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Working an Incident in Service Operations Workspace

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • The steps an agent follows on every incident
  • Work notes vs additional comments
  • How to test your incident setup end to end
  • What to check at each step

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: Incident Notifications at SNWR. You learned how to review the baseline incident emails, keep the useful ones and turn off the noise.

1 “Does it all work together?”

You’ve built categories, priorities, groups, rules and properties. Each one works on its own.

  • But nobody has worked a real incident from start to end yet.
  • Daniel asks: “Will Abel’s day actually be easier?”
  • You don’t know yet.

🎯 The problem: Settings that work alone can still fail together.

👉 The fix: test the whole journey, the way an agent works: from New to Resolved, in the workspace.

2 Abel’s steps

Abel works INC0010101 in five steps. 1 Pick up: open Unassigned incidents for my groups and assign it to himself. 2 Check: read Sam's details and the side panel for similar incidents. 3 Update Sam: add an additional comment, which Sam can see. 4 Note the work: add a work note, which only agents can see. 5 Resolve: state Resolved, with a resolution code and notes.
Figure 1. Pick up, check, update, note, resolve.

Key term: Work note

A note only agents can see. Use it for technical details.

Key term: Additional comment

A message the caller can see, and gets by email.

⚠️ Heads up: Never put passwords or private details in an additional comment. The caller, and anyone they forward it to, can read it.

3 What to check as you test

Step Check that
Logged by email Contact type is Email and the default rule set SNWR Service Desk
Impact and urgency Priority changes by the matrix
On Hold, Awaiting Caller Sam’s reply moves it back to In Progress
Resolve Code and notes are required
After resolve Sam gets the Incident resolved email

💡 Good to know: Write each check as a line in your test plan. You’ll reuse it in UAT and in the regression pack later.

4 Let’s try it: work an incident end to end

  1. Impersonate Sam Lee. Log an incident in Employee Center: “VPN keeps disconnecting”. End impersonation.
  2. Impersonate Abel Tuter. Open Service Operations Workspace and find the incident in his group’s queue.
  3. Assign it to Abel. Set category Network, subcategory VPN, impact 3 and urgency 2. Check the priority.
  4. Add an additional comment asking Sam to restart the VPN client. Set On Hold, Awaiting Caller.
  5. Impersonate Sam and reply. Then as Abel, check it’s In Progress, and resolve it with a code and notes.

5 Quick recap

  • Abel’s steps: pick up, check, update the caller, note the work, resolve
  • Work notes are for agents; additional comments go to the caller
  • Test the whole journey, not just single settings
  • Check routing, priority, hold, resolve and email
  • Save the checks for UAT and regression testing

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 Which one can Sam see: a work note or an additional comment? Show answer

An additional comment.

2 Where does Abel find his group’s new incidents? Show answer

In the queue lists in Service Operations Workspace.

3 Why test the whole journey? Show answer

Settings that work alone can still fail together.

4 Should a password ever go in an additional comment? Show answer

No. The caller and others can read it.

Nice work! You tested a full incident journey. 🎉
Next up: Configuring Workspace Lists and the Record Page

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