A service provider is failing its service level targets on a monthly basis. The resolution time of priority 1 incidents is breached frequently. As the Incident Manager for the service provider, which action will you take?

The primary goal of incident management is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible. Consistently breaching service level targets for priority 1 (P1) incidents indicates a bottleneck in the resolution process. Improving the triage step to immediately route these critical incidents to a specialized group with the requisite skills and authority is the most effective action. This bypasses lower support tiers, reduces hand-off delays, and ensures that experts begin working on the resolution immediately, directly addressing the excessive resolution time. This aligns with the ITIL practice of having dedicated procedures for major incidents.

B. Shifting all service desk employees is an inefficient use of resources; they may lack the specialized skills required for P1 resolution, causing more confusion.
C. Adding additional staff to the service desk addresses logging capacity, not the specialized technical skill required for rapid P1 resolution.
D. Removing the triage step would be counterproductive, leading to mis-assigned incidents and even longer delays as they are rerouted multiple times.

1. ITIL® 4 Practice Guide: Incident Management. AXELOS. (2020). Section 5.2.5, "Incident resolution," states that "Major incidents often require a separate procedure" and that "A dedicated team is often assigned to a major incident." This supports the concept of guiding P1 incidents directly to a specialized group.

2. ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value. AXELOS. (2020). Section 4.3.3, "Triaging duty and prioritizing work," emphasizes that "Effective triage requires skill and knowledge to ensure that work is routed to the appropriate team." Improving this step is a logical corrective action.

3. Iden, J., & Eikebrokk, T. R. (2013). Implementing IT Service Management: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Information Management, 33(3), 512-523. This review discusses how structured processes, including proper incident classification and routing (triage), are critical success factors for achieving the benefits of ITSM, such as faster resolution times. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.01.004)