Problem Management

A problem occurs when the underlying cause for the incident or incidents cannot be identified. Sometimes several incidents may occur before a problem is recognized. The incidents in this case are symptoms of the problem. Often the incidents are resolved by simply fixing the symptoms. However, until the underlying cause is identified and fixed, a problem will eventually re-occur.

The ITSM Problem Management process is designed to detect underlying causes, identify workarounds and provide resolutions to Incidents. A successful implementation of the Problem Management process should help IT organizations minimize the adverse impact of Incidents and Problems to the business. The goal of the Incident Management process is to restore services as quickly as possible. The goal of the Problem Management process is to determine permanent resolutions.

The problem management system should provide for adequate audit trail facilities that allow tracking, analyzing, and determining the root cause of all reported problems considering:

  • All associated configuration items
  • Outstanding problems and incidents
  • Known and suspected errors

Managing problems and incidents addresses how an organization identifies documents and responds to events that fall outside of normal operations. IT organizations must maintain a complete and accurate audit trail for network devices, servers and applications, This enables IT to address how business identify root causes of issues that may introduce inaccuracy in reporting. Also, the problem management system must provide for adequate audit trail facilities that allow tracing from incident to underlying cause.