Skip to main content

Problem, Incident and Change Management Integration

Image
By

This blog was written in 2010. For the most up-to-date guidance, please read Problem, Incident, and Change Enablement Integration published in 2025



“Problem Management seeks to minimize the adverse impact of incidents and problems on the business that are caused by underlying errors within the IT infrastructure and to proactively prevent the recurrence of incidents related to those errors. In order to achieve this, Problem Management seeks to get to the root cause of incidents, document and communicate known errors and to initiate actions to improve or correct the situation”.

Given that statement is directly from the ITIL Best Management Practices text, it’s a wonder more organizations don’t have well-integrated Problem, Incident, and Change processes in their organizations.

I never want to say that there is a single silver bullet solution for a given problem and I’m not suggesting that here.  However, having a solid CMS (Configuration Management System) is a good step in the right direction.   Of course, before we even think of tools we must have rules.  Thinking holistically we can create an integrated set of best practices across process boundaries. This will allow us to:
  • Optimize processes and ensure their use through standardized models that can effectively guide analysts through best practices for Incident, Problem, and Change management.
  • Reduce resolution times by cutting across process boundaries, to ensure that the right information and knowledge is properly communicated and escalated to the correct stakeholders.
Problem Management ensures that all resolutions or workarounds that require a change to a configuration item are submitted through Change Management and implemented through a Request for Change. Change Management will monitor the progress of these changes and keep Problem Management informed.

Problem Management can also play a significant role in the Change Advisory Board (CAB). Working in conjunction with Incident Management, Problem Management can also be involved in resolving incidents caused by failed changes. For some incidents, it will be applicable to involve Problem Management to investigate and resolve the underlying cause to prevent or reduce the impact of recurrence. Incident Management provides a point where these are reported. Problem Management, in return, can provide known errors for faster incident resolution through workarounds that can be used to restore service.

We can also use the Incident Management process as a check on change. Having the Service desk aware of the change schedule will allow it to be able to detect incidents caused by changes and create the appropriate relationships in the CMS.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Four Service Characteristics

By
Recently I came across several articles by researchers and experts that laid out definitions and characteristics of services. ITIL provides us with a definition that can help drive the creation of value-laden services: A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. An area that ITIL is not so clear is in terms of service characteristics. Several researchers and experts put forth that services have four basic characteristics (IHIP): Intangibility—Services are the results of actions not things. They have no physical presence and represent a logical set of elements. One way to think of service is “work done for others.”  Heterogeneity—Also known as “variability”; services are unique items because of the mechanisms used to deliver services, which is people. Because the people element adds variability, the service is variable. This holds true, especially for the value proposition—not eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Is A Service Offering?

By
The ITIL 4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group.   As a service provider, we can’t stop there!   We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer.     Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include:     Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions 1. Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods.   Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you.   You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you.      ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The New Four Ps of Service Management

By
By Donna Knapp For years, people , process , and technology (PPT) was a widely recognized framework for balancing and integrating the components needed to achieve optimal performance and outcomes. In the ITIL v3 Service Design publication, this framework was expanded to the four Ps: people , processes , products , and partners . ITIL 4 has further expanded and evolved this framework to the four dimensions of service management. These four dimensions are collectively critical to the effective and efficient facilitation of value for customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services. The four dimensions of service management are: Organizations and people Information and technology Partners and suppliers Value streams and processes. These four dimensions represent perspectives which are relevant to the whole service value system (SVS), including the entirety of the service value chain and all ITIL practices. Each ITIL practice is a set of organizational resources base...
Post a Comment
Read more