Track Metrics will follow the Issue Management process to manage, resolve and (if appropriate) escalate all issues reported by customers or notified by automated monitoring of the service to the Track Metrics service team. 

This process is based on IT Service Management best practices and is aligned to ITIL. 


The process which Track Metrics will follow to manage and resolve issues is broken down into following stages:

  • Issue Detection and Recording

  • Issue Classification and Initial Support

  • Investigation and Diagnosis

  • Issue Resolution and Recovery

  • Issue Closure

  • Escalation


All issues should be logged for tracking and audit purposes in the Track Metrics Helpdesk tool Freshdesk.


Freshdesk is accessible here: https://trackmetrics.freshdesk.com/ 


Issue Detection and Recording

Issues are detected either through Track Metrics automated monitoring system Opsview, reported by customers (via phone or email) or are noticed and logged by Track Metrics Staff.


Issue Classification and Initial Support

Once logged the issue should be triaged to determine its priority and type and classified accordingly.

The below table should be used to help assign the correct priority to the issue and also direct the communications to customers where relevant.


The 3 general types of issues are:

  • Question

  • Feature Request

  • Incident

The 4 Priorities of Issues are:

  • Urgent

  • High

  • Medium

  • Low

Question

Questions can be raised by customers, they should be set as low priority


Feature Request

Feature requests can be raised by customers, they should be set as low priority


Incident

If the issue is deemed to be an incident the priority should be set accordingly as directed in the table below.

If reported by a customer, or if the issue is affecting the service supplied to a customer then they should be informed of:

  • The nature of the issue

  • The service impact

  • Estimated time to resolution

  • Frequency of situation updates. It's important to manage expectations, especially in high severity/impact situations, with customers as to when we will next update them on the status of the incident.

Priority

Severity Definitions

Initial Response Time Target

Status Update Frequency

Mean Time to Resolution

Urgent

System is down or product completely inoperable impacting end users or the ability to administer the system, no acceptable workaround available.

15 minutes

Every 30 minutes or as requested

1 hour

High

Product operating in reduced capacity or product partially unavailable impacting end users or the ability to administer the system, no workaround available.

30 minutes

Every 1 hour or as requested

2 hours

Medium

Non critical functionality loss, workaround exists.  Single end user issues.

4 Hours

Every 7 days or as requested

14 Days

Low

No loss of functionality, cosmetic issue

1 Day

Every 14 days or as requested

28 Days


Investigation and Diagnosis

Track Metrics will then proceed to investigate and diagnose the issue, keeping the client informed of the status where appropriate. If other areas of the business are required to help investigate and diagnose an issue then the escalation process below should be invoked to ensure the relevant parties are engaged.


Incident Resolution and Recovery

Track Metrics will schedule, execute and follow up on the actions to resolve the incident, keeping the client informed of the status where appropriate. Where the incident resolution requires a defect fix Track Metrics will engage the agreed Change and Release management process.


Incident Closure

After an incident has been resolved it should remain open until it is confirmed that the action taken to resolve it has been successful. This can be in the form of a confirmation from the incident reporter (if a customer or internal staff) or by the Opsview monitoring system returning a OK check response.


Escalation

The person assigned to resolving the issue will also be responsible for the agreed application incident escalation process. Appropriate escalation will take place to ensure that factors affecting service receive the correct level of focus and visibility to facilitate closure. Incidents will be managed according to their severity based on impact and urgency. In the event of a high priority incident, where relevant, the person will implement an escalation to the Track Metrics Director.


The Track Metrics escalation process is comprised of multiple components which are initiated as follows:

  • Technical Escalation – invoked automatically (time driven) to resolve the incident

  • Relationship Escalation – invoked as required (customer driven) to ensure correct focus and communication

  • Customer Escalation – corresponding levels of engagement within the customer’s own organisation