Learning about trouble ticket management

In Service Assurance for CSP, you can create trouble tickets and then work on them throughout their lifecycle: from creation to closure.

Trouble ticket lifecycle

After your Fault Management System is integrated and configured with Service Assurance for CSP, when an alarm is triggered, a trouble ticket is automatically created by using the Create Ticket API. And, the Resource/Service field is automatically filled with the primary alarm details.

The following diagram illustrates the trouble ticket lifecycle for automatic creation of trouble tickets:

When a customer calls the Customer Care System, the NOC Agent can manually create trouble tickets in Service Assurance for CSP.

The following diagram illustrates the trouble ticket lifecycle for manual creation of trouble tickets:

Service Assurance for CSP helps you manage trouble tickets through the following stages:

Trouble ticket creation
Trouble ticket Event start time
Trouble ticket assignment
Trouble ticket updates

Trouble ticket creation

After the trouble ticket is created automatically or manually, you can view the details of the trouble ticket in the Trouble Ticket Console.

Trouble ticket Event start time

You can view the Event start time for a trouble ticket in the Trouble ticket console and on the trouble ticket details page. This event start time is auto-populated based on the the following criteria:

When a trouble ticket is created automatically, the Event start time is set to the primary alarm time related to the trouble ticket. If the primary alarm time is manually updated, the Event start time is also updated accordingly.
When you create a trouble ticket manually or if the primary alarm is not available, the Event start time is set to the time when a trouble ticket is created.

Important

If a new alarm is not marked as a primary alarm, but has the start time earlier than the Event start time, the Event start time will be updated to be the time of this alarm. However, this alarm will not be automatically set to a primary alarm.
If another alarm is added or an existing alarm is updated that has a start time earlier than the current event start time, the Event start time is updated.
If a new alarm is marked as a primary alarm, it is set as the primary alarm. If the start time is earlier than the existing Event start time, the Event start time is updated to the primary alarm time.
If multiple alarms are created while creating a trouble ticket and none of the alarms are marked as primary, the event that has the earlier start time is set as the primary alarm.
Changing the primary alarms does not change the Event start time.

The Event start time is a view-only field, and the NOC agent cannot edit this field.

Trouble ticket assignment

You can manually assign the trouble ticket to the required support group and the assignee. The trouble tickets that are created through API, are also assigned to a predefined support group and the assignee automatically. However, you can change the assignment of a trouble ticket if you have certain permissions. For more information about permissions, see Roles and permissions.

Additionally, you can configure the assignment rules, which enable the system to automatically assign tickets with similar configurations to specific support groups. For more information, see Configuring assignment of trouble tickets and work orders.

Trouble ticket updates

After you create a trouble ticket, you can add the following details:

Create Work Orders—Click Work orders and then click Create work order.
Add resources—Click Related, Resources, and then click Add resources.
Add services—Click Related, Services, and then click Add services.
Relate existing tickets—Click Related, Tickets, and then click Relate existing ticket.
Create impact—Click Impact and then click Create impact.

Best practice

Keep the information in a ticket up-to-date. This helps you to make better informed decisions about how to manage the ticket, keep your personal and group statistics up-to-date, and notify the affected customer about the progress of the ticket.

You can also add notes in the Post a note field. This section also displays the history of the trouble ticket. The SLA progress bar displays the progress of the trouble ticket against the Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Trouble ticket resolution

When you're ready to resolve a trouble ticket, you can manually change the status of the trouble ticket to Resolved. Additionally, you must enter the Reason for status change and the Resolution note. When you resolve the trouble ticket manually, the Resolution Date is auto populated in the Details tab.

Once all the alarms are cleared and all the work orders and impact records are completed, the trouble ticket will auto-resolve only if the status of the trouble ticket is In Progress.

Trouble ticket closure

After you verify that the issue is fixed, manually resolve the trouble ticket and change the status to Closed.

The auto closure feature automatically moves the status of the trouble ticket to Closed after the specified amount of time has passed. Check with your system administrator to determine how much time your organization specifies.

Testing your knowledge

Check your knowledge. See if you can answer each question. Click the questions to view the answer.

How can you determine which open trouble ticket to work on?

Check the Console to see which trouble tickets are assigned to you or to your support group. After that check the defined Operational Level Agreement (OLA).

What's the difference between resolving a trouble ticket and closing a trouble ticket?

Resolving a trouble ticket means that you think the trouble ticket is ready to be closed, but you do not yet have confirmation from the customer. You can close a trouble ticket after the customer verifies the resolution.

Do you want to learn more?

Accessing and navigating the Service Assurance for CSP application

Trouble tickets

Roles and permissions