7 Steps for Effective Problem Management in IT

7 Steps for Effective Problem Management in IT

ITIL is the most popular IT service management framework for best practices and is used to aligning IT services with business needs. Problem management is the act of identifying and solving an issue before it results in an incident or problem in the IT system. It is broken down into two distinct groups: reactive problem management and proactive problem management. ITIL service operation processes include problem management, incident management, request fulfillment, event management and access management. Incident management is getting the system back in order quickly, while problem management is working to find and resolve the underlying cause of the error that has resulted in several incidents.

Problem management is a structured way to manage problems in IT projects after they are first reported by users or service desk technicians. It involves a problem manager, who is the owner of the problem management process and is responsible for managing the known error database, closing problems and coordinates review. The problem-solving team can be an internal technical support team or a group of external suppliers or vendors. The problem management process can be broken down into seven steps: detection, logging, assigning, monitoring, prioritizing, and resolving. The most important details are the diagnosis, search for root cause, workaround, known error record, resolution, closure, and final paperwork.

Diagnosis involves investigating the known error database, searching for other problems that match the one you're trying to diagnose, and collecting information in a known error record. Workaround involves temporarily fixing the problem with a workaround, while resolution involves implementing a resolution with standard change procedure and testing it to make sure it is working. Closure involves completing paperwork and making sure the details are accurate for future reference.