Managing Problems
About Problem Management
In proactive Problem ManagementA process designed to eliminate recurring incidents from the IT infrastructure., the Problem ManagerResponsible for managing the lifecycle of all problems. The primary objectives of the role are to prevent incidents from happening and to minimize the impact of unavoidable incidents. The Problem Manager undertakes research for the root causes of incidents, and tries to make sure that interruptions are eliminated. routinely monitors logged incidents by category within a specific time frame to identify potential problems. Tracking and monitoring problems is a constant process of identifying and resolving problems and known errors.
| Problems | Interruptions in service identified by multiple incidents with the same symptoms or a single incident, and with unknown causes. |
| Known errors | Problems for which the root causes have been identified and a workaround or a permanent fix has been identified, although the implementation of the permanent fix could be in the future. |
The monitoring process includes trending, where the Problem Manager evaluates incidents and configuration items to identify problems by analyzing the following:
- Incident data for recurring incidents.
- Incident data for incidents that do not match existing problems.
- The IT infrastructure for problems that could lead to incidents.
Problems occur when:
- Incidents cannot be matched with known errors.
- Incidents recur over a time period.
About Identifying a Problem
The Problem Manager routinely browses through incidents to determine the potential for problems. For example, the Problem Manager may identify a problem if there is a pronounced spike in the number of incidents logged against the same service or against the same category within a short period of time.
You can identify a problem in two ways:
Identifying a Problem Using the Dashboard
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This process refers to the default Problem Manager dashboard. Your administrator might have configured this dashboard differently. |
Follow these steps to identify a problem using the Problem dashboard:
| 1. | Log into the Service Desk Console as a Problem Manager, and go to the Problem dashboard. |
| 2. | Open an incident that is a problem. |
| 3. | From the Action Menu, choose System > Add Problem. |
| 4. | Enter information into the problem record. See Working with Problems. |
| 5. |
Click Save  from the toolbar.
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Identifying a Problem Using a Saved Search
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This process refers to the default Problem Manager dashboard. Your administrator might have configured this dashboard differently. |
Follow these steps to identify a problem using a saved search:
| 1. | Log into the Service Desk Console as a Problem Manager, and open the Incident workspace. |
| 2. | From the Saved Searches menu, choose Active Incidents this Year. |
| 3. | Open the related incident record. |
| 4. | From the Action Menu, choose System > Add Problem. |
| 5. | Enter information into the problem record. See Working with Problems. |
| 6. |
Click Save from the toolbar.
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Investigating a Problem
As a Problem Manager, you should routinely check for newly-logged problems and investigate them. If you determine that the logged problem is not actually a problem, you can set its status to canceled. Only Problem Managers can set the status of a problem to canceled.
Perform these steps for problems that are in the logged state:
| 1. | Log into the Service Desk Console as a Problem Manager, and open the problem to investigate. |
| 2. | Set the status to investigation. |
| 3. | Provide the details of the diagnostic activities. Under the Activity History tab, click New > New Notes. Enter detailed investigating information, then click Save. See Activity History for more information on this feature. |
| 4. | Add information to the problem as needed. See Working with Problems. |
| 5. | Identify individuals from the Problem Review Board to help in the investigation or to help oversee the problem process. See Working with the Problem Review Board. |
| 6. |
Click Save from the toolbar.
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The system notifies the problem owner of the status change.
If you added an ad-hoc reviewer from the Problem Review Board tab, the reviewer is notified.