ITIL
Problem Management
Contents
Roles
Process
Policy
Purpose of Problem Management
2
3
Contents
Purpose of Problem Management
Terms (Service Operations)
1
Something is broken or about to break.
Repair as quickly as possible.
Open incidents are measured against SLAs.
Incident 2
Underlying “root-cause.”
Remains open until underlying issue is
resolved.
Open Problems are not measured against SLAs.
Creates “work-around.”
Problem3
Routine pleas for help – but nothing is broken.
These include items like “can you tell me Joe
Blow’s phone number”, “can you unlock my
account”, and “will you reset my password.”
Service Request
Problem Guidelines
There is no time SLA target associated with problem resolution. Resolution of the root cause of a problem may take hours or days or even years
Problems do not need prior approvals to be worked and resolved. They only need to be prioritised to work the most critical problems first
If it appears that root cause identification and resolution are not readily apparent and the impact is medium or high, effort should be focused first on providing a suitable documented work around
5
Problem Prioritisation
Problem PriorityImpact: People & ServiceSeverity: Time
Severity3-Low
User cannot perform a portion of their duties.
2-MediumUser cannot perform critical time sensitive functions
1-HighMajor portion of a critical service is unavailable
Impact
3-Low
One or two personnel Degraded Service Levels but still
processing within SLA constraints 3-Low 3-Low 2-Medium
2-Medium
Multiple personnel in one physical location
Degraded Service Levels at or below SLA constraints
Cause of problem falls across multiple functional areas
2-Medium
2-Medium 1-High
1-High
All users of a specific service Personnel from multiple agencies are
affected Public facing service is unavailable Any item listed in the Crisis Response
tables
1-High 1-High 1-High
6
Problems use the same prioritisation as incidents. To prioritise, the impact and severity must be assessed.
Contents
Roles
7
Roles
8
Problem Reporter Anyone can request a problem case to be opened The typical sources for problems are the Service Desk, Service
Provider Groups, and proactive problem management through Quality Assurance
Roles
9
Service Desk Ensure that all problems received/ identified by the Service Desk
are recorded in your ITSM software Delegates responsibility by assigning problems to the
appropriate provider group for resolution based upon the categorisation rules
Performs post-resolution customer review to ensure that all work services are functioning properly
Quality Assurance Owns all reported problems Prepare reports showing statistics of problems resolved /
unresolved
Roles
10
Service Provider 2nd Line Groups Composed of technical and functional staff involved in
supporting services Perform root cause analysis of the problem and develop
potential solutions Test potential solutions and develop implementation plan
Service Provider 3nd Line Groups Composed of external technical staff involved in supporting
services Perform root cause analysis of the problem and develop
potential solutions Test potential solutions and assist in development of
implementation plan
Contents
Process
11
12
Process Flow
Process Flow - Identification
Anyone within 1st, 2nd 3rd line can request that a problem record be opened
All initial information relative to a problem will be logged, especially related incidents
Before continuing, the Service Desk will verify the related service having the issue and correlate it with an existing service and SLA
After problem verification, the Service Desk will attempt to establish urgency and impact which define priority.
13
Process Flow – Analyze & Resolve
Primary root cause analysis will be performed by the Service Provider Group
As soon as the problem is clearly documented with identifying symptoms, linked to the incident, a known error record can be created within the ITSM software so that if additional incidents occur, they can be related to the existing problem
Once the solution is determined, it should be implemented following the Change Management Process
Once the solution is implemented and verified, the problem record may be closed
14
Contents
Policy
15
Problem Policy
Problems must be logged with the Service Desk before they are worked on
There is no SLA target date connected to problem resolution (e.g. a start and complete by date)
If a work around for the problem has been discovered, it should be provided to the Service Desk and logged into the ITSM software and a known error recorded
16
17
Top Related