IT Problem Management

Problem management in ITIL refers to managing the lifecycle of problems that occur and could potentially occur in an IT service. The ITIL defines a “problem” as the cause of one or more incidents. Problem management in the ITIL framework involves analyzing and developing resolutions or workarounds for the errors, flaws, and vulnerabilities that cause incidents or may cause incidents.

ITIL problem management breaks problem management down into a series of sub-processes:

• Proactive Problem Identification: Proactively identify and diagnose problems behind incidents before future incidents occur.
• Problem Diagnosis and Resolution: Trace the underlying cause of a problem and figure out resolutions and workarounds.
• Problem and Error Control: Link errors to problems and take measures to prevent future incidents.
• Problem Closure and Evaluation: Log incidents and problems and ensure a full historical description is retained after a problem has been resolved.
• Major Problem Review: After any major problem, review the resolution to ensure future incidents can be prevented and best practices are captured for future problem-solving.
• Problem Management Reporting: Inform other service management processes and IT teams concerning pending problems, and alert them of existing workarounds.

There are different ways to apply the ITIL problem management framework depending on the size of your team and their working style. There are two main types of problem management—reactive and proactive:

1. Reactive problem management is triggered in response to an incident. When an incident occurs, IT management takes the appropriate measures to review and analyze the incident to arrive at a resolution.
2. Proactive management uses trending and historical information to identify potential problems.

Either approach may be appropriate depending on the organization’s specific needs, but regardless of how you tackle problems, doing so is a priority for any organization.

There are four main techniques for tackling problem management effectively. They include:

1. Brainstorming: This takes a discussion-based approach where each stakeholder participates in the discussion, shares their data, and contributes to problem analysis. Brainstorming is “reactive” and good for collaboration.
2. Ishikawa Diagrams/Cause and Effect Analysis: This method uses diagrams to analyze primary and secondary causes of a problem, including different people, processes, products, and partners. It’s “reactive” and works on defining the problem clearly.
3. Kepner Tregoe Problem Analysis: This method defines a problem and works on establishing possible causes and testing them until the right cause is established. It asks questions concerning why something occurred and focuses on establishing the root of the problem.
4. Five Whys: This technique aims to arrive at the root of the problem by repeatedly asking “why.” Gather your team and plot a series of why questions depending on the complexity of the problem. Use the answers to define actions that resolve the issue and could prevent it from recurring.

Problem management offers benefits for both business teams and IT desks. As problem management resolves issues and participates in incident prevention, it contributes to the IT service value chain. Problem management engages with customers by updating on resolution status and communicating relevant changes, so customers stay informed.

Problem management also contributes to the development and testing and QA processes. By analyzing errors and tracing incidents to their causes, problem management processes collect data and derive insights to contribute actively to future maintenance and service strategies.

Problem management also helps optimize delivery and support. By identifying and addressing the root of the problems, problem management teams can drastically reduce the number of incidents and quickly resolve incidents when they arise. Finally, problem management helps reduce the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented by providing a more comprehensive look at the problem, its scope, and relevant solutions across the board.

Problem management works either in response to incidents or attempts to prevent incidents before they occur. It begins by identifying the problem. This can be done by analyzing trends or incident records, analyzing information received from clients and partners, and analyzing information received from internal software. By grouping together similar incidents, problem management teams can identify the scope of the problem and its potential impact.

Once the problem management team has identified the problem, they can work on finding a solution and possible workarounds if the solution cannot be found immediately. Workarounds can also be repurposed for future use if the same problem arises. Certain workarounds can be an effective, permanent way of dealing with problems while errors persist.

If certain solutions cannot be found, part of the problem management team’s task is error control. Error control helps manage known errors and workarounds in ways that minimize cost and risk and maximize benefits.

IT problem management teams interact with other aspects of the ITIL management lifecycle—including incident management, risk management, change control, knowledge management, and continual improvement. By collaborating with different parts of development, problem management can improve overall performance and mitigate risk.

In SolarWinds Service Desk, technicians can use built-in features to support problem management as defined by the ITIL framework.

Problem management teams can identify possible workarounds while attempting to derive a solution. Identifying the problem quickly can eliminate redundancies and help ensure multiple agents aren’t not working on incidents related to the same issue.

Service Desk also keeps relevant parties updated to ensure teams impacted by incidents are kept in the loop about workarounds and a resolution timeline. Transparency helps minimize the impact of incidents and enables the effective management of unresolved errors.

Finally, Service Desk aligns with your change and configuration management databases. This way, you can keep a record of incidents related to specific errors and build historical data for the purposes of future problem resolution.