A manager argues that since the service desk logs and resolves incidents, the organisation does not need a separate incident management practice. Why is this reasoning wrong?
ITIL 4 Foundation, objective 7. Seven ITIL practices in detail hard
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The options
Correct The service desk is a point of contact that captures and coordinates demand, while incident management is the practice that governs how incidents are resolved wherever they are handled
Correct. The desk is where much incident work is initiated and coordinated; incident management defines how incidents are diagnosed, prioritised, escalated and resolved, including by teams the user never contacts.
Not correct The service desk handles only service requests, and never touches incidents
Wrong. Capturing demand for incident resolution is explicitly part of the desk's purpose, and desks resolve many incidents at first contact.
Not correct Incident management covers only major incidents, so routine desk work falls outside it entirely
Wrong. Major incidents follow a separate, faster procedure, but they are one category within incident management — the practice governs incidents of every priority, including those the desk closes at first contact.
Not correct The service desk exists only to escalate work, and is not permitted to resolve anything itself
Wrong. Modern service desks resolve a large share of contacts at first line using knowledge, tooling and automation; escalation is one option, not their only function.
Why
The two are related but not interchangeable. The service desk is an organisational point of contact and a demand-capture function that shapes the user's experience; incident management is the practice that defines how incidents are handled end to end, including by specialist teams working far from the desk. Collapsing one into the other loses either the user-experience focus or the resolution discipline.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- ITIL 4 syllabus clause 7
- What it says
- The service desk is the point of contact capturing demand; incident management governs how incidents are resolved.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 7 and space the ones you get wrong.