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Problem Management
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Unit 05
Problem Management
Content:
Problem Management
Integration into the IPW Model
Source: IPW Model is a trade mark of Quint Wellington and KPN Telecoms
Problem Management
Mission statement
2 aspects:
Reactive: identify and solve problems in response to one or more incidents
Proactive: analyze trends of incidents, and identify and solve problems
before they occur
Problem Management
Some definitions: Problem, Known Error, and RFC
Problem
The unknown cause of one (significant) incident or multiple incidents exhibiting
common symptoms (which are not resolved in any case when finalizing the
incident)
Normally a problem record is raised only if investigation is warranted.
Known Error
A problem that is successfully diagnosed and for which a workaround has been
identified
Problem Management
Tasks
Incident
Management
Problem
Control Incident Control
Problem
Problem
Management
Management
Change
RFCs
Management
6 ITIL Foundation Course | Student material v1.0 © 2004 IBM Corporation
IBM Global Services
Problem Management
Scope
Problem control, error control, and proactive Problem Management are all
within the scope of the Problem Management process
Problem Control:
Handle problems in an effective way. Identify root cause (CI at fault), and provide
the Service Desk with information and workaround. Similar to incident control, but
more carefully managed to avoid reoccurrence.
Error Control:
Progresses from known errors until elimination by implementation of a change.
Problem Management
Activity: Problem Control
Problem Management
Activity: Error Control
Error control covers the processes involved in successful correction of known errors.
The objective is to change IT components to remove known errors affecting the IT
infrastructure, and thus to prevent any recurrence of incidents.
Problem Management
Activity: Proactive Problem Management
Proactive problem management activities are concerned with identifying and
resolving problems and known errors before Incidents occur, thus minimizing
the adverse impact on the service and business-related costs.
Trend analysis: identify “fragile” components and their
reason. Requires availability of sufficient historical data.
Targeting support action: towards problem areas
requiring most support time, or causing most impact to
the business (volume of incidents, number of users
impacted, cost to the business).
Providing information to organization: Providing insight
in effort and resources spent by organization in
diagnosing and resolving problems and known errors to
management. Also information on workarounds,
permanent fixes, and status information should be given
to Service Desk.
Problem Management
Reporting
Reporting on problem management serves an internal purpose as well as an
external purpose
Items that can be reported to IT management:
Time spent on research and diagnosis
Brief description of actions taken
Planning unresolved problems with regard to use of people, use of tools, and costs
Problems categorized into: status, service, impact, category, user group
Turnaround time of closed problems
Elapsed time and expected resolution period for unresolved problems
Temporary corrective actions
Items that are important for Service Level Management
Number of problems categorized into: user group, category, impact, service
Turnaround time of closed problems
Expected solution period for unresolved problems
Items that are important for Service Desk
Status of problems
Information on bypasses
11 ITIL Foundation Course | Student material v1.0 © 2004 IBM Corporation
IBM Global Services
Problem Management
Reactive - Proactive
Reactive Proactive
Identify trends
Tracking
Assign
Tracking
Diagnosis Error? Diagnosis
Tracking
Service
Request?
Tracking
Tracking
Support Solution
Support Solution
Problem Resolution
Problem Resolution
Error / problem
Diagnosis Error / closure
problem
Diagnosis Incident
Incident closure
Resolution
Resolution
Problem Management
Benefits
Problem Management
Risks
Problem Management
Best Practices
Problem Management
(find root cause)
Problem Management
Summary
The goal of problem management is to minimize the impact of incidents and problems
on the business that are caused by errors within the IT infrastructure and to prevent
recurrence of incidents related to these errors.
Stabilize IT services, through:
– minimizing the impact of incidents (quick fix)
– tracing (and removing) errors in the IT infrastructure to obtain the highest possible
stability of IT services, both reactively and proactively
– Better use of resources
Problem management activities
– Problem control
– Error control
– Proactive problem management
Problem: the root cause is unknown
Known error: root cause is known, a workaround is provided, but the definitive fix is not
provided
Proactive - Reactive
17 ITIL Foundation Course | Student material v1.0 © 2004 IBM Corporation