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Incident management is the practice of managing incidents to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible.

An incident is an unplanned interruption to a service or a reduction in the quality of a service.

The purpose of incident management is to minimise the negative impact of incidents on service operations.

Incident management focuses on restoring service, not on identifying root causes.

Incidents should be recorded, prioritised, and resolved according to agreed procedures.

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2. How This Applies to TakeCars (Car Rental Marketplace)

This practice is one of the most operationally critical for TakeCars because incidents directly destroy customer outcomes and trust.

a) What an “incident” is at TakeCars

Incidents are unplanned disruptions, such as:

• Host cancels last minute
• Car is not available at pickup
• Vehicle breaks down during a trip
• Payment fails after confirmation
• Customer cannot access booking details
• Support is unreachable when needed

These are not routine requests; they are service failures.

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b) Incident management goal: restore service fast

Key ITIL point:

• Incident management is about speed and restoration, not blame or analysis

For TakeCars this means:

• Get a replacement car
• Fix access to booking
• Rebook or refund quickly
• Keep the trip going if possible

Root cause analysis comes later (problem management).

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c) Prioritisation is essential in a marketplace

Not all incidents are equal.

Example prioritisation:

• Customer at pickup location with no car → highest priority
• Booking confirmation delay for future date → lower priority

Incident management ensures:

• Urgency and impact are considered
• Resources are focused where value loss is greatest

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d) Recording and procedures matter

Why ITIL insists on recording incidents:

• Patterns become visible
• Repeated host failures are detected
• Improvement opportunities emerge

Without records:

• Same failures repeat
• “Heroic” fixes hide systemic issues

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e) Exam-critical insight

If the exam asks:

“What is the purpose of incident management?”

Correct logic:

• Restore normal service operation quickly
• Minimise negative impact
• Focus on resolution, not root cause

Answers mentioning root cause identification belong to problem management.

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3. Key Things to Read / Remember Right Before the Exam

Incident management (very high probability)

• A service management practice
• Handles unplanned interruptions
• Focuses on quick restoration
• Minimises impact on service

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Incident vs problem (classic exam trap)

• Incident management
  • Restore service quickly
• Problem management
  • Identify and remove root causes

Do not confuse them.

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Common exam traps

• Incident management identifies root causes → False
• Incidents are planned events → False
• Incident management focuses on long-term fixes → False

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One-line memory hook

Incident management restores service quickly to minimise impact.

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