---
title: Life cycle of an Incident
description: Incident Management is responsible for managing the life cycle of incidents, from creation to closure.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-service-management/incident-management/c\_IncidentManagementStateModel.html
release: australia
product: Incident Management
classification: incident-management
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2025-01-30"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Explore, Incident Management, IT Service Management]
---

# Life cycle of an Incident

Incident Management is responsible for managing the life cycle of incidents, from creation to closure.

The Incident Management process has many states, and each is vitally important to the success of the process and the quality of service delivered. The different states can be represented in a diagram as follows:

\[Omitted image "IM\_StateModel.png"\] Alt text: Incident state flow diagram

**Note:** The state names in the diagram correspond to the states described in the following table.

<table id="table_t51_21c_b5"><thead><tr><th>

State

</th><th>

Description

</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>

New

</td><td>

Incident is logged but not yet investigated.

</td></tr><tr><td>

In Progress

</td><td>

Incident is assigned and is being investigated.

</td></tr><tr><td>

On Hold

</td><td>

The responsibility for the incident shifts temporarily to another entity to provide further information, evidence, or a resolution. When you select the **On Hold** option, the following **On hold reason** list appears. -   Awaiting Caller
-   Awaiting Change
-   Awaiting Problem
-   Awaiting vendor

If the **On hold reason** is **Awaiting Caller**, the **Additional comments** becomes mandatory.

**Note:** If the caller updates the incident, the **On hold reason** field is cleared and the state of the incident is changed to **In Progress**. An email notification is sent to the user whose name is mentioned in the **Assigned to** field as well as to the users in the **Watch list**. An incident can be placed in the **On hold** state one or more times prior to being closed.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Resolved

</td><td>

A satisfactory fix is provided for the incident to ensure that it does not occur again.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Closed

</td><td>

Incident is marked **Closed** after it is in the **Resolved** state for a specific duration and it is confirmed that the incident is satisfactorily resolved.

</td></tr><tr><td>

Canceled

</td><td>

Incident was triaged but found to be a duplicate incident, an unnecessary incident, or not an incident at all.

</td></tr></tbody>
</table>**Parent Topic:**[Exploring Incident Management](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-service-management/incident-management/incident-management-process.md)