Problem management

Using this practice, the organization can reduce the effect and probability of incidents via recognizing actual and potential root causes of them and managing workarounds and known errors. 

Problem: An existing or potentially creatable reason for one or more incident(s). 

Known error: A problem which is analyzed but not resolved. 

There are three phases of problem management: problem identification, problem control, and known error control.

Any service has some errors that could lead to one or more incidents. Some errors are identified and resolved before setting the services up but some are unidentified or unresolved remained and could be a risk for services. In ITIL, these errors are called problems and are subjects of problem management practice. 

Problems are related to incidents but the should especially be managed with another practice because incidents have effects on user or process and shall be resolved to make them not to interfere with business movement but Problems are root causes of incidents that should be identified and also their resolutions are recognized in order to have fewer results in incidents in the future. 

As mentioned before, the three main steps of problem management are problem identification, problem control, and error control. The problem identification step includes by itself these activities: 

• Studying on recorded incidents 
• Identifying repeated incidents 
• Identifying the risk of creation of an incident during the management of major incidents. 
• Analyzing received information from suppliers and partners. 
• Analyzing received information from inhouse developers, testing teams, and project teams. 

Problem control contains some activities like analysis, documenting workarounds, and documenting known errors. The problem should be prioritized because the problems that have more impact on services could be resolved or controlled with higher priority.

Workaround

A solution that reduces the effect of a problem that its certain solutions are not found. A workaround is considered sometimes to reduce the probability of incidents.  

An effective workaround can be a permanent way to encounter the problem but in circumstances that the resolution is not trustable or is financially unaffordable, it remains on known error situation, and a document related to the workaround is maintained. Any related document shall have an accurate definition of the type of problem and its resolving method.  

Error Control

Some problems that are analyzed but yet no solution for them is found or the solution is not achievable because of the lack of resources like budget, the error control activity is used. Error control could raise a change to solve the problem permanently or find a workaround to treat with that known error as long as no reservation is found. The workaround should be reanalyzed each time the workaround is used, in terms of effectiveness so that an improvement on workaround could be reached.

Problem management is relative to other practices. As a problem could be potentially a risk, then it could be done as a special case of risk management. As the implementation of a solution for problem leads to a change, then generally the implementation is done by change management practice. The output of problem management contains some information which could be handled by knowledge management practice. Problem management activities can identify new improvement opportunities then they will need continual improvement. Some problem management activities require the experience and knowledge of people to be raised, so mentoring and training will have a major role to make it successful. And finally, as problems are related to incidents, the activities inside the are similar and may have coverage on each other, or sometimes interfere with each other.

Figure 5.24