ITIL Problem Management

While some people use these terms interchangeably, they are different from one another.

Any unplanned interruption or service quality reduction is considered an incident, according to ITIL 4. Often, people only think of events as incidents if a service level agreement (SLA) is broken or services are disrupted, but it’s also possible to classify something as an IT incident earlier to help mitigate its impact. For example, if you notice an error or a slower response time before a customer does, you may still consider that an incident. On the other hand, a problem is the potential cause of one or more incidents. So, while a problem can cause an incident (or several), an incident can sometimes be traced back to a problem.

Incident management involves managing IT services causing the disruption and restoring them before any SLAs are violated. Incident management begins when an end user reports an issue and finishes whenever it is resolved and operations return to normal, making the process relatively quick. On the other hand, problem management involves deeper investigation into root causes to develop long-term resolutions and prevent incidents from occurring in the first place.

There are different ways to apply the ITIL problem management framework depending on your team's size and working style. Two main types of problem management include 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.

Large and small organizations have to deal with IT complaints, and often a problem can affect many users, meaning it’s in your best interest to resolve issues as quickly as possible. That’s where ITSM problem management comes in.

Since problem management resolves issues and participates in incident prevention, it contributes to the IT service value chain, benefitting business teams, IT desks, and the people they serve. What’s more, problem management engages with customers by updating them on resolution status and communicating relevant changes.

Additionally, problem management contributes to the development, 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. Problem management teams can drastically reduce the number of incidents and quickly resolve incidents when they arise by identifying and addressing the root of the problems. Finally, problem management helps minimize the impact of unpreventable incidents by providing a more comprehensive look at the problem, its scope, and relevant solutions across the board.

By engaging in ITSM problem management, you can identify the underlying causes of issues, fix current problems, and even take a proactive approach and eliminate or at least mitigate the impact of future issues. As a result, your IT team will have more time to focus on other, more important tasks, and those they serve will have better user experiences.

Problem management isn’t as straightforward as you might hope. Instead, you’ll need to achieve the perfect balance and coordinate your teams carefully to ensure your ITIL problem management process is as effective and efficient as possible. Some problem management ITIL best practices to consider include:

• Ensure everyone understands the difference between incidents and problems. Incident management and problem management are closely related, but they aren’t the same — and employees shouldn’t record them the same way. Make sure people know how to record and handle incidents vs. problems.
• Maintain an up-to-date known error database. Keeping and regularly updating a  Known Error Database (KEDB) can help save everyone time. After all, your IT team can view existing records, meaning they won’t have to start from scratch when facing a problem someone else on the team has already dealt with. Instead of wasting time searching for the root cause or discovering a workaround, they can consult the KEDB.
• Prioritize permanent solutions. Sometimes, a temporary workaround is the best you can do, but it’s best to prioritize permanent solutions when possible. After all, while delivering a quick workaround solution will do the trick in a punch, taking the time to create a permanent solution can pay off over time, decreasing the number of recurring incidents your team faces on a regular basis.
• Invest in the right tools. The last thing you want to do is prevent your IT problem management team from responding quickly and effectively, which means you need to invest in tools that support them. With the right tool, your IT team can excel and spend their time focusing on solving problems instead of dealing with never-ending manual and administration burdens.
• Put people first. Don’t lose track of the customer journey. Remember, problem management ITIL should be about providing the people with the best possible service experiences, so don’t become too wrapped up in the technology. Instead, prioritize the problems that are impacting end-users the most.