What are request types in IT service management?

Request types are the types of requests that can be raised in your service project, such as “Get IT help” or “Request a new account”. They direct your customers to the right place to submit their requests, and allow your agents to more effectively assist your customers by automatically sorting requests into the correct queue and IT service management work category (Service requests, Incidents, Problems, Changes, or Post-incident reviews). Learn how to use work categories in any of your service projects.

Request types can also be organized into groups in your help center to help customers find the right place to submit their requests. Learn more about setting up, customizing and organizing your request types, or learn how to customize the fields of a request type to suit each request.

Each request type is based on an issue type, and a single issue type can be the basis for many different request types. For example, both the Request new hardware and Request new software request types, could be based on the Purchase issue type. This is because request types manage specific settings such as naming and portal customization, while issue types manage foundational settings like workflows and fields.

Creating new request types

Project admins can add and configure custom request types on the Request types in Project settings, or use the defaults that come pre-set within your service project.

If you're setting up request types for the first time:

• Think about how your customer would write a request, for example Purchase a new monitor instead of Submit a hardware request.

• Break request types down into smaller chunks, such as Get help with printers or Get wi-fi access.

• Avoid specialist terminology. For example, use I need access rather than Deploy SSH key.

Learn how to create a new request type.

Assigning existing request types

If you enable work categories (Service requests, Incidents, Problems, Changes, or Post-incident reviews) in one of your existing service projects, you can then assign your existing request types to a category to gain additional features for your requests. Any request types not assigned to a work category will be found in the unassigned section of your request types settings page, and the ‘Queues' section of the navigation sidebar on the left. Learn more about unassigned request types. Or, learn how to assign an existing request type to a work category.