Library IT Production Services Policy & Procedures: OTRS Ticket Processing & Review
Date:
Authors: Peggy Steele, Michael Fleming
We use the OTRS trouble ticket system to manage communication between Library employees and
Library IT about problems with Library IT systems & services. Our overall goal is to process OTRS tickets
promptly and to keep Library employees informed about the status of their requests.
Specific goals:
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Every OTRS ticket should get an initial response from the ticket owner (i.e., a non-automated
response) within 2 days of receipt.
Recognizing that not all problems can be resolved quickly, we notify users when a particular
issue will take some time. When it takes longer than 3 days to resolve a ticket, the ticket owner
notifies the user every 5 days that work is still ongoing.
Procedures:
Ticket processing:
The Library IT Help Desk is responsible for monitoring open OTRS tickets in Library IT Production Services
queues to ensure that all tickets are opened promptly and closed within a reasonable amount of time.
The Help Desk reviews all incoming tickets the same day they arrive in the queue, unless they arrive
after 4:30 PM. The Help Desk makes every effort to open incoming tickets within 15 to 30 minutes of
receipt.
Tickets that cannot be resolved same day by the Help Desk are either assigned an owner in the Help
Desk or moved into another Library IT queue.
Library IT Production Services managers review new tickets in their queues daily and assign each
unclaimed ticket to an owner.
Ticket owners respond to users within 2 days to acknowledge receipt of each ticket and give an estimate
of completion time. Ticket owners update users every 5 days until the ticket is resolved. Tickets for
more complex, long-term projects (e.g., a new database) are acknowledged by the owner within 2 days,
and the owner and the user agree on a mutually acceptable schedule for project updates.
Initial review of open tickets:
Beginning July 1, 2010, the Help Desk Coordinator will initially review all LIPS tickets that have been
open longer than one month.
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If a ticket is clearly still open for a legitimate reason, it will be left open and a note will be added
reminding the owner to keep the user updated on progress every 5 days.
If it is not clear why a ticket is still open, a note will be added asking “Is it ok to close this ticket?”
This will update the owner who will then review the ticket and either close it or add a note to
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keep it open. If the ticket is to remain open, the owner sends a progress report to the user
every 5 days.
The Help Desk will maintain a spreadsheet of open tickets reviewed. Two weeks after
completing the review the Help Desk will review the “ok to close?” tickets again. Tickets which
haven’t been updated by their owners will be referred to the unit manager.
Ongoing weekly review of tickets:
After completing the initial review of older tickets, the Help Desk Coordinator will routinely review all
open tickets on a weekly basis to catch any that may not have been handled according to the ticket
processing policy. Reminders will be sent to ticket owners (and managers, if needed) as described
above.