Problem Management Process
2 Problem management process 2.1 Overview and process diagram The process of problem management is shown in Figure 1 and summarised below. Problems may be identified from many sources, usually either as a result of ongoing or recent incidents (reactive problem management) or from a retrospective analysis of historical incidents (proactive problem management). Once detected, problems need to be logged, categorised and prioritised in a similar way to incidents. A problem will then be investigated, potentially using a variety of available approaches and tools, including chronological analysis, pain value analysis, brainstorming and 5-Whys. The purpose of the investigation is to identify the root cause of the problem which, if fixed, will eliminate incidents arising from it, so improving service to users. If a workaround is already known or becomes available as a result of the diagnosis of the problem, then this may be communicated to the incident management process for use until the problem is fixed. Once the problem has been successfully diagnosed and the root cause found, a known error record is raised in the known error database. If a change is needed to resolve the root cause of the problem, then a change request will be raised via the change management process. The problem will then be resolved, and the resolution tested to ensure that it was successful. If fixed, the problem will then be closed and, if the severity of the problem justifies it, a major problem review will be carried out to identify lessons learned and any additional improvement actions.
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