Management is the backbone of reliable IT services. In today's fast-paced digital environment, every minute an incident remains unresolved can translate into significant business impact, affecting user productivity, customer satisfaction, and potentially revenue. Within ServiceNow, while robust tools exist, simply having a system does not guarantee efficiency. Many organizations struggle with incident resolution delays, frequent re-assignments, and a lack of transparency into why certain incidents take longer to resolve than others. These inefficiencies inflate operational costs, consume valuable support resources, and can lead to missed Service Level Agreements, damaging your organization's reputation and potentially incurring penalties. Understanding the true flow of your Incident Management process is the first step toward achieving operational excellence.

How Process Mining Illuminates Your ServiceNow Incident Flows

Process mining offers a powerful, data-driven approach to dissect and understand the actual execution of your Incident Management process within ServiceNow. Instead of relying on assumptions or anecdotal evidence, process mining extracts event logs directly from your ServiceNow data, particularly focusing on the incident table and its links to problem, problem_task, and known_error tables. It reconstructs the entire journey of each incident, from initial reporting to final closure, providing a visual map of all process variants. This end-to-end perspective allows you to see precisely where incidents are spending most of their time, identify unexpected detours, and uncover the root causes of delays. You can track crucial activities like "Incident Reported", "Diagnosis Initiated", "Transferred to Specialized Team", and "Resolution Applied/Tested" to understand how they truly unfold. This analytical power is essential for data-driven process optimization, transforming how you approach incident resolution.

Pinpointing Key Areas for Improvement in Incident Resolution

With process mining, you gain unprecedented clarity into areas ripe for process optimization. You can specifically target:

  • Bottleneck Identification: Easily identify stages, groups, or agents where incidents consistently get stuck or experience prolonged delays, preventing swift resolution. For instance, is the initial categorization phase taking too long, or are handoffs between support tiers causing significant wait times?
  • Process Variant Analysis: Discover and analyze non-standard paths that incidents take, understanding why some incidents deviate from the ideal flow and the impact of these deviations on cycle time and resource consumption. This helps in standardizing efficient practices.
  • Rework Loops and Re-assignments: Visualize instances where incidents are frequently re-assigned or sent back to previous stages, indicating potential issues with initial diagnosis, knowledge base articles, or skill gaps within teams. This data can inform your ServiceNow Problem Management efforts by highlighting recurring issues that require deeper analysis and prevention.
  • SLA Compliance Monitoring: Track actual performance against defined SLAs, not just at a summary level, but by drilling down into specific incident paths to understand why SLAs are being missed and identifying proactive measures.
  • Automation Opportunities: Identify repetitive manual tasks or predictable decision points that can be automated within ServiceNow to accelerate resolution and reduce human error, thereby improving overall efficiency and reducing the incident cycle time.

Realizing Tangible Benefits: Faster Resolution, Higher Satisfaction

Applying process mining to your Incident Management in ServiceNow yields measurable improvements across your organization. By addressing identified bottlenecks and streamlining processes, you can expect:

  • Reduced Incident Cycle Time: Significantly decrease the mean time to resolve (MTTR) incidents, getting your users back to productivity faster.
  • Improved SLA Adherence: Consistently meet or exceed your service level agreements, enhancing trust and compliance.
  • Lower Operational Costs: Optimize resource allocation and reduce wasted effort, leading to more cost-effective support operations.
  • Enhanced User Satisfaction: Quicker and more efficient incident resolution directly translates to a better experience for your end-users and customers.
  • Proactive Problem Management: The insights gained from analyzing incident patterns can directly feed into ServiceNow Problem Management, helping you identify and prevent recurring issues before they impact a wider user base.
  • Data-Driven Decisions: Move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive, informed process improvement, fostering a culture of continuous optimization.

Begin Your Journey to Incident Management Excellence

Optimizing Incident Management is a continuous journey that starts with understanding your current state. By leveraging process mining with your ServiceNow data, you empower your teams with the insights needed to make impactful changes. This leads to faster incident resolution, reduced downtime, and improved user satisfaction, fundamentally transforming your IT service delivery. Embrace a data-driven approach to unlock the full potential of your Incident Management process.

Incident Management Service Desk IT Operations SLA Compliance Root Cause Analysis Problem Resolution ITIL Processes Service Improvement

Common Problems & Challenges

Identify which challenges are impacting you

Delays in resolving incidents directly impact user productivity and satisfaction, leading to increased downtime and potential financial losses. Prolonged resolution times can also result in breached Service Level Agreements, incurring penalties and damaging organizational reputation.ProcessMind analyzes the complete Incident Management process in ServiceNow Problem Management, identifying specific stages, teams, or agents causing bottlenecks. By visualizing process flow, it pinpoints where incidents frequently stall, allowing for targeted improvements to accelerate resolution.

Consistently missing Service Level Agreements for incident resolution leads to user frustration, reputational damage, and potential contractual penalties. It indicates systemic issues within the Incident Management process that prevent timely handling of critical issues.ProcessMind precisely identifies which types of incidents, departments, or assignment groups are most prone to SLA breaches within ServiceNow Problem Management. It visualizes the actual paths incidents take, revealing deviations from standard operating procedures that contribute to non-compliance.

Incorrectly categorizing or prioritizing incidents can lead to misrouting, delayed resolution for critical issues, and inefficient resource allocation. This often results in a 'firefighting' approach rather than structured problem-solving, increasing operational costs and user dissatisfaction.ProcessMind traces how incidents are categorized and prioritized, revealing patterns of re-categorization or priority changes after initial assignment in ServiceNow Problem Management. This highlights training gaps or unclear guidelines, enabling organizations to improve initial incident handling.

Incidents frequently being reassigned between teams or agents leads to increased resolution times, repeated effort, and a fragmented user experience. Each handoff introduces potential delays and loss of context, significantly impacting efficiency and staff productivity.ProcessMind maps the complete journey of incidents through different assignment groups and agents in ServiceNow Problem Management. It visualizes where incidents are frequently transferred, quantifying the impact of these handoffs on overall resolution time and identifying process loops.

A high volume of recurring incidents indicates that underlying problems are not being effectively identified and resolved, leading to repeat issues and wasted effort. This suggests a weakness in the Incident Management process's ability to escalate and link to true problem management, draining resources.ProcessMind identifies clusters of similar incidents in ServiceNow Problem Management that follow identical or very similar paths to resolution, often without a definitive root cause. It highlights where temporary workarounds are consistently applied instead of proper problem identification and resolution, guiding improvement efforts.

Consistently implementing workarounds instead of definitive resolutions might provide immediate relief but fails to address the underlying issues, leading to technical debt and future service disruptions. This practice can inflate incident volumes and mask deeper systemic problems within IT operations.ProcessMind tracks the frequency and duration of workaround implementations compared to final resolutions for similar incidents within ServiceNow Problem Management. It identifies services or incident categories where workarounds are disproportionately used, indicating areas needing deeper problem management.

Inefficient distribution of incident assignments can lead to some agents being overloaded while others are underutilized, resulting in burnout, decreased morale, and extended queues for support. This impacts overall team efficiency and the speed of incident resolution.ProcessMind analyzes incident assignment patterns and agent activity timelines within ServiceNow Problem Management. It visualizes agent workloads and identifies imbalances, revealing opportunities to optimize resource allocation and improve team efficiency and response times.

When incidents stray from established resolution paths, it can introduce inconsistencies, errors, and compliance risks, making it difficult to predict outcomes or ensure quality service. This can result in increased manual effort and a lack of process control.ProcessMind compares actual incident flows in ServiceNow Problem Management against defined target processes or best practices. It highlights all variant paths and their frequency, pinpointing where and why deviations occur, allowing for process enforcement and training adjustments.

Inadequate communication with affected users during incident resolution can lead to frustration, repeated inquiries, and a perceived lack of service quality, even if the incident is technically resolved in time. This impacts user satisfaction and the service desk's reputation.ProcessMind tracks the timing and frequency of user notification activities within the Incident Management process in ServiceNow Problem Management. It can identify where notifications are delayed or missing in the flow, indicating opportunities to improve communication touchpoints.

Delays occurring repeatedly at particular stages of the incident lifecycle, such as diagnosis or transfer to a specialized team, can significantly prolong overall resolution times. These bottlenecks hinder process flow and prevent efficient service delivery, causing unnecessary backlogs.ProcessMind precisely quantifies the duration of each activity and transition in the Incident Management process in ServiceNow Problem Management. It visually highlights the stages where incidents spend the most time, pinpointing exact bottlenecks for targeted process optimization.

When Service Level Agreements are not consistently applied or accurately tracked, it becomes challenging to measure performance, identify accountability, or prioritize incidents effectively. This can lead to an unreliable service reputation and a lack of objective performance metrics.ProcessMind analyzes the actual time taken versus SLA targets for all incidents in ServiceNow Problem Management, across different categories and priorities. It reveals where SLA calculations might be flawed or where certain incident types consistently exceed targets, highlighting areas for policy or process refinement.

Typical Goals

Define what success looks like

This goal focuses on reducing the average time it takes to resolve incidents, from initial reporting to final closure. Faster resolution directly translates to reduced downtime, improved service availability, and higher user satisfaction, crucial for efficient IT operations within Incident Management.
ProcessMind helps by precisely mapping the end-to-end incident lifecycle, identifying specific stages or handoffs that contribute to delays. By visualizing actual process flows, organizations can pinpoint bottlenecks, eliminate unnecessary steps, and reduce resolution times by up to 20-30% in ServiceNow Problem Management.

Achieving this goal means consistently meeting or exceeding service level agreements for critical incidents. Frequent SLA breaches indicate operational inefficiencies and can lead to penalties and diminished trust. Improving compliance ensures that high-priority issues are addressed promptly, maintaining service quality.
ProcessMind uncovers all deviations from defined SLA targets by tracking incident duration against agreed-upon timelines. It highlights specific incident categories or support groups where breaches are most prevalent, enabling targeted interventions to boost compliance rates by 15-25% within ServiceNow Problem Management.

Accurate categorization and prioritization are fundamental to efficient incident handling, ensuring incidents are routed to the correct teams and receive appropriate attention. Misclassified incidents lead to delays, incorrect assignments, and wasted resources in Incident Management.
ProcessMind analyzes incident attributes like category, priority, and assigned group to detect patterns of miscategorization or frequent reclassifications. By identifying the root causes of these errors, organizations can refine their categorization schema and training, reducing miscategorization incidents by 10-15% in ServiceNow Problem Management.

Excessive reassignments and handoffs between support groups or agents often indicate unclear ownership, skill gaps, or inefficient routing rules. Reducing these transfers streamlines the resolution process, prevents delays, and improves overall efficiency within Incident Management.
ProcessMind maps the full journey of an incident, visually highlighting every reassignment and the associated time spent in each stage. This reveals inefficient routing practices and identifies specific points where incidents get "bounced," allowing for a reduction in handoffs by 15-20% in ServiceNow Problem Management.

This goal aims to decrease the number of incidents that repeatedly occur due to underlying problems not being permanently resolved. A high volume of recurring incidents strains resources, increases operational costs, and frustrates users, signaling a need for better Problem Management integration.
ProcessMind helps identify clusters of similar incidents that point to a common root cause, even if they appear distinct on the surface. By linking incidents to underlying problems and known errors, it empowers teams to prioritize and implement permanent fixes, potentially reducing recurring incidents by 20-30% across ServiceNow Problem Management.

Moving beyond temporary workarounds to implement permanent solutions is key to long-term stability and efficiency in Incident Management. This goal focuses on increasing the proportion of incidents that are resolved by addressing the root cause rather than applying temporary fixes, which often lead to recurrence.
ProcessMind can differentiate between incidents resolved with workarounds versus those with permanent fixes by analyzing resolution codes and linking to problem records. It identifies situations where permanent fixes are delayed or overlooked, driving a 10-15% increase in permanent fix adoption within ServiceNow Problem Management.

An uneven distribution of incident workload among agents can lead to burnout for some, underutilization for others, and overall delays in incident resolution. Achieving this goal ensures that incidents are assigned efficiently, leveraging agent capacity and improving response times.
ProcessMind analyzes assignment patterns and the duration incidents spend with individual agents or groups, highlighting imbalances. It helps identify agents who are consistently overloaded or underutilized, allowing for more balanced queue management and a potential 5-10% improvement in resource allocation in ServiceNow Problem Management.

Deviations from standard operating procedures can introduce inefficiencies, errors, and inconsistencies in incident resolution quality. This goal focuses on enforcing adherence to best practices and predefined workflows to ensure predictable and reliable incident handling.
ProcessMind visualizes all actual incident paths, comparing them against ideal or prescribed flows. It easily identifies unauthorized shortcuts or prolonged detours, allowing organizations to enforce standard processes and achieve a 90%+ compliance rate with standard resolution paths in ServiceNow Problem Management.

Effective and timely communication with affected users throughout the incident lifecycle is vital for managing expectations and enhancing user satisfaction. Gaps in communication can lead to frustration and additional inquiries, increasing the workload on support teams.
ProcessMind tracks events related to user notification and confirmation within the incident process. It can highlight stages where user updates are frequently delayed or missed, enabling improvements in communication protocols and a 10-15% increase in timely user notifications in ServiceNow Problem Management.

Specific stages within the incident resolution process can become choke points, causing incidents to accumulate and significantly delaying overall resolution. This goal targets the identification and removal of these bottlenecks to ensure a smooth and continuous flow of incidents.
ProcessMind automatically highlights process steps with unusually long durations or high queues, indicating bottlenecks. By visualizing the throughput and waiting times at each stage, it enables precise targeting of interventions to reduce waiting times by 20-30% at critical points in ServiceNow Problem Management.

Inconsistent application or tracking of service level agreements can lead to unfair assessments, misprioritization, and difficulty in reporting actual performance. This goal aims for uniform and accurate management of SLAs across all relevant incidents.
ProcessMind analyzes how SLAs are applied and tracked across different incident types, priorities, and assigned groups. It can reveal discrepancies in how SLAs are initiated, paused, or breached, helping ensure a consistent and equitable application of SLA policies in ServiceNow Problem Management.

The 6-Step Improvement Path for Incident Management

1

Download the Template

2

Export Your Data

3

Upload Your Dataset

4

Analyze Your Process

5

Implement Improvements

6

Monitor Your Process

1

Download the Template

What to do

Get the Excel template designed specifically for Incident Management data extraction. This template ensures your data is structured correctly for analysis.

View Data Template Guide Download Template
Why it matters

A standardized template prevents data inconsistencies and errors, laying a solid foundation for accurate process analysis and reliable insights.

Expected outcome

A ready-to-use Excel template with the correct column structure for Incident Management data.

WHAT YOU WILL GET

Uncover Your Real Incident Resolution Journey

ProcessMind reveals the true execution of your incident resolution, offering clear visualizations of every step. Gain unparalleled insights into deviations and bottlenecks within your ServiceNow Problem Management.
  • Visualize actual incident resolution flows
  • Identify root causes of delays and reworks
  • Monitor SLA compliance and deviations
  • Benchmark team and process performance
Discover your actual process flow
Discover your actual process flow
Identify bottlenecks and delays
Identify bottlenecks and delays
Analyze process variants
Analyze process variants
Design your optimized process
Design your optimized process

TYPICAL OUTCOMES

Realizing Efficiency Gains in Incident Management

By leveraging process mining on ServiceNow Problem Management data, organizations gain clear insights into their incident management workflows. These insights enable them to identify inefficiencies and implement targeted improvements, leading to tangible benefits.

0 % faster
Faster Incident Resolution

Average reduction in resolution time

Process mining identifies bottlenecks and rework, allowing teams to streamline resolution paths and accelerate problem-solving, reducing overall incident cycle time.

0 % fewer breaches
Enhanced SLA Compliance

Reduction in critical incident breaches

By pinpointing non-compliant paths and delays, organizations can proactively address issues affecting critical incidents, significantly reducing SLA breach rates.

0 % fewer handoffs
Fewer Incident Handoffs

Streamlining incident assignments

Process insights reveal excessive reassignments, enabling teams to optimize routing rules and improve first-contact resolution, minimizing handoffs and accelerating resolution.

0 % reduction
Reduced Recurring Issues

Lower volume of repeated incidents

Process mining helps identify the root causes of recurring incidents, allowing for the implementation of permanent fixes and reducing the overall volume of repeat problems.

0 % faster communication
Improved User Satisfaction

Faster communication and updates

By reducing communication lag and ensuring timely updates, organizations enhance the user experience during incident resolution, leading to higher satisfaction levels.

Results can vary significantly depending on the complexity of your incident management process and the quality of your operational data. The outcomes presented reflect common improvements realized by organizations utilizing process mining solutions.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

Process mining analyzes your Incident Management data from ServiceNow to reveal the actual process flow. It identifies bottlenecks, deviations from standard paths, and areas contributing to excessive resolution times or SLA breaches, providing data-driven insights for optimization.

To begin, you typically need incident logs containing at least incident ID, activity description, timestamp, and the agent or system responsible for each activity. Additional fields like incident category, priority, and assignment group can enrich the analysis. This data is usually extracted from the incident table and related tables in ServiceNow.

Initial insights can often be generated within a few weeks of data extraction and preparation, providing immediate value regarding bottlenecks and deviations. Deeper analysis and subsequent implementation of changes will naturally take longer, depending on the complexity of the identified issues and organizational agility.

You can expect to see reductions in incident resolution times, improved critical incident SLA compliance, and fewer incident reassignments. Process mining also helps in standardizing resolution paths and optimizing agent workload distribution, leading to a more efficient and consistent service.

The primary technical requirement is access to your ServiceNow instance for data extraction, typically via API or direct database access, depending on your setup and security policies. You will also need a process mining tool capable of ingesting, processing, and visualizing event log data.

Yes, process mining can effectively identify patterns of recurring incidents and highlight processes that frequently lead to the same issues. By visualizing the common paths and activities, it assists in pinpointing potential root causes that contribute to these repeated problems, facilitating permanent fixes.

While process mining is highly effective for complex processes, it can also provide significant value for smaller or less complex Incident Management workflows. The methodology scales well, offering insights regardless of the process size, though the depth of findings may vary.

Yes, typically some level of IT support or a ServiceNow administrator's involvement is required to ensure secure and efficient data extraction. They can help configure necessary access, create appropriate reports, or set up API integrations to retrieve the required incident log data.

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