triaging-incidents

Triaging ServiceNow Incidents

Create, triage, investigate, and analyze incidents. See references/incident-fields.md for the priority matrix, states, categories, and encoded query patterns.

Workflows

1. List Recent Incidents

Get a summary of recent incidents by priority, state, or assignment group.

Progress checklist (copy into your response):

- [ ] Query incidents with filters
- [ ] Summarize by priority and state
- [ ] Highlight critical/P1 incidents

1. List recent incidents (last 24 hours, open):

   list_records(table_name="incident", query="active=true^sys_created_on>=javascript:gs.daysAgoStart(1)", fields="number,short_description,priority,state,assignment_group,assigned_to,sys_created_on", limit=20, order_by="-priority")
   

2. For a specific assignment group:

   list_records(table_name="incident", query="active=true^assignment_groupLIKE<group_name>", fields="number,short_description,priority,state,assigned_to", limit=20)
   

3. Summarize: total count, breakdown by priority (P1/P2/P3/P4), breakdown by state, highlight any P1/P2 incidents.

2. Triage a New Incident

Assess impact and urgency, then suggest priority, category, and assignment group.

Progress checklist:

- [ ] Get incident details
- [ ] Assess impact and urgency
- [ ] Check affected CI and its dependencies
- [ ] Suggest priority, category, assignment group
- [ ] Recommend next steps

1. Get the incident details:

   get_record(table_name="incident", sys_id="<incident_sys_id>")
   

2. If a CI is attached, check its relationships to assess blast radius:

   get_ci(sys_id="<cmdb_ci_sys_id>")
   get_ci_relationships(sys_id="<cmdb_ci_sys_id>")
   

3. Look for similar recent incidents (same CI or category):

   list_records(table_name="incident", query="cmdb_ci=<ci_sys_id>^sys_created_on>=javascript:gs.daysAgoStart(30)", fields="number,short_description,state,priority", limit=10)
   

4. Recommend triage decisions:
   • Priority: Based on impact x urgency matrix (see references/incident-fields.md)
   • Category: Based on the affected CI class and description keywords
   • Assignment group: Based on CI ownership or category routing rules
5. Present recommendations with reasoning.

3. Investigate an Incident

Deep-dive into an existing incident — full context, related CIs, similar incidents.

Progress checklist:

- [ ] Get full incident details
- [ ] Get affected CI details and relationships
- [ ] Find similar recent incidents
- [ ] Check for related problems or changes
- [ ] Summarize findings and recommend actions

1. Get the full incident record:

   get_record(table_name="incident", sys_id="<incident_sys_id>")
   

2. If a CI is attached, get its details and dependency chain:

   get_ci(sys_id="<cmdb_ci_sys_id>")
   get_ci_relationships(sys_id="<cmdb_ci_sys_id>")
   

3. Find similar recent incidents:

   list_records(table_name="incident", query="categoryLIKE<category>^sys_created_on>=javascript:gs.daysAgoStart(30)", fields="number,short_description,state,priority,resolution_notes", limit=10)
   

4. Check for related problems:

   list_records(table_name="problem", query="cmdb_ci=<ci_sys_id>^active=true", fields="number,short_description,state", limit=5)
   

5. Check for recent changes on the same CI:

   list_records(table_name="change_request", query="cmdb_ci=<ci_sys_id>^sys_created_on>=javascript:gs.daysAgoStart(7)", fields="number,short_description,state,type", limit=5)
   

6. Summarize: incident context, CI dependency impact, related incidents/problems/changes, recommended actions.

4. Create an Incident

Create a new incident with validated fields and appropriate defaults.

Progress checklist:

- [ ] Validate required fields are provided
- [ ] Suggest category from description
- [ ] Set appropriate defaults (state, priority)
- [ ] Create the incident
- [ ] Confirm creation with INC number

1. Validate required fields: short_description is mandatory. Confirm caller_id is provided.
2. Suggest category based on description keywords (see references/incident-fields.md).
3. Set defaults for missing fields:
   • state: 1 (New)
   • impact: 3 (Low) unless specified
   • urgency: 3 (Low) unless specified
   • priority is auto-calculated from impact x urgency
4. Create the incident:

   create_record(table_name="incident", data={"short_description": "...", "description": "...", "caller_id": "...", "category": "...", "impact": "3", "urgency": "3", "cmdb_ci": "..."})
   

5. Confirm creation: return the INC number, priority, and link.

5. Bulk Analysis

Analyze incident trends — top categories, repeat offenders, SLA status.

Progress checklist:

- [ ] Pull recent incidents (7-30 day window)
- [ ] Group by category
- [ ] Identify repeat CIs (frequent flyers)
- [ ] Check SLA breaches
- [ ] Present trends and recommendations

1. Pull recent incidents:

   list_records(table_name="incident", query="sys_created_on>=javascript:gs.daysAgoStart(30)^active=true", fields="number,category,cmdb_ci,priority,state,assignment_group,sla_due", limit=100, order_by="-sys_created_on")
   

2. Group by category — which categories generate the most incidents?
3. Identify repeat CIs — which CIs appear in multiple incidents?

   list_records(table_name="incident", query="cmdb_ci=<frequent_ci_sys_id>^sys_created_on>=javascript:gs.daysAgoStart(30)", fields="number,short_description,priority,state", limit=20)
   

4. Check for SLA breaches:

   list_records(table_name="incident", query="active=true^sla_due<javascript:gs.daysAgoEnd(0)", fields="number,short_description,priority,sla_due,assignment_group", limit=20)
   

5. Present: top incident categories, repeat-offender CIs, SLA breach count, recommendations for reducing incident volume.

Tips

• The priority matrix is impact x urgency — see references/incident-fields.md for the full mapping.
• Use active=true to filter out resolved/closed incidents. Closed incidents have state=7.
• SLA fields (sla_due, made_sla) track whether response/resolution targets are met.
• Assignment groups can be looked up: list_records(table_name="sys_user_group", query="nameLIKE<keyword>", fields="name,sys_id").
• See references/incident-fields.md for encoded query patterns and field reference.