What problem management activity can be characterized as finding the underlying cause?
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IntroductionProblem Management is an ITIL® process that is part of the Service Operation phase: ObjectivesProblem Management is the process that is responsible for managing the lifecycle of all problems. The main objectives are: proactively prevent incidents from occurring and minimize the impact of those that can not be avoided. ScopeProblem Management includes required activities to diagnose the root cause of incidents and to determine the resolution to those problems. It is also responsible for ensuring that the resolution is implemented through the appropriate control procedure, especially Change Management and Release and Deployment Management processes. Problem Management will also maintain information about problems and the appropriate workarounds and resolution, so that the organization is able to reduce the number and impact of incidents over time. Although incident and problem management are separated processes, they are closely related and will typically use the same tools, and may use similar categorization, impact and priority coding systems. ValueProblem Management works with Incident Management and Change Management to assure an improvement on IT Services availability and quality. When incidents are resolved, the resolution information is saved. Over time, this information is used to speed up the resolution time and to identify permanent solutions, reducing the amount and the resolution time of incidents. This results in less downtime and less disruptions for the enterprise critical systems. Also, we notice:
DefinitionsPlease consult Problem Management section on the ITIL® Glossary. ActivitiesProblem Management are based on two concepts:
Detection : According to the organization, problem detection can vary. It includes :
Regular analysis of incident and problem data must be performed to identify any trends as they become discernible Logging: Regardless of the detection method, relevant details of the problem must be recorded. A relationship between incident(s) and a problem must be established. Information from the incident needs to be transferred in the problem, such as:
Categorization: Problems must be categorized in the same way as incidents so that meaningful information can be easily obtained. Priority: Problems should be prioritized the same way using the same reasons as incidents. The frequency and impact of related incidents must also be taken into account. The priority matrix, which combines incident impact with urgency to give an overall priority level can be used, on the condition that definition and guidance on what constitutes a problem are defined and communicated to groups that are implicated into Problem Management. Problem prioritization should also take into account the severity of the problems, which may refers in this context to how serious the problem is in an infrastructure perspective (or service or customer perspective). Examples:
Investigation & Diagnosis: An investigation should be conducted to try to diagnose the root cause of the problem. The speed and nature of this investigation will vary depending upon the impact, severity and urgency of the problem, but the appropriate level of resources and expertise should be applied to find a resolution according to the priority code allocated and the service target in place for that priority level. The Configuration Management System (CMS) is used to help determine the level of impact, pinpoint and diagnose the exact point of failure. Also, it is possible to investigate if the problem occurred before and in which context in order to search for a solution. It is often valuable to try to recreate the failure to understand what has gone wrong, and then try various ways of finding the most appropriate and cost-effective resolution to the problem. To proceed effectively without causing further disruption to users, a "test" environment can be used to recreate the problem can be useful. Several problem analysis, diagnosis and resolution techniques exist. The more popular are:
Workaround: it is up to Problem Management to find a workaround to incidents having an unknown cause, to restore the service as soon as possible. Problem Management can require time to find a cause and identify a permanent solution, which could involve Change Management and Release and Deployment Management. The workaround will provide the Service Desk with a temporary solution to resolve recurrent incidents until a final solution is implemented. Recording of a known error: once the diagnosis is completed and a temporary or permanent solution is identified, the problem becomes a known error. Thus, if other incidents or problems occur, they can be identified and the service restored more quickly. Resolution: to resolve a problem, a permanent solution must be applied to eliminate the source causing incidents. The solutions often affect production environment, whether an infrastructure component or an application. In this case, in order to avoid further difficulties, the solution will be presented to Change Management, and scheduled and approved before being applied in production. In the case of an urgent problem that seriously affects the business, the urgent change process will be invoked. Sometimes a solution to a problem may be delayed or may never be implemented - for budget reasons, because the impact is limited compared to the high costs or simply because it has not been prioritized. In this case, the problem remains open and we apply the workaround. Closure: when a change is successfully completed and the resolution is applied, the problem should be formally closed, along with related incidents still opened. Problem documentation must be updated to make sure that the resolved problem contains all pertinent information for future references. Major Problem Review: after a major problem occurred, a review is made to identify lessons learned for future references. The group should examine:
These revisions can be used in training and education of support staff. They offer opportunities for documentation of procedures, work instructions, or other, which will be used for the benefit of a better Problem Management. Challenges, risks and success critical factorsA major dependency in Problem Management is to establish an effective process and tools in Incident Management. This ensures that problems are identified as early as possible. It is essential that the two processes have formal interfaces and common work practices. This implies:
Which of the following is defined as unknown underlying cause?So what do we mean by a problem? According to the ITIL definition, it's “the unknown underlying cause of one or more incidents”. A problem can therefore be defined as something for which the root cause is not yet known.
What are the activities in problem management?The scope of the Problem Management process flow includes:. 1) Problem Detection. ... . 2) Problem Logging. ... . 3) Investigation and Diagnosis. ... . 4) Workaround. ... . 5) Create Known Error Record. ... . 6) Resolution. ... . 7) Closure.. What is produced when problem management identifies the cause of a problem and a workaround?A Known Error is a problem that has a documented root cause and a Workaround. Known Errors are managed throughout their lifecycle by the Problem Management process. The details of each Known Error are recorded in a Known Error Record stored in the Known Error Database (KEDB).
What is defined as an underlying cause or potential cause for one or more incidents?As ITIL defines it, a problem is “a cause or potential cause of one or more incidents.” And an incident is a single unplanned event that causes a service disruption.
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