How does ITIL define an "incident"?

ITIL defines an "incident" as an unplanned interruption or reduction in the quality of an IT service. This definition highlights that incidents are not merely scheduled events or maintenance tasks; they arise unexpectedly and disrupt normal service operations. This can involve a complete outage of a service or a degradation in its performance, impacting users and business processes.

Recognizing an incident as an unplanned event is crucial for effective incident management. It ensures that organizations can quickly respond to and resolve such disruptions to minimize their impact on service quality and user satisfaction. By distinguishing incidents from planned activities or requests, ITIL emphasizes the need for a proactive and structured approach to managing unexpected events. This framework enables better prioritization of resources and a more focused incident response process.

In comparison, the other options describe activities that do not match the ITIL definition of an incident. A planned event affecting IT service quality pertains more to scheduled changes or upgrades, while a scheduled maintenance task refers to proactive measures to maintain service quality, rather than addressing interruptions. Lastly, a request for new IT services signifies a user-initiated action for service provisioning, which is fundamentally different from an incident as defined by ITIL.