Stuff happens. Website crashes, security incidents, hardware malfunctions, and so on. The only thing we can do is manage the incident to mitigate the fallout and reduce the stress on the people addressing it.
Automated incident management makes it possible for organizations and individuals to create a playbook with properly curated protocols, workflows, and processes that should be triggered when an incident occurs.
To understand how to automate incident management, we’ve broken down what it means, the benefits, challenges, best practices, and real-life examples.
Let’s get right to it.
What is Incident Management?
Incident management is the process of handling every stage of the incident from the moment it appears on your radar until it finally becomes a non-issue.
When you zoom out, incident management applies to every facet of life, from how you manage a flat tire to how emergency services handle extreme weather events.
Zooming into the business world, incident management provides a playbook for addressing events that impact daily business operations. It could be a website or app crash, or a hardware issue (the printer stopped working).
What is Automated Incident Management?
Automated incident management (AIM) is the process of eliminating manual processes focused on addressing ongoing problems.
It essentially means removing humans from the equation to increase the accuracy, efficiency, and speed of resolution. Instead of humans, you have workflows, processes, triggers, alerts, and incident management automation working in real time.
So at every stage, there is already an entire algorithm of actions that must be taken automatically to manage the incident and mitigate the disaster.
How to Automate Incident Management Across Multiple ITSM Tools
To get complete control over incidents, you need to automate processes and workflows involved in every phase. This may take the form of scripted rules, predefined templates, or custom connections.
Step 1: Identification/Detection
The first step is to set up a detection workflow, whether using incident management software tools or through user actions.
For instance, a customer creates a ticket to log an incident or software bug. The system should be able to detect it and flag it for immediate attention instantly.
Step 2: Logging and Categorization
The incident is recorded in an incident management system (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira, Zendesk) with relevant details: time, user impact, and symptoms.
These incidents are then classified and prioritized based on urgency and impact, as well as the parts of the infrastructure affected.
For instance, the incident could be categorized as a software or hardware issue in order to assign it to the right people.
Step 3: Escalation
Based on criteria such as priority, severity, number of users affected, and urgency, the ticket should be forwarded or escalated to the appropriate department.
For instance, high-priority incidents and incident tasks from ServiceNow can be forwarded to the development team in Jira as bugs. Low-priority incidents, such as password resets, can be resolved through a self-service portal and closed automatically.
Once the incidents are escalated, the automated incident management system will send out a notification trigger to alert the assignee or agent responsible for addressing the issue.
Step 4: Investigation and Diagnosis
For severe software defects, root cause analysis and deeper investigation are conducted to pinpoint the source or cause of the incident or bug. This also involves going over event logs and reports to figure out what went wrong and where things started breaking.
Step 5: Resolution and Recovery
The information from running diagnostics will tell the team manager where to forward the incident or the team responsible for providing a solution.
For instance, software defects will go to the development team for resolution, while minor UI issues can be addressed and resolved by the customer service team.
Step 6: Closure
After the incident is resolved, the status is automatically updated, and the ticket is closed, according to the automation rules. If the ticket is closed in ServiceNow, the status of the Freshservice ticket will automatically be changed to “Resolved”.
For unresolved issues, the automated workflows can trigger predefined actions, such as sending notifications or escalating the incident further after a certain amount of time.
Step 7: Post-Incident Review
For major incidents, a review is conducted to understand what went wrong and how to prevent recurrence.
Subsequently, the incident logs will be available so that your team will be able to get a grasp of the following:
- Time of first detection
- Severity level
- Team members involved
- Number of affected users or devices
- Number of hours from detection to resolution (MTTR/MTTD–Mean time to resolution/Mean time to detection)
This report will provide a broader context for what went wrong and assess the effectiveness of the automated incident management software (and the team in general) in managing the situation.
This data will now be analyzed using machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify recurring patterns, which will come in handy when predicting potential issues and optimizing the system for future incidents.
Discover how to integrate Jira Service Management with Jira Software and other systems.
Examples of Automated Incident Management
Some real-world examples of automated incident management in the business/IT world.
- Website/application performance issues: When a website or application stops working — say the payment gateway no longer processes transactions — an incident is automatically created in Freshdesk and forwarded to the IT team using ServiceNow. This will trigger a bug report instantly.
- Internal service requests: Say an employee forgets their password. The automated password reset process kicks in, allowing them to obtain a password reset link without having to message the IT person. So they create a Freshservice request and have a new password in the space of minutes.
- External incident reporting: Let’s say an MSP detects an incident that could be affecting multiple clients at the same time. The triggered automation can generate tickets in ServiceNow or Freshservice and send email alerts to all of them simultaneously in order to resolve the issue as fast as possible.
- Firewall and malware updates: The security team can automatically initiate software updates across multiple devices. They can also use automated scripts and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to block malicious traffic from dodgy IPs. This will mitigate the effects of DDoS attacks and help in forensic analysis after the fact.
- Hardware malfunction: As mentioned earlier, a printer running out of ink can trigger an alert to notify the team, while automatically switching to a different printer. The IT team can set up a system whereby any damaged or physically compromised laptop will trigger a complete revocation of user access to data.
The real-world automated incident management examples are endless. You just have to figure out why you need automation when managing incidents.
Why is Automated Incident Management Important?
Some people insist that humans should still be in charge of managing incidents. However, current trends have shown that automated incident management is the way forward.
Here are the benefits of automating incident management and response.
1. Improve the Speed of Detection and Resolution
According to FRSECURE, it typically takes businesses 197 days to discover a breach and 69 days to manage it.
Think about that. That’s months of the breach occurring, and in the current world of lightning-speed cyberattacks, you might as well give the attackers a cup of coffee.
With automated incident management, you can detect breaches faster, sometimes within minutes. This will limit the potential damage to your system infrastructure as well as the level of penetration.
With limited or no human intervention, you can effectively reduce the Mean Time to Detection (MTTD) and Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR).
2. Allow Less Room for Human Error
The goal of automated incident management is to keep humans away from the response cycle. And there is a point. Humans can crack under stress, which can lead to negligence and catastrophic errors.
Let’s use a security incident, for example. The automation can instantly analyze and detect abnormal activity, then escalate it to the service desk within seconds.
If a human is in charge, they could miss the early indicators or even assign the ticket to the wrong person. These precious minutes can be crucial in security scenarios.
3. Give Your Team Everything They Need
Automated incident management doesn’t cut out humans completely. It places them in supervisory roles where they can act with a better context. Even at that, only 45% of companies have an incident response plan in place.
When the automation gathers the logs and analyzes the cause and source of the incident, all the key info will be available to your team to initiate the corrective or preventive procedure—no need for guesswork or wasted efforts.
If they’re using an ITSM system like ServiceNow, they can automatically update other teams or companies involved in the incident.
4. Encourage Transparent Logging and Reporting
Automated workflows save logs and forensic data, which provides valuable intel about the incident.
Your team can review the logs afterwards to generate thorough incident reports, which can now be used in post-incident autopsy and communication with stakeholders.
If humans were involved, one team member could forget a key piece of information, which is common in the heat of the moment.
5. Provide a Competitive Advantage
Your team’s ability to manage incidents automatically gives you a massive competitive edge over other organizations in your industry.
Here is an example.
The payment gateway is down on your website. So a ticket is created in Zendesk and replicated in Jira Service Management for the IT staff. This instantaneous ticket escalation increases the likelihood of a faster resolution. As a result, you can keep the customer satisfied.
If your competitors rely on manual processes, customers will likely bounce from them and defect to your product—every second matters.
6. Reduce Expenses and Damages
The faster you can detect and resolve an incident, the smaller the expenses. In some cases, you can completely automate the incident management process without any humans in the cycle.
Think about it. Automating incident response means that you spend less time and money trying to figure out the solution. This also means you don’t lose productive business hours, as well as conversion opportunities, while your services are down.
In essence, better uptime and faster incident management translate to more money in your coffers.
Why is Incident Management So Difficult?
Automation sounds like a plug-and-play scenario. In reality, incident management using automation presents numerous challenges.
System Integration Complexity
The reality of incident management is that you need to integrate ticketing software, monitoring tools, and communication systems to interact.
And since they all have different API configurations, this can be a major headache. Conversion errors can result in incomplete data transfers and inaccurate reporting.
Sometimes, the complexity comes from legacy systems, which do not support modern automation and workflow orchestration.
To overcome this challenge, you need to set up an integration using automated incident management tools, such as Exalate. This tool will help you create a bidirectional script-based integration to control the flow of information in real time.
Exalate comes with an AI-enabled Groovy-based scripting engine for complex customizations.
Data Security
When data flows between systems, the chances of breaches and compromise increase. And if the attack has infiltrated your automated workflows, it could create further chaos within the organization.
To address security concerns, focus on solutions that incorporate advanced security protocols, robust encryption, role-based access control, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Also, carry out regular security audits to make sure your firewalls and security protocols are up to date.
Scalability and Costs
Automating incident detection and response for a single module is straightforward. But when you have multiple workflows, teams, and clients, the volume of incidents can skyrocket pretty quickly.
This often requires scaling up your current incident management response—and of course, you have to pay more money.
To keep your system flexible and scalable without spending beyond your budget, focus on scalable incident management solutions designed to accommodate surges and spikes without noticeable performance issues.
Resistance to Change
As AI takes over jobs, employees will naturally resist automation. This often results in teams preferring to manage incidents “the old way”. Obviously, this has procedural and financial implications for your business.
To break through that resistance to automation, educate your team on the importance of automation. Hammer home the point that the automation is there to improve their effectiveness rather than push them out the door.
This may also involve rolling out the incident automation process in phases until the team becomes accustomed to it.
Poor Communication
Even though automated systems are managing incidents for your organization, humans still need to stay in the loop to coordinate a cohesive response.
This close collaboration will help them determine what works and what needs to be optimized for future reference. The communication could take the form of status updates, internal comments, or work notes shared among team members.
Learn everything worth knowing about integrating Jira Service Management with ServiceNow.
What are the Best Practices of Automated Incident Management?
Let’s discuss the best practices to follow for hitch-free incident management automation:
- Define incident response policies: Teams should define roles to control every stage of incident management, from detection to assessment to escalation. This will establish a governance policy to regulate the interaction between automated systems and humans.
- Follow a consistent playbook: When configuring and automating your company’s incident management playbook, focus on outlining clear-cut instructions for different types of incidents based on severity, urgency, financial impact, and other factors. Use a dynamic playbook in order to stay adaptable to technological changes.
- Test the automated process before implementation: Use simulated incidents to ascertain the efficacy and applicability of the response mechanism. This will help you identify weaknesses and blind spots that require attention. Testing should be continuous, rather than a one-time endeavor. So test, optimize, then implement.
- Add more security measures: Stay up to date with compliance and security requirements. Invest in additional security features to safeguard your automated workflows and data, both at rest and in transit.
- Educate your team: Dedicate sufficient time and resources to teaching your team members the importance of automated incident management and how to respond to it. Encourage them to learn about new technologies, trends, and best practices for managing automated systems.
Overall, automated incident management can only work if every person involved plays an active role in bridging the gap between human and machine.
Exalate for Automated Incident Management
Exalate is a useful solution for bridging the gap between ITSM solutions, work management systems, and CRMs. As such, it can be used to automate a significant part of a company’s incident management.
With Exalate, your team can connect with various incident and task management systems, including Zendesk, ServiceNow, Freshdesk, Freshservice, Service Desk Plus, Jira Service Management, and more.
It uses AI Assist as an embedded scripting assistant to simplify the process of generating sync rules and scripts. Exalate triggers also help admins exert granular control over their integrations, which is essential for faster escalation.
Discover how Exalate integrates into your automated incident management strategy. Book a call with our engineers right away.
Recommended Reads:
- How to Set Up a Bidirectional Jira Service Management Integration with Jira Software
- How Jira Service Management Integration With ServiceNow Can Save Your Service Delivery
- ITSM Integration: Simplify Your IT Services Like Never Before
- Automated Integration: A Key to Scalable and Agile Business Operations
- The Reality of Business Process Integration
- Understanding Workflow Orchestration for Complex Business Processes
