Incident and SDLC Intergation

[arunbudhwani]

We are using SDLC to manage feature releases and bugs against a product. Our user community is very comfortable in reporting incidents through our self service portal.

1. When stakeholders/users want to report a bug against product/business service, should they log an incident or go directly to a record producer against the service? This seems disjointed but we are not sure.
2. Should we continue to have our stakeholders/users submit incidents and create functionality to create an enhancement so that multiple incidents reported against a single enhancement/bug which can be better managed?
3. Should we continue to have our stakeholders/users submit incidents and create functionality to create a problem so that multiple incidents reported against a single problem? This is confusing as problem management is part of service management and we are not sure how if works for development projects/products.

Thanks

Arun

[mikekohlbeck]

Defects

For defect handling, users should report a production issue with their service as an Incident.   Incident allows for relating of multiple incidents and the creation of a related problem to determine root cause.   It is not always clear if an incident is an application defect so that is the purpose for problem management.   Incident would stay focused on resolving the issue with the service as quickly as possible by applying a workaround if available.   In addition, problem management can assess related incidents to determine the priority of the problem if you are relating incidents to the problem.   In problem, once you determine the problem root cause is an application defect you can set the problem as a known error.   Then consider creating a defect in SDLC that can be prioritized for a future release.     You can also create a related change to the release and problems it is fixing.   After the defect is fixed in a future release and you validate the fix make sure to close the problem and related incidents.

Enhancements

Best solution is to use ServiceNow Demand Mgmt for intake of enhancements requests which allows you to vet the request and determine if it should be rejected or become an enhancement, defect, or project, which can be handled in SDLC or PPM. If you don't have Demand Mgmt then consider a request with workflow or manual process.

[anna_scheib]

Hi Arun. Just to clarify, the functionality to create Defect/Enhancement from Incident/Problem/Demand is available OOB, so you shouldn't have to develop new logic to handle that, just activate the respective UI Action.

Specifically on the relationship between SDLC and Defects/Enhancements, an end-user can submit new Defect/new Enhancement from the Service Catalog or directly   from the SDLC application (they would need the appropriate role to do that). A product owner reviews and prioritizes all defects and enhancements together with the stories.   To address a defect/enhancement, create a new story and relate it to the specific defect and/or enhancement request. Our model allows for 1 defect and/or 1 enhancement to be related to a story, implying that there is a 1-1 relationship between the reported defect and the story created to fix the defect.

Hope this helps.