SDI Incident Management & Problem-Solving 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: According to ITIL-aligned SDI practices, what is the PRIMARY difference between an incident and a problem?
- An incident is planned downtime; a problem is unplanned
- An incident is a disruption to service; a problem is the underlying cause of one or more incidents (Correct answer)
- A problem always has a known workaround; an incident does not
- An incident is raised by users; a problem is raised only by IT staff
Correct answer: An incident is a disruption to service; a problem is the underlying cause of one or more incidents
An incident is any unplanned interruption to a service, while a problem is the root cause behind one or more incidents.
Question 2: A service desk agent receives a call about a network outage affecting 200 users. What should the agent do FIRST?
- Begin troubleshooting the root cause immediately
- Log the incident and check for an existing major incident record (Correct answer)
- Escalate directly to the network team without logging
- Ask the user to reboot their workstation
Correct answer: Log the incident and check for an existing major incident record
The agent should log the incident and check whether a major incident has already been declared to avoid duplicate efforts.
Question 3: Which metric best measures how quickly the service desk restores normal service after an incident?
- First Contact Resolution (FCR) rate
- Mean Time to Restore Service (MTRS) (Correct answer)
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Abandon rate
Correct answer: Mean Time to Restore Service (MTRS)
MTRS measures the average time taken from incident detection to full service restoration.
Question 4: During major incident management, the role of the 'Incident Manager' is to:
- Personally fix the technical fault
- Coordinate all resolver groups and communicate updates to stakeholders (Correct answer)
- Update the CMDB with new configuration items
- Handle inbound customer calls to free up analysts
Correct answer: Coordinate all resolver groups and communicate updates to stakeholders
The Incident Manager coordinates resolver teams and ensures stakeholders receive timely, accurate communications throughout the major incident.
Question 5: A workaround is BEST described as:
- A permanent fix documented in the known error database
- A temporary solution that reduces or eliminates the impact of an incident while a permanent fix is developed (Correct answer)
- A script that automates incident resolution
- A documented SLA breach notification
Correct answer: A temporary solution that reduces or eliminates the impact of an incident while a permanent fix is developed
A workaround provides temporary relief from an incident's impact until a permanent fix is implemented.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of 'proactive problem management'?
- Resolving a recurring printer issue after the fifth call
- Analyzing incident trends to identify and eliminate potential problems before they cause incidents (Correct answer)
- Escalating an unresolved incident to second-line support
- Logging a problem record after a major incident post-review
Correct answer: Analyzing incident trends to identify and eliminate potential problems before they cause incidents
Proactive problem management uses trend analysis to prevent future incidents before they occur, rather than reacting after the fact.
Question 7: What is a 'Known Error' in the context of problem management?
- An incident that has been closed without resolution
- A problem that has a documented root cause and an identified workaround or fix (Correct answer)
- Any error logged by a monitoring tool
- A duplicate incident record in the ITSM tool
Correct answer: A problem that has a documented root cause and an identified workaround or fix
A Known Error is a problem whose root cause has been identified and for which a workaround or permanent fix has been documented.
SDI Incident Management & Problem-Solving 2
According to ITIL-aligned SDI practices, what is the PRIMARY difference between an incident and a problem?