Documentation & Ticketing
A formal commitment between a service provider and a client specifying agreed-upon performance metrics, response times, and quality of service.
SLA (Service Level Agreement)
The practice of fully concentrating, understanding, responding, and remembering what the customer is saying during a support interaction.
Active Listening
An operating system whose underlying source code is made freely available for anyone to inspect, modify, and enhance (e.g., Linux).
Open-Source OS
A centralized repository of information, articles, guides, and troubleshooting steps used by technicians and users to solve known issues.
Knowledge Base (KB)
Software used by IT support teams to log, track, manage, and resolve customer issues and requests throughout their lifecycle.
Ticketing System
Questions designed to elicit brief, specific answers, often "yes" or "no," used to confirm specific facts (e.g., "Is the power light on?").
Closed-Ended Questions
The point in a product’s lifecycle where a vendor stops supporting, updating, or providing security patches for an operating system or software version.
End of Life (EOL)
Documentation compiled after an incident or project documenting what went well, what went wrong, and how to prevent future issues.
Lessons Learned
An unplanned interruption to an IT service or a reduction in the quality of an IT service.
Incident
Maintaining a calm, respectful, non-judgmental tone and appearance when dealing with users, especially during difficult or stressful situations.
Professional Demeanor
The method and data structure an operating system uses to name, store, and organize files on a storage device (e.g., NTFS, FAT32, APFS, ext4).
File System
A set of rules defined by an employer or network administrator specifying the required behaviors and prohibited activities for anyone using company hardware or network resources.
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
Categories assigned to tickets to determine the urgency and impact of an issue, dictating how quickly support must respond.
Severity / Priority
Corporate guidelines strictly advising or prohibiting employees from posting work experiences, customer interactions, or internal IT issues on public platforms.
Social Media Policy
Closed-source operating systems developed, owned, and restricted by a single company (e.g., Windows, macOS, iOS)
Proprietary OS
A structured approach and policy for introducing, approving, testing, and documenting hardware or software modifications to minimize system downtime and service disruption.
Change Management
Step-by-step instructions compiled by an organization to help workers carry out complex routine operations efficiently and consistently.
SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)
Questions that require more than a simple "yes" or "no" answer, used to gather detailed information about a problem (e.g., "What were you doing when the error occurred?").
Open-Ended Questions
The ability of a software application or hardware device to run smoothly on a specific operating system version.
OS Compatibility
The process of transferring a ticket to a higher-level technician or specialized tier when lower tiers cannot resolve the issue.
Ticket Escalation