IT Category Structure

[SkyKast]

Firstly I'd like you to know I googled the shit out of this and found nothing so I turn to you genius folks

I need to add to our current category structure for IT staff to tag trouble tickets with. I already have a help desk system in place with some categories, sub-categories and sub-sub-categories. It needs to be possible for a technician to tag a ticket and almost never have to select the "other" category. This is what I have so far but as I said, I am constantly seeing tickets that don't fit in any category. The Network and Software categories are lacking the most. Thank you in advance for any recommendations.


Hardware
--PC
----CD-ROM
----Hard Drive
----Keyboard
----Mouse
----Network Card
----Noisy Fan
----Power
----RAM
----Sound
----Other
--Printer
----Paper Jam
----Low Toner
----Other
Network
--Cable Requests
----Network Point
----Other
--Connections
----External Connection
----Logon
----Storage
----Outages
----Other
Software
--Application
----Database
----Internet Browser
----Organizer
----Email
----Spreadsheet
----Software License
----Word Processor
----Other
--Operating System
----DOS Shell
----Virus Warning
----Other

 

[W1zzard]

make them up as you go or do datamining on your existing data

users are dumb, so dont expect them to pick the right category, or read, or can read

 

[Kreij]

I think that I would hesitate to add a whole bunch of superfluous categories that may or may not get used. Why not just add more categories as you receive tickets that are marked as "other" to fill the gaps?

Dang, W1zz ninja'd me. lol

 

[SkyKast]

Yeah that's probably the best way to go about it..now I have to find a nice way to tell my boss that he was using the wrong approach to the problem hah

Appreciate your time guys.

 

[Rhyseh]

Just from the perspective of a tech, I absolutely hate those service desk tools that have about 271356271523 categories and sub-categories. All they do is waste time with trying to find the right category, in the end they achieve the opposite because everyone starts using shortcuts to raise an close tickets leading to less accurate data.

The best service desk tools have fewer options, the best one I ever used was one that had five resolution categories, no sub categories, a progress log and a free text field to type the resolution information into.

The boss may want easier to analyse data but if it takes too long to log things your tech's are just going to use shortcuts destroying any information integrity anyway rendering the system superfulous. Tech's normally like to fix things and logging tickets should be quick and painless, I can't count how many systems that I have used where it takes longer to log, fill in the resolution and close a call than it does to solve the customers problem. These tools always seem like a waste of support resources.

TLDR: Overcomplicated service desk tools do not promote data integrity, in fact they achieve the opposite. The simple service desk tools are often the best.