One way a help desk analyst can create a parent incident is when an existing incident is already opened. You can create a parent incident using the following steps. A parent incident serves as a container for several incidents.

The following procedure is performed on an incident that is neither a parent incident nor a child incident. Afterward, a new parent incident is created and the existing incident is converted to a child incident.

To create a parent incident from an incident form

  1. In the Service Manager console, open the Work Items workspace, and in the Work Items pane expand Incidents.

  2. Select any Incident Management view that contains active incidents and then select an incident.

  3. In the Tasks pane, click Edit to open the incident.

  4. In the Tasks pane, click Link to New Parent Incident to open the Link to New Parent Incident dialog box.

  5. In the Link to New Parent Incident dialog box, select a template to create the new parent incident with and then click OK. For example, select Networking Issue Incident Template and then click OK.

  6. In the Title box, type a new description or modify the description inserted by the template. For example, type Network Outage in Bldg 773.

  7. In the Affected user box, select the user who reported this incident. For example, select Joe Andreshak.

  8. In the Alternate Contact Method box, enter additional contact information for the affected user (optional).

  9. The Child Incidents tab appears in the form where you view the child incident that the new parent incident is grouped with and where you can add other child incidents.

  10. In the parent incident form, click OK to close it.

  11. In the original incident form, click OK to close it.