What is the primary objective of incident management in IT service management?

• A. To document regulatory compliance
• B. To manage change requests
• C. To restore normal service operation as quickly as possible
• D. To prevent any incidents from occurring

Answer: (C)

Restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible is the central aim of incident management. When an incident occurs—an unplanned interruption or degradation of service—the focus is on logging, prioritizing by impact and urgency, and delivering a workaround or fix to return users to baseline service levels as soon as feasible. This emphasis on rapid recovery helps minimize business disruption and keep service levels aligned with agreed expectations.

Documenting regulatory compliance is not the immediate goal of incident handling; that falls under governance or compliance activities. Managing change requests belongs to change management, which coordinates alterations to the IT environment rather than responding to incidents in the moment. Expecting to prevent any incidents entirely isn’t realistic—incident management accepts that incidents happen and concentrates on quick restoration, while problem management or proactive measures work to reduce their likelihood and impact over time.