System and method for root cause linking of trouble tickets

• US 20050097396A1
• Filed: 10/20/2003
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wood, Douglas A.
• Application Number:
  US10/689,500
• Publication Number:
  US 20050097396A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2252 using fault dictionaries

Abstract

A system and method for providing an accurate root cause failure by linking user incident reports to the root cause failure in a diagnostic database that reflects the system'"'"'s current configuration. The system is pre-populated with pre-identified symptoms that are associated with assets in the system. The pre-identified symptoms are inactive until actual failures with assets are detected by a monitoring application. After the pre-identified symptoms become active, they are presented to service representatives who also answer calls from users. The activated pre-identified symptoms are used to assist the service representatives to solve problems observed by the users.

Claims

1. A system for providing an accurate root cause failure by linking user incident reports to the root cause failure in a diagnostic database that reflects the system'"'"'s current configuration, comprising:

a monitoring application for monitoring a plurality of assets and detecting failures with the plurality of assets;

a diagnostic database having a plurality of pre-identified symptoms, each pre-identified symptom being linked to at least one failure of an asset, wherein a pre-identified symptom is activated when the monitoring application detects a failure linked to the pre-identified symptom; and

an incident tracking application for tracking user incident reports received from users, each user incident report containing an observed symptom,

wherein, after a user incident report is received, the observed symptom in the user incident report is matched up with an activated pre-identified symptom in the diagnostic database, the asset that is associated with the activated symptom being the root cause failure.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising an incident tracking database for storing the user incident reports.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring application creates a system incident report for each failure detected with an asset.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the system incident report is stored in the incident tracking database.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic database further stores a plurality of solutions, each solution being associated with at least one pre-identified symptom.

6. A method for for providing an accurate root cause failure by linking user incident reports to the root cause failure in a diagnostic database that reflects the system'"'"'s current configuration, comprising the steps of:

pre-populating a diagnostic database with a plurality of pre-identified symptoms, each pre-identified symptom being linked to at least one solution;

linking each pre-identified symptom with at least one failure of one asset;

monitoring a plurality of assets;

upon detecting a failure of an asset, activating at least one pre-identified symptom associated with the failed asset in the diagnostic database;

receiving a user incident report from an user, wherein the user incident report having at least one observed symptom; and

matching the observed symptom with an activated pre-identified symptom in the diagnostic database, the asset associated with the matched symptom being the root cause failure.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

retrieving a solution associated with the activated pre-identified symptom; and

executing actions listed in the solution.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

analyzing failure modes; and

devising the plurality of pre-identified symptoms.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

creating a system incident report for each failure detected; and

linking the system incident report to the activated pre-identified symptom.

10. A system for providing an accurate root cause failure by linking user incident reports to the root cause failure in a diagnostic database that reflects the system'"'"'s current configuration, comprising:

first means for monitoring a plurality of assets and detecting failures with the plurality of assets;

second means for storing a plurality of pre-identified symptoms, each pre-identified symptom being linked to at least one failure of an asset, wherein a pre-identified symptom is activated when the first means detects a failure linked to the pre-identified symptom;

third means for tracking user incident reports received from users, each user incident report containing an observed symptom,

wherein, after a user incident report is received, the observed symptom in the user incident report is matched up with an activated pre-identified symptom in the second means, the asset that is associated with the activated symptom being the root cause failure.