There are a number of work types used for IT Service Management called classifications. When assigned to the correct classification, work gets included in the right process and is properly categorized for reports, metrics, and goals.

Service Request

A service request is a request from a user for information, advice, or access to an IT service, such as: 

• A customer asks for a set of codes for Cornell Two-Step Login (Duo). 
• A customer asks whether they will have access to their Cornell email account when they leave the university. 
• A customer needs a charger for their laptop. 

Incident

An incident is an unplanned interruption or reduction in quality of an IT service. Failure of a configuration item (asset) that hasn't yet had an impact on a service is considered an incident. 

Work done on an incident focuses on fixing an issue that needs repair. The incident may also be resolved with a workaround if a permanent or immediate fix is not available. 

Incident examples include: 

• A software application is slow to respond or unresponsive.
• A customer’s computer is not backing up correctly.
• A printer is jammed. 

Major Incident

A major incident is any service disruption known to or expected to have an impact resulting in multiple incidents, whether or not multiple reports have already occurred. While a frequent use case for major incidents is service outages, a service need not be completely down to qualify as a major incident. A service that is available but functioning in a degraded state for multiple users also qualifies. 

Major Incident examples include: 

• Server outage causing applications to be inaccessible. 
• ERP SaaS vendor solution is unavailable such as Salesforce, TeamDynamix, or Peoplesoft.
• An application has a software bug after an update causing core functionality to be unusable. 

Problem

A problem is the cause or potential cause of one or more incidents. Typically, when entering a problem ticket the cause is not yet known and requires investigation, or the cause and potential workarounds, fixes, known errors is known by only a few and needs to be documented and communicated. 

Problem examples include: 

• A cyclical reoccurring issue on the backend that happens infrequently and where a fix is not yet known.
• Software issues are being reported by customers where incidents are being used to solve with a workaround, but a permanent long-term fix needs investigation to keep the issues from reoccuring.
• An after-action review into the root causes of a major incident to identify corrective and preventative actions to prevent or minimize the impact in the future. 

Change

A change is an addition, modification, or removal of anything that could affect IT Services. This may include IT services, configuration items, processes, documentation, and other related elements.

Change examples include: 

• Regular updates and patches to ERP solutions and applications.  
• Configuration changes to features and settings of application instances and modules as part of platform management. 
• Software deployments to desktops and laptop machines. 

Release

A release is a collection of hardware or software documentation, processes, or other components required to implement changes to IT services. The contents of each release are managed, tested, and deployed as a single entity.​ 

Release examples include: 

• Development of new features and software functionality 
• Deployment of new service as part of an eCommerce platform
• Upgrading the CRM solution to a new version such as from 5.0 to 6.0