Incident Management first through n-line

[macrouch]

I want to understand how the Incident Manager role is used. The Service Desk is the front door of the process and next is the 1st line Incident Management, which has Incident Managers. The Incidents are created here automatically, passed by the Service Desk or submitted by an electronic form and routed here. The goal is to quickly restore services based on scripts, SOPs. If the service cannot be restored it is to be moved to the n-line and so on. Do the n-lines have Incident Managers independent of the first line Incident Managers or do the Incident Managers usually reside in one location of an organization overseeing the Incident through it's life cycle. I may be confusing how things are to escalate. I was under the impression the line was to move the Incident on and move to the next, not to continue following up on the Incident.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Our org is very large and there are 3 lines of support. First line is sit at the console and react to the red light. 2nd line is hands on trouble shooting...

Thanks in advance,
M

[MVPS]

Aren't you confusing Incident-handling support staff with Incident Manager?

From the service support book:

"An Incident Manager has the responsibility for:

driving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Incident Management process
producing management information
managing the work of Incident support staff (first-and second-line)
monitoring the effectiveness of Incident Management and making recommendations for improvement
developing and maintaining the Incident Management systems.
In many organisations, the role of Incident Manager is assigned to the (function) Service Desk Supervisor.

5.8.2 Incident-handling support staff
First-line support (Service Desk) responsibilities include:

Incident registration
routing service requests to support groups when Incidents are not closed
initial support and classification
ownership, monitoring, tracking and communication
resolution and recovery of Incidents not assigned to second-line support
closure of Incidents.

Second-line support (specialist groups that may be part of the Service Desk) will be involved in tasks such as:

handling service requests
monitoring Incident details, including the Configuration Items affected
Incident investigation and diagnosis (including resolution where possible)
detection of possible Problems and the assignment of them to the Problem Management team for them to raise Problem records
the resolution and recovery of assigned Incidents.

Ownership, monitoring, tracking and communication tasks cover:

monitoring the status and progress towards resolution of all open Incidents
keeping affected Users informed about progress
escalating the process if necessary. "