Problem management
Quick answer
Where incidents restore service fast, Problem Management asks why it broke and stops it recurring. It trades speed for permanence, a smaller volume of records, each worth real investigation.
Key takeaways
- Incident vs problem
- Root cause, workaround, known error
- The problem lifecycle (state model)
- Proactive vs reactive
- Common mistakes
Where incidents restore service fast, Problem Management asks why it broke and stops it recurring. It trades speed for permanence, a smaller volume of records, each worth real investigation.
Incident vs problem
Ten incidents about the same outage should map to one problem. The problem record extends task and links the related incidents so the pattern is visible.
Root cause, workaround, known error
The problem lifecycle (state model)
The permanent fix is usually delivered through Change Management, and the workaround is promoted into a knowledge article so it self-serves.
Proactive vs reactive
Common mistakes
- Treating every incident as its own problem instead of grouping.
- Closing problems without a permanent fix or a published workaround.
- No feedback loop, the workaround never reaches front-line agents.
- Only ever reactive, never mining trends proactively.
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Check your understanding
A problem record represents:
- A. A single user complaint
- B. The root cause of one or more incidents
- C. A hardware order
Show answer
B. The root cause of one or more incidents
Problems capture the underlying cause behind incidents.
A documented temporary fix is called a:
- A. Workaround
- B. Change
- C. Release
Show answer
A. Workaround
A workaround restores service before the root cause is fixed.
A permanent fix is typically delivered through:
- A. A new incident
- B. A change request
- C. A knowledge article
Show answer
B. A change request
Permanent fixes go through change management.