Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation Practice Exam

Which roles within the organization are responsible for the incident management process?

1. The incident management process owner

2. The service desk

3. Technical management and application management

4. The incident management process owner and service desk

The correct answer is: Technical management and application management

In the context of incident management within ITIL, the responsibilities of managing and responding to incidents encompass a variety of roles. Among these, the incident management process owner and the service desk are pivotal. The incident management process owner plays a critical role in ensuring that the incident management process is designed and implemented effectively. This person maintains oversight of the process, develops policies, and reviews performance to ensure continual improvement. Their role is essential in guiding the organization on best practices related to incident handling. The service desk, on the other hand, serves as the primary point of contact for users who experience incidents. They are responsible for logging incidents, categorizing and prioritizing them, and ensuring that incidents are addressed in a timely fashion. The service desk team effectively facilitates communication between the users and the technical teams that resolve the incidents. Technical management and application management contribute to the incident management process, but they do so as support functions rather than primary roles responsible for the process. Their involvement includes providing the necessary technical expertise to resolve incidents, rather than owning the process itself. Therefore, the most accurate understanding of responsibility for the incident management process includes recognizing the distinct yet complementary roles of the process owner and the service desk, making the joint selection as the correct choice.