What is ITIL problem management?
Problem management offers the ability to identify and manage problems efficiently by putting measures in place, to ensure underlying issues are addressed and prevented.
Processes can be structured by problem managers and analysts to diagnose root causes and fix problems, which will, in the long term prevent reoccurring incidents. As a proactive approach, Problem Management can identify the root cause of issues disrupting and impacting service. This allows the opportunity to prevent further issues before they occur.
What is a problem?
As defined by ITIL, a problem is a cause of one or more potential incidents. An incident is a single unplanned event that causes a service disruption.
Please refer to the link below to find out where change management originated from the ITIL Best practices framework.
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What are the benefits problem management can bring to an organisation?
When problem management's disciplines and processes have been tailored properly within an organisation it can provide exceptional benefits when carried out correctly.
Cost to the business
A business can suffer if problems are substantially high and service and reputation can soon spiral out of control if the issues are not resolved within a suitable time frame. Using problem management to effectively reduce incidents saves organizations financially and keeps the client happy at the same time.
More time to be productive
If problems are being managed, more resources will be available and productive to constantly improve and streamline processes and the product.
Restoring service effectively
When problems are being investigated and known errors are recorded. Workarounds can be defined and available to fix an issue when a client logs it. This gives staff the ability to look up the workaround and apply it when an incident is reported.
Workaround a problem
It's necessary to have a workaround in place where possible, while the initial problem is being investigated. Although workarounds are not ideal, it will mean a clients issue can still be fixed to a certain degree until the root cause analysis has been identified and the actual fix implemented.
A known error record
For business awareness, known errors are recorded and associated with the problem record. Keeping valuable information available for workarounds is key when a staff member is faced with fixing an incident or problem quickly to restore service.
The importance of categorizing and prioritising problems
The service desk and the teams within the business should be working on high priority problems ensuring, assessing and tracking known problems are kept up to date.
The blame game of problem management
It's important that teams are transparent and are encouraged to work together to share knowledge and findings to resolve the problem, without pointing the finger if an individual or function is at fault, for contributing to the problem in the first place.
Quicker time scales to resolve issues
By using the problem management best practices, will enable teams to react and respond more quickly to incidents to prevent service downtime. By determining the analysis using the structured process will allow the fastest solution to resolving the root cause.
Client and employee satisfaction
Clients and employees are happier when there are fewer problems to contend with. Frustration can run thin if problems build-up and there is no update to resolve outstanding issues on the horizon.
Vital services to the customer need critical focus
It's important that the services that deliver value to the organization are prioritized and given distinct focus over problems that are not so vital to be fixed immediately.
Problem review
When the problem resolution is established, we need to understand what lessons were learnt and record preventative measures to ensure the problem will not reoccur again.
Conclusion and objective of problem management
The primary objective of problem management is to prevent problems and incidents as well as reoccurring incidents from happening. It's imperative to reduce the impact of incidents that cannot be intercepted. This involves teams communicating and diagnosing root causes with the initiative to resolve issues by taking the appropriate steps of the problem management process. Problem management was created to effectively improve over time by registering relevant data associated with problems and acting as a directory of effective solutions and workarounds.
Key benefits
- Improving the customer user experience
- Maintaining service level agreements.
- Efficiency and productivity increased
- Prevention of reoccurring incidents
- Eliminating problems consistently
