The purpose of a Problem ticket is to manage the analysis process for either what happened during a Major Incident ticket or for analysis of recurring incidents that seem to be related. These ticket types allow for the formal process of completing the Problem Management Process. This article covers the following topics:
- What does Problem Management look like?
- When to Open a Problem Ticket
- What are the benefits of Problem Management?
- Who and how are key personnel notified about Problems?
What does Problem Management look like?
- Analyzing the root cause of Major Incidents or recurring incidents.
- Diagnosing and discovering the resolution to the underlying cause of Incidents.
- Ensuring that a resolution is implemented (often through Change Management) or a Known Error is documented.
When to Open a Problem Ticket
Open a Problem ticket for either of the following situations:
- For analysis of what happened during a Major Incident AFTER the Major Incident ticket has been resolved.
- Someone from the Tier 2 or Tier 3 team who took responsibility for the Major Incident should open a Problem ticket in consultation with a Service Owner or Responsible Group Manager.
- For analysis of recurring Incident tickets that show a trend in something not working correctly.
- Example: a number of Incident tickets have been opened for harddrive failure of a specific Dell laptop in use before the laptop warranty expired.
- Any technician can technically open a Problem ticket when they have noted a trend but should do so only after consulting a Service Owner or Responsible Group Manager.
See Create a Problem Ticket for specific instructions on opening and working through a Problem ticket.
What are the benefits of Problem Management?
- Improved organizational efficiency by ensuring that Problems are prioritized correctly according to impact, urgency, and severity.
- Elimination of incidents before they impact services through proactive Problem management.
- Prevention of known errors recurring or occurring elsewhere across the system.
- A known error is a Problem that has been successfully diagnosed and either a work-around or permanent resolution has been identified. Known errors should be documented in a Knowledge Base article to capture the resolution so it can be shared across the organization and with the user community.
Who and how are key personnel notified about Problems?
The Priority level of a Problem determines who gets notified.
Priority Level 1 and 2 Problem
- IT Leadership, Service Owners, Managers and anyone else in the Problem Notifications Group will receive an email alert any time a Problem ticket is created.
- When the Problem is assigned to a Responsible Group, members of that group will automatically be notified by email.
Priority Level 3 and 4 Problem
- Members of the Responsible Group will automatically be notified by email.