Problem Management
Manage service problems from detection to closure.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for Problem Management at each level of maturity.
- 2Basic
- Practices
- Handle problems according to a predefined process based on issue classes (e.g. incidents, SLA breaches).
- Undertake problem analysis and examination of the evolving trends.
- Outcome
- A predictable problem resolution process is emerging, resulting in improvements in performance metrics.
- Metrics
- # of problems opened/closed per month.
- Problem resolution response time trend by class.
- 3Intermediate
- Practice
- Systematically address recurring incidents through problem management processes that are based on Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and escalate where necessary.
- Outcomes
- Service metrics and predictability within the IT environment are further improved.
- RCA enables identification of underlying issues impacting on IT service performance, and supports implementation of remedial actions to avoid recurrence.
- A reduction in the time taken to resolve IT service issues and a reduction in the number of recurring issues are evident.
- Metrics
- # of problems opened/closed per month.
- Problem resolution response time trend by class.
- # of problems escalated per month.
- 4Advanced
- Practices
- Prioritize problems based on their potential business impact.
- For critical business/IT services, undertake proactive Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of any degradation in business process performance observed in monitored data.
- Outcomes
- Ongoing improvement in business process performance is supported.
- RCA enables identification of specific trends and causes of problems, and helps facilitate preventative or corrective action.
- Metrics
- # of problems opened/closed per month.
- Problem resolution response time trend by class.
- # of problems escalated per month.
- # of SLA breaches addressed by problem management.
- 5Optimized
- Practice
- Establish metrics and reporting to track and communicate how proactive problem management prevents incidents and minimizes the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented.
- Outcome
- Problem management processes are continually reviewed and improved.
- Metrics
- # of reports communicating problem prevention.
- # of problems opened/closed per month.
- # of recurring problems per month.