Ticketing System Best Practices

Aug 25, 2025

Summary

  • The meeting provided an overview of ticketing systems in IT support organizations, covering how tickets are created, categorized, prioritized, assigned, and escalated.
  • Key processes such as information gathering, categorization, severity assignment, and documentation were discussed in detail.
  • Examples were used to illustrate best practices in ticket handling, reporting, and linking related issues for efficient problem solving.
  • The importance of clear communication, accurate contact information, and detailed documentation was emphasized for effective ticket management.

Action Items

  • No explicit action items were assigned during this discussion.

Ticketing System Overview and Best Practices

  • Most organizations use ticketing systems to manage and assign IT support issues, enabling documentation and assignment to appropriate teams based on problem type (e.g., network, server).
  • Help desks manage incoming support requests from various channels (phone, email, text) and are responsible for triaging, prioritizing, and escalating tickets as needed.
  • Information gathering at ticket creation is critical; capturing details like the requesting user, affected device, problem description, and contact information can speed up resolution.
  • Tickets are categorized by type (e.g., account issue, hardware, onboarding) and assigned appropriate severity based on impact and urgency.
  • Accurate assignment (to both the correct problem category and person/team) and confirmation of contact details are best practices, sometimes validated against directories like Active Directory.
  • Progress notes and resolution details are crucial for tracking the history of a ticket, enabling collaborative troubleshooting and knowledge sharing for future incidents.
  • Filtering and reporting features in ticketing systems help monitor open issues, track trends, and justify business decisions (e.g., upgrades).

Ticket Creation and Workflow Examples

  • Example: A user reports inability to log in; the issue is correctly categorized as an "account problem," assigned to the user Daniel, and documented with a clear summary and detailed description.
  • Categorization and filtering allow teams to sort and prioritize tickets efficiently, such as addressing urgent guest Wi-Fi requests for visiting vendors.
  • Tickets often link to related incidents, which helps identify larger trends (e.g., multiple VPN outages) and supports justification for escalations or infrastructure changes.
  • Progress notes are continuously updated as tickets move through troubleshooting, and final resolution documentation aids future problem-solving by providing a reference for similar issues.

Decisions

  • No major business decisions were made during this meeting; the focus was informational and procedural.

Open Questions / Follow-Ups

  • No unresolved questions or follow-up actions were identified during the meeting.