Which of the following best describes an incident in ITIL?

In ITIL, an incident is defined as an unplanned interruption to a service or a reduction in the quality of a service. This means that any disruption that affects the normal operation of a service is categorized as an incident. The focus is on restoring service operation as quickly as possible to minimize impact on the business.

The understanding of incidents is crucial for effective incident management. This process aims to restore normal service operation swiftly to minimize any adverse effects on business operations. Notably, incidents can occur without necessarily being classified as major outages; even minor interruptions can be significant enough to warrant attention and action.

The other options describe different concepts that do not align with the definition of an incident. A planned change to a service refers to a change management process designed to implement new features or improvements, while a request for a new service feature pertains to service requests that are handled through a separate service request management process. Lastly, a minor issue affecting service may not necessarily qualify as an incident unless it leads to an interruption or degradation of service quality.