What is problem management?

Problem management vs. incident management

ITIL defines a problem as a cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents. The behaviors behind effective incident management and effective problem management are often similar and overlapping, but there are still key differences. For example, rolling back a recently deploy may get the service operating again and end the incident, but the underlying problem remains.

That said, we believe that problem management and incident management practices are becoming increasingly intertwined. During the times between incidents, IT teams can focus their efforts on problem investigations that lead to improvements and better service quality. This is how problem management becomes the most valuable to the organization.

Problem management and change management

Change management is the process of planning, tracking, and releasing changes without service disruption or downtime. 

When a change does cause disruption or downtime, that change is analyzed during incident and problem management processes.

Problem management and knowledge management

Knowledge management creates a repository of solutions and documentation for common procedures and even incident workarounds. When used together, a healthy knowledge management practice can enable faster incident resolution and fewer incidents altogether.

Problem management and service request management

Service request management is the practice of processing a request from a user for something to be provided, such as access to applications, software enhancements, and information. It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish a service request from an incident. In fact, the two were not distinguished and both lumped into the category “incidents” until the release of ITIL V3 in 2007. ITIL now defines an incident as ‘an unplanned interruption to an IT service or reduction in the quality of an IT service.’ It defines a service request as “a formal request from a user for something to be provided – for example, a request for information or advice; to reset a password; or to install a workstation for a new user.”

Avoid relying on reactive, root-cause analysis

There is rarely just one root cause behind an incident or problem. The best teams holistically consider all potential contributing factors and practice blameless analysis.

Encourage an open environment where problems are shared

Problem and incident analysis should be an open conversation where team members are encouraged to share the facts without fear of punishment or retribution.

Focus on critical services

Prioritize addressing the problems affecting the services that deliver the most value to the organization.

Ask questions and use the ‘5 whys’

Many teams find success using the “5 Whys” technique Taiichi Ohno, the architect of the Toyota Production System. Check out the Atlassian Team Playbook play to learn more.

Spread the knowledge

Open teams share knowledge and insights that their colleagues and adjacent teams can learn from.

Become a learning organization

Effective problem management isn’t something with an end date. Even the best-performing organizations have incidents. The truly world class teams are the ones who constantly iterate on their process, improve it, and lessen the impact of problems on their colleagues and customers.

Track follow-up

It’s important to develop a clear and standardized way to stay on top of follow-up actions. Since you should always be practicing problem management, it’s important to use ITSM software that will enable your team to prioritize tasks, track progress, and help associate incident issues with problems.