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IBM Global Services

ITIL Foundation Course V1.0


Introduction to the IT Infrastructure Library

Problem Management

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© 2004 IBM Corporation


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Unit 05
Problem Management

Content:

ƒ Problem Management – objective and overview


ƒ Some definitions
ƒ Responsibilities and obligations
ƒ Important aspects
– Incidents, problems, and changes
– Proactive/reactive problem management
ƒ Benefits, costs, risks
ƒ Best practices
ƒ Summary

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Problem Management
Integration into the IPW Model

Source: IPW Model is a trade mark of Quint Wellington and KPN Telecoms

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Problem Management
Mission statement

The goal of Problem Management is to minimize the adverse 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.

In order to achieve this goal, Problem Management seeks:


ƒ To find the root cause of problems and to initiate corrective action
ƒ Permanently reduce number and severity of incidents and problems by
identifying improvements in the infrastructure

2 aspects:
ƒ Reactive: identify and solve problems in response to one or more incidents
ƒ Proactive: analyze trends of incidents, and identify and solve problems
before they occur

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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

Request for Change (RFC)


Request for Change to any component of an IT infrastructure or to any aspect of
an IT service

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Problem Management
Tasks

Incident
Management

Problem
Control Incident Control

Problem
Problem
Management
Management

Error Control Management


Information

Change
RFCs
Management
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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.

Proactive Problem Management:


Analysis of trends from incident records provides view on potential problems
before they occur

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Problem Management
Activity: Problem Control

Problem Control is concerned with:


Progress Control Identification and
Registration
ƒ Problem identification and recording: if
incidents cannot be matched against known
errors and problems, or are recurring. Also
when major Incident occurs. Classification
ƒ Problem classification: determine effort Responsibility
required to detect and recover failing CI.
Impact on service levels assessed. CMDB
helps! Determine: category, impact, urgency, Assign Resources
priority.
ƒ Problem investigation and diagnosis:
leading to a known error (which includes a
Reporting
workaround for the associated incident). Find Investigation and
underlying cause. Procedural errors do not Diagnosis
become known errors. These problems are
closed with appropriate categorization code.
Quality Control Definition
Known Error

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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.

ƒ Error identification and recording: Error Identification &


faulty CI is detected, and known error Recording
status is assigned. Progress Control
ƒ Error assessment: initial
assessment of means required to
solve the problem and raising of an
RFC. Responsibility Error Assessment
ƒ Recording error resolution: solution
for each known error should be in the
PM system, made available for
incident matching RFC
Reporting Record Error Solution
ƒ Error closure: After successful
implementation of the change, the
error is closed together with all
associated Incident records. Change successful
ƒ Monitoring problem and error Quality Control
resolution progress: Change Close Error and
management is responsible for Associated Problems
implementing RFCs, but error control
is responsible for monitoring progress
in resolving known errors.

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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.
ƒTrend analysis: identify “fragile” components and their
reason. Requires availability of sufficient historical data.
ƒTargeting 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).
ƒProviding 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.

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Problem Management
Reporting
Reporting on problem management serves an internal purpose as well as an
external purpose
ƒItems that can be reported to IT management:
ƒ Time spent on research and diagnosis
ƒ Brief description of actions taken
ƒ Planning unresolved problems with regard to use of people, use of tools, and costs
ƒ Problems categorized into: status, service, impact, category, user group
ƒ Turnaround time of closed problems
ƒ Elapsed time and expected resolution period for unresolved problems
ƒ Temporary corrective actions
ƒItems that are important for Service Level Management
ƒ Number of problems categorized into: user group, category, impact, service
ƒ Turnaround time of closed problems
ƒ Expected solution period for unresolved problems
ƒItems that are important for Service Desk
ƒ Status of problems
ƒ Information on bypasses
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Problem Management
Reactive - Proactive
Reactive Proactive

Avoid problems in other


systems and applications

Monitoring of change management

Initiate changes in order to avoid:


- the occurrence of incidents
- the reoccurrence of incidents

Identify trends

Problem identification and problem diagnosis

2nd / 3rd level support for incidents

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Registration Identification identification Change


Registration Identification identification Change
Management
Management
Recording Recording Recording
Recording Recording Recording

Classification Classification Assessment


Classification Classification Assessment

Tracking
Assign

Tracking
Diagnosis Error? Diagnosis
Tracking

Diagnosis Diagnosis RFC?


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

Process for Service Requests


Incident closure
Incident closure

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Problem Management
Benefits

The benefits of taking a formal approach to problem management include


the following:

ƒ Improved IT service quality: removal of structural errors improves quality of


service
ƒ Incident volume reduction: Structural errors generating Incidents are
removed
ƒ Permanent solutions: Problems resolved stay resolved
ƒ Improved knowledge on organization: Problem Management learns from
past experience, using historical data to identify trends
ƒ Higher first call resolution rate at Service Desk: Problem management
creates incident workaround data for rapid incident closure

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Problem Management
Risks

Potential problem areas:

ƒ Simultaneous assignment of support agents to incident and problem


management
ƒ Less common tools of the individual departments
ƒ Insufficient communication between system development and problem
management in regard to known errors
ƒ Lack of discipline in the support team

Note: While Incident Management focuses on quick resolution of incidents,


Problem Management analyzes the root cause of incidents.

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Problem Management
Best Practices

ƒ Make a clear separation between incidents and


problems (clear fields of responsibility with their
own measurement criteria and KPIs)
ƒ Focus on minimizing or avoidance of incidents Incident Management
ƒ In addition to the production environment, the (fighting fires)
development environment should also be involved
in the process.

Problem Management
(find root cause)

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Problem Management
Summary
ƒ 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.
ƒ 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
ƒ Problem management activities
– Problem control
– Error control
– Proactive problem management
ƒ Problem: the root cause is unknown
ƒ Known error: root cause is known, a workaround is provided, but the definitive fix is not
provided
ƒ Proactive - Reactive
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