220-1102 Question 662
Single answerService-level agreements (SLAs)A help desk technician receives a ticket at 4:30 PM from a department manager reporting that the payroll application is unavailable for the entire accounting team. The company's service-level agreement (SLA) states that critical business-impacting outages affecting multiple users must receive an initial response within 15 minutes and be escalated to the appropriate support group within 30 minutes. The technician has not worked on payroll issues before and is considering what to do next. Which action BEST complies with the SLA?
- A
Troubleshoot the issue alone until the end of the shift, then update the ticket the next morning if the problem continues
- B
Immediately document the impact, acknowledge the ticket, and escalate it to the payroll application support group before the 30-minute escalation deadline
- C
Wait for additional users to call so the outage can be confirmed before taking action
- D
Close the ticket and ask the manager to open a new request marked as urgent so it can be prioritized correctly
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Service-level agreements define measurable support expectations such as response times, escalation timelines, and priority handling for incidents. In this scenario, the key is not whether the technician can personally solve the payroll issue, but whether the ticket is handled in accordance with the SLA for a critical outage. Best practice in service desk operations is to document the scope and business impact, provide a timely acknowledgement, and escalate to the correct resolver group within the contractual or internal SLA window. This aligns with common IT service management practices, such as those used in incident management frameworks, where priority is based on impact and urgency and where escalation paths are defined to avoid breaches.
- A. Incorrect.
This does not comply with the SLA. A critical outage affecting multiple users requires a rapid initial response and escalation within defined time limits. Continuing to work alone without timely escalation risks missing both the response and escalation targets. A common mistake is assuming personal troubleshooting should come before escalation, even when the SLA explicitly defines required handling times.
- B. Correct.
This is correct. The SLA defines both the response expectation and the escalation window for a critical, business-impacting outage. Acknowledging the issue promptly satisfies the initial response requirement, and escalating it to the proper support team within 30 minutes aligns with the documented SLA obligations. Documenting business impact also supports correct prioritization and handoff.
- C. Incorrect.
This is incorrect because the manager has already reported that the entire accounting team is affected, which is sufficient to treat the issue as a multiple-user business outage. Waiting for more reports would delay response and could cause an SLA breach. This distractor reflects the misconception that an outage must be independently verified by multiple callers before action can be taken.
- D. Incorrect.
This is incorrect because closing and recreating the ticket introduces unnecessary delay and administrative overhead, increasing the chance of missing SLA targets. The technician should update and escalate the existing ticket based on the reported impact. This option reflects a misunderstanding of incident handling, where process formality is incorrectly prioritized over timely SLA compliance.