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IT ticketing and help desk glossary

These are the terms that come up constantly in ticketing systems and internal IT, each explained in a few sentences with a link to the relevant page. The explanations apply generally, to any ticketing system.

A

Acknowledgement
An automatic message confirming that a report has arrived, usually with a ticket number. It does not count as a response for an SLA. See Calculating SLAs.
Agent
A person who handles tickets. Many ticketing systems charge per agent. See Ticketing system costs.
Asset tag
A unique identifier for a device, such as NB-0417. It stays with the device regardless of who uses it. See Asset tag numbering.
Assignment
Giving a ticket one responsible person: a name, not just "IT". See Ticketing automation.

B

Business hours
The hours in which a deadline clock runs, excluding weekends and public holidays. Public holidays vary by state or canton. See Calculate SLAs in business hours.

C

Category
Groups tickets by topic, such as printers or access. Six to eight categories are often enough. See Roll out a ticketing system.
CMDB
Configuration Management Database: a database of all IT components and their dependencies. Part of ITIL, and more than a device inventory. See Freshservice alternative.

D

Data processing agreement (DPA)
An agreement under Article 28 GDPR that sets out how a service provider processes personal data on behalf of a controller. A hosted ticketing system will generally require one. In German, it is called an AVV. See Data processing agreement (German).
Deadline
The time allowed to respond to or resolve a ticket. Good deadlines count business hours only. See Ticketing SLAs.

E

Entra ID
Microsoft’s identity directory for Microsoft 365 accounts, formerly Azure Active Directory. It handles authentication and user management. See Microsoft 365 ticketing.
Escalation
Passing a ticket to another person or level of support because a deadline is approaching or specialist knowledge is needed. In a small IT team, this may simply be an @mention. See IT console.
Expiry date
The date a licence, certificate, domain or contract ends. An unnoticed expiry often becomes visible only when something stops working. An advance reminder helps prevent that. See Licence and certificate expiry reminders.

G

Guest access
Time-limited access for an external partner, such as an IT provider covering a holiday. It should expire automatically and be logged. See Holiday cover for IT.

H

Help desk
The team that receives support requests, or the software it uses. Often used interchangeably with ticketing system. See What is a ticketing system?.

I

Incident banner
A portal notice showing that an incident is known. Affected employees join it instead of submitting another report. See Communicate IT outages.
Internal note
A ticket entry visible only to IT. Useful for discussing a case with colleagues without showing the conversation to the requester. See IT console.
ITIL
A collection of IT service management practices, including incident, problem and change management. Small internal IT teams usually need only part of it. See Compare ticketing systems.
ITSM
IT service management: organising IT as a service. A ticketing system is a key tool for this, but it is only one part. See What is a ticketing system?.

K

Knowledge base
A collection of help articles that employees can find themselves. It works best when it grows from resolved tickets. See Build a knowledge base.

M

MCP
Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets AI assistants use tools in other applications. A ticketing MCP server can let an assistant read and create tickets. See Ticketing API and MCP server.

O

Offboarding
Everything to do when someone leaves: block accounts, collect devices, close off access. See IT offboarding checklist.
Onboarding
Everything to do before and on a new starter's first day: account, device, access and induction. See IT onboarding checklist.

P

Priority
Determines the order in which tickets are handled, based on impact and urgency. See Set ticket priorities.

R

Resolution time
Time from a ticket arriving to its resolution, ideally measured in business hours and excluding pauses. The median is often more informative than the average. See IT service desk metrics.
Response time
Time until the first meaningful reply to a ticket. An automatic acknowledgement does not count. See Calculating SLAs.

S

SCIM
A standard for automatically creating, updating and removing user accounts, for example from Entra ID. See Roadmap.
Self-service portal
A site where employees can report issues, find help articles and track their tickets. See IT self-service portal.
Service request
A request with a defined process, such as onboarding or access permissions, often including approval and a checklist. Unlike an incident, a service request can be planned. See IT requests with approval.
Shared mailbox
A mailbox several people can access, such as it@company.example. It is enough for a few requests, but does not show who has picked up what. See Shared mailbox or ticketing system.
SLA
Service Level Agreement: a commitment about response and resolution times. In internal IT, it is often an internal policy rather than a contract. See Ticketing SLAs.
Snippet
A prepared response with placeholders such as a first name or ticket number. Saves typing and keeps replies consistent. See IT console.

T

Ticket
A request with a number, status, assignee and history. See What is a ticketing system?.

U

User sync
Accounts and their status are imported from a central directory such as Entra ID. An account blocked there is blocked in the ticketing system after the next sync. See Microsoft 365 ticketing.

W

Webhook
A message sent to an address when an event occurs, such as a new ticket. Used to connect other systems. See Ticketing API.

Further reading

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