ITIL 4 Foundation Practice Exam 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The term that defines an unplanned interruption to a service or a reduction in the quality of a service is indeed an incident. In ITIL, an incident refers specifically to any event that disrupts the normal operation of a service or causes a degradation in its quality. This could range from a complete system outage to a slower response time that affects user experience.

Understanding why an incident is defined this way is crucial for effective service management. Incidents require immediate attention to restore services to their normal functioning state as quickly as possible to minimize impact on the business operations. Effective incident management involves identifying, prioritizing, and resolving these incidents in a timely manner.

In contrast, the other options do not accurately capture the essence of an unplanned interruption or quality reduction. An exception might relate to deviations within standard procedures or processes, a warning typically indicates that a potential issue could arise in the future but does not refer to an impact that has already occurred, and an event is a broader term that includes any observable occurrence within a service that may or may not impact service quality. Therefore, the definition of an incident is the most precise and relevant to the scenario presented in the question.