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Help Desk & Project Management Glossary

Help Desk & Project Management Glossary by OneDesk

Want to learn more about the world of help desk and project management software? Here is a reference of useful concepts and terminology to get you started.

Glossary Contents
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    The terms ‘actual’ and ‘planned’ are used in project management. The terms are typically used in reference to time or cost, for instance, actual hours vs. planned hours. ‘Actuals’ refers to the real amount (of hours or cost) spent on the project/task, while ‘planned’ is the estimated amount allocated to complete the task or project. Actual and planned amounts are useful metrics for planning and tracking progress on tasks or projects. Particularly, monitoring and interpreting the variance between your planned and actuals is important to successful project management.

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    Resource Allocation

    Scheduling Tasks

    An administrator (or admin) is a user with a high level of permission, typically, someone in a managerial role. Admin level users have access to all applications as well as to some high-level features. For example, admins have the ability to define permissions for non-admin users, to join projects without requesting permission, and to share work views across their organization.

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    Security Roles and Permissions

    See Users

    An agile points is an estimated measure of the effort required to complete a task. A task can be given a point value to demonstrate the difficulty level of the task. Projects are generally given an agile point capacity, then tasks are added until that capacity is reached.

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    Agile Points

    Agile Project Management

    An API or application programming interface, is a connection between two programs, allowing them to communicate. Developers can make use of APIs to connect and synchronize data between applications.

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    Public API in OneDesk

    An audit log is a list of activities and changes made within your account. An audit log can be used to track and monitor changes by users, automations, and customers. In your OneDesk account the audit log is found under the Activities tab of your Analytics portal.

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    Audit Log

    Auto-triaging is the process of automatically assigning or routing tickets to the right team, agent, or project. Auto-triaging is done through workflow automation tools in OneDesk.

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    Auto-Routing and Triaging 

    An assignee is the user (or users) who is designated to work on an item. Assigning items to members of your team helps you know who is responsible for what work.

    Backlog refers to unresolved tickets. Analytics can help you keep track of support performance and backlog.

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    Analytics 

    Also referred to as saved replies, canned responses are reusable messages available to all users. Saved replies allows users to save time on frequent requests by inserting the appropriate reply with just the click of a button. Saved replies typically include dynamic properties.

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    Canned Responses

    A chatbot is a tool used to automatically respond to your customers based on the conditions you have set. For example, you can configure your bot to immediately notify your customer that their request has been received. A bot is helpful to keep customers informed without much effort from your agents.

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    Automated Bot Responses

    Sometimes referred to as an end-user or client, customers can make use any customer-facing applications and send requests through email. Customers do not access your main OneDesk application. Customers are distinct from users.

    Customer-facing applications are tools your customers can use to communicate and engage with your business. Customer-facing applications include: a Customer Portal, Live Chat, Knowledgebase, and Webforms. Customer-facing applications can be embedded onto your website with the web widget.

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    Customer Apps

    The customer portal is a customer-facing application which allows customers to communicate and keep updated on tickets or tasks. Customers usually login to a portal and can view the status, progress, or other details of the submitted item. The details and items a customer can view in the portal is dependent on your portal configurations. The customer portal can also included an embedded webform.

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    Customer Portal

    Customer Portal Configuration

    Custom fields are configurable properties for your tickets or tasks. Custom fields are typically for capturing specific information needed for a service or issue. You can capture specific types of information in custom fields such as text, a number, or choice.

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    Custom Fields

    Customer satisfaction surveys allow customers to rate the resolution of a ticket as positive or negative. A customer can also add comments about the support they have received. Surveys are sent out to a customer after a ticket has been marked into a finished state. OneDesk allows you to configure the survey message that is sent to the customer as well as analyze the feedback received.

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    Customer Satisfaction Surveys

    Dynamic properties are  embeddable item properties which will update automatically in response to information. For example the “ID” property will generate the ID number of the attached ticket into the conversation automatically when the message is sent. These dynamic properties can be used in email templates, saved replies, the item merge menu, macros, and workflow automations.

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    Dynamic Properties

    Email ticketing is a function of helpdesk software that allows tickets to be created automatically via email.

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    Email to Ticket

    End-users are a form of customer. The term end-user and customer are often used interchangeably, however end-users are internal to your organization. End-users differ from users/agents.

    A feature is an additional item type (aside from tickets or tasks) which you can enable in OneDesk. Features are similar in functionality to tickets and tasks and can be customized and renamed to fit your needs.

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    Features Application

    Folders are tools to help you organize and structure your items. Folders exist within projects and hold items.

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    Work Structure & Organization

    Creating and Using Folders

    A follower is a user who is currently involved with the ticket or task. Depending on their settings, a follower will receive updates about new messages received on the item. Followers differ from Assignees or Requesters.

    A Gantt chart is a type of horizontal bar chart used commonly in project management. The Gantt chart is used to schedule activities visually. Gantt chart software allows you to drag tasks to adjust the schedule. Typically, a Gantt software also allows you to set task dependencies and relationships.

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    Scheduling

    A help desk is a software used to support customers or end-users. Requests are received as tickets into the software which are then assigned to and worked on by the helpdesk agents. A help desk software, like OneDesk, offers many useful features to streamline this process. For example, OneDesk provides customer-facing applications, giving customers multiple options to receive support. Regardless of how a customer reaches out the helpdesk agents receive requests in one central location with the omnichannel features.

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    Help Desk Features

    Item is an all encompassing term to refer to the things you manage in OneDesk such as tickets, tasks or features.

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    Item Creation & Configuration

    Email queues refer to the stream of incoming, auto-forwarded emails from an email address. Email addresses auto-forwarded to OneDesk create tickets and each email address will have its own 'email queue.' You can identify the address a ticket was forwarded from based on the ‘Incoming Email Queue’ column in your Tickets application. The 'email queues' are helpful for identifying or auto-triaging tickets.

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    Email Queues 

    A Kanban board, or status board, is a project management tool to help visualize work. Cards are used to represent work items and are arranged into columns, typically representing life cycle status. The lets you see how many items are within each lifecycle status or easily move the status. Kanban boards are a popular tool in agile project management.

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    Custom Work Views

    Agile Project Management

    Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics that measure the success of an organization’s activities.

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    Analytics

    A knowledgebase is a self-service or FAQ portal. It is typically used as a customer-facing application but can also be utilized internally. You can create articles, arranged into categories and parent-categories, to help inform customers on products, processes or services. Articles can also be linked from within messages.

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    The Knowledgebase

    A lifecycle status denotes the current status or progress of a work item. For example, the default statuses for tasks include open, ready to start, in progress, closed, and reopened. Lifecycle statuses are configurable to your workflow.

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    Configurable Statuses

    A live chat application allows you to support customers in real-time. The live chat application is typically included in the web widget which appears as a bubble on your website. The live chat enables customers or prospective customers to quickly and easily receive support while navigating your website. When a customer uses the live chat, an agent receives a notification and can respond immediately.

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    The Live Chat Application

    Macros are a method of performing multiple actions at once. Typically, macros are a sequence of actions which are saved and applied with a signal command. As such, macros are useful to make bulk modifications to items. For instance, you can create a macro to move a ticket to a project and assign it to a team and then perform this action to any ticket(s) you select by running the macro.

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    Macros

    A mobile-friendly application is sometimes referred to as a ‘responsive’ application. As the name implies, a mobile-friendly app is an application that displays and performs accurately on mobile devices like phones or tablets. A mobile-friendly application differs from a mobile application in that a mobile-friendly app is not downloaded to a device. Rather, a mobile-friendly application is accessed from a mobile browser.

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    Mobile-Friendly OneDesk

    OneDesk Mobile App

    Omnichannel refers to an application’s ability to funnel all requests into one centralized location. Omnichannel support helps your team to easily respond to requests and work on tasks without switching between multiple applications. Omnichannel also lets customers reach out in the way that works best for them. OneDesk allows customers to reach out through customer applications or email and requests are centralized in the OneDesk main application.

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    Customer Communications

    Portfolios are containers for your projects. Portfolios are primarily organizational tools. A common use of portfolios is to represent organizations you work with or departments within your organization.

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    Work Structure & Organization

    Priority levels define the urgency or importance of items. Priority is defined by a star rating, with 5 stars being most important.

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    Changing Item Priorities 

    Projects are containers for your work items (tickets, tasks & features). Projects are helpful for organizing, sharing and planning work. 

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    Creating & Using Projects

    Work Structure & Organization

    Properties refer to the attributes of items (tickets or tasks) and are displayed within the item detail panel. Properties include such attributes as: an item’s priority level, description, and more. Properties are typically modified as an agent works on the item.

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    Adding & Removing Detail Panel Properties

    A requester is the individual (or organization) that has submitted the item. Typically, the requester is a customer.

    SLAs are policies to monitor your service and meet service goals. SLAs define the response and resolution time for items.

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    Service Level Agreements

    Single sign-on (SSO) is a method of authentication that allows a user to log on with a single identification across multiple software applications. Single sign-on schemes include OpenID Connect, Active Directory, and SAML 2.0.

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    Single Sign-On

    Tasks are work items. Tasks are typically created for work which may require planning or resources. Tickets and tasks behave virtually the same but tickets are generally kept for customer requests and communication, while tasks are for planned work. 

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    Tickets vs. Tasks

    Dependencies define relationships between tasks. Task dependencies include predecessor and successor links such as one task must start after another is finished.

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    Task Dependencies

    Teams are groupings of users. A user can be part of one or more teams. Teams are useful for sharing projects.

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    Teams

    Communicating with Users or Teams

    Sharing with Users and Teams

    Tickets are work items. Tickets are usually requests received from customers. Tickets can be created in a number of ways, such as through emails or webforms. Tickets and tasks behave virtually the same but tickets are generally kept for customer requests and communication, while tasks are for planned work. 

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    Tickets vs. Tasks

    Email to Ticket

    Types or 'item types' allow you to create different concerns or workflows. For instance you can enable ticket types for each service your organization provides. The item type’s name, icon, and lifecycle status are configurable.

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    Item Types

    Project Types

    Sometimes referred to as agents, users are the members of your team and the main point of contact for your customers or end-users. Users work directly within OneDesk and are assigned to work in the form of tickets or tasks. Users have their roles and permission levels determined by admin-level users.
    Users differ from customers.

    Sometimes referred to as ticket forms or support request forms, webforms are a customer-facing application. Webforms allow a customer to create a ticket (or task) by completing the required fields and submitting the webform. You can customize which fields appear on the webform, including your own custom fields. Webforms ensure a customer provides the required information when submitting tickets.

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    Webforms

    The web widget is an application which is embeddable on your website. The widget appears as a bubble on your website and allows customers access to the customer-facing applications. The widget is highly configurable.

    Learn more about:

    Widget Configuration

    Customer Applications

    Workflow automations are configurable rules used to automatically perform actions when a trigger event occurs. You can define the conditions and actions of the automation. For example, you can automatically assign a ticket to a team or individual whenever a ticket is created.

    Learn more about:

    Automated Routing

    Automation Tools

    Work Views refers to the different methods of viewing your information (tickets, tasks, projects etc.). You can utilize various ‘system views’ such as: the Gantt chart, the Kanban board, the tree view, a flat (list) view or a calendar. You can then also apply your desired filters or groupings. Work Views are highly customizable and can be saved to your side panel for easy access.

    Learn more about:

    Custom Work Views

    New to help desk & project management software?

    OneDesk combines help desk and project management into one application. Evaluate OneDesk with a completely free 14-day free trial or book a demo to see OneDesk in action. If you liked the helpdesk and project management glossary, check out the Onboarding Guide to get up and running with OneDesk. 

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