IPA IP 2021 Question 44
A question IPA Japan published in 令和3年度 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問44, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
Same question on ITPEC: Apr 2026 Q61 +1 more
In IT service management, which of the following is the case where a person in charge of the service desk entrusts the resolution of a high-difficulty incident reported to the service desk to secondary support with specialized skills?
Explanation
Escalation — the service desk hands an incident it cannot resolve to a support level with more specialized skills.
The service desk is first-level support: it records every incident and resolves what it can with known solutions. When an incident needs deeper expertise, it is passed to second-level support, such as application or network specialists; this is functional escalation. Raising an incident to higher management because of its impact or a threatened deadline is hierarchical escalation. In both cases the service desk still owns the incident and keeps the user informed.
Answer (c)
Why not others:
- •(a) FAQ — a collection of frequently asked questions and their answers, used so that common problems are solved without passing them on
- •(b) SLA — the agreement between provider and customer on service levels such as response time and availability; it sets targets, not who handles an incident
- •(d) Workaround — a temporary way to reduce or avoid an incident's impact while its root cause remains; it is applied, not handed over
Key rule: Escalation changes who handles an incident (functional: to more expertise, hierarchical: to more authority); a workaround changes how its impact is contained.
Service Management · AI-written, may contain errors
This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.