Handle Incidents like a Pro!

Keywords: Incident Management, Production Support, Application Support, Incident, KEDB, ITIL

I know you are Mr. Smarty Pants, the ladies man who solves daily issues reported by user and testers like a boxing champion in a ring punching incidents, dodging mails and the having the arrogance of a sheep. You are as smooth as a sandpaper when it comes to solving problems so you act slowly when the incident comes, you spend a day to revert back and the your team mate takes away all the credit. Wow not so Mr. Smarty Pants now!

Let’s make you faster!

Step 1> Always create an incident before you act on it.
Its not an essay competition, right ? Then write briefly and quickly highlighting major points. All it takes is 5 mins and your management if they hand pick your incident should know you should be promoted instantly.
Description:
UserID#JMSBND007
Module#Analytics
User has reported they are unable to load the analytics module and getting the error as access denied.
<Put a screenshot if you can.>

Do not write like the below. Do not make your manager regret he hired a monkey who thinks joining words makes a sentence.
Description: JMSBND007 unable to load analytics. Access denied.

NOTE: The step#2 is for you and only you and do not ever share this with your team, I never did. This is your ace card, rabbit’s foot, lucky charm or whatever you want to call.

Step 2> Make a word document for yourself in tabular format.

This document is your Bible, your Checklist. You follow the steps diligently and meticulously. You need to mention each step so that you can just copy paste and perform the actions in few seconds and solve the problem.

Isn’t this easy! All you need to do is have a checklist of each type of new issue that you face and keep documenting it for yourself. Now if you learn something new or newer instructions have been provided, add it to the document.

Step 3> Inform the user and take his confirmation

Mail the user that his account has been enabled and take his confirmation before closing the incident. It is a good practice to attach his confirmation mail to the ticket but that is your choice of dedication to your work. I leave that decision to you.
In ticket mention Resolution as:
User account was locked due to inactivity. On confirmation from Business Manager the account has been unlocked and User has confirmed he is able to access the analytics module.

Be a sneaky bastard and not write your database query in the resolution. Holding back Information is the key to success.

Just 3 steps is all what is required to be efficient, fast and be able to solve the problem or pass it to the next team who should be able to. DO NOT SIT WITH THE TICKET. It is an INCIDENT not lunch!

I know you trust your memory and don’t like writing and documenting stuff, but frankly tell what were you doing 3 days before at 12 pm? Yeah you are not Magnus Carlsen, so don’t act like one. Know your limits Bradley Cooper.

Respect my advice and you will be promoted to next shitty position soon.

I am Aditya Dey having 9 years of experience which includes 5 years as Production Support, 4 years Non-Production Support Lead including Change and Release Lead. I have quit my job and now studying in NMBU, Norway for Master in Data Science. I am an excellent debugger and can read through 5000 lines to find exact root cause in Oracle Database, MS SQL Server, Informatica ETL, Informatica MDM, IBM Websphere, Java packages, Python packages and many more.
I have started blogging to share all my knowledge so that you do not face the same pitfalls.

You can reach me at adiitya.dey@gmail.com