Problem management practice

Problem management practice (hereinafter, the Practice) is the practice to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors. The Practice relates to problem and service management. This Practice is a part of the ITIL practices.

Definitions

According to the ITIL Foundation 4e by Axelos,

Problem management practice. The practice of reducing the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors.

Purpose

A problem is a cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents. The purpose of the Practice is to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors.

Key concepts

Known error

Main wikipage: Known error

A known error is a problem that has been analyzed and has not been resolved.

Workaround

Main wikipage: Workaround

A workaround is a solution that reduces or eliminates the impact of an incident or problem for which a full resolution is not yet available. The best practices are:

• To do workarounds at any stage, they don't need to wait for analysis to be complete.
• To document a workaround in problem records.
• To review and improve the documented workarounds after problem analysis is complete.

Some workarounds reduce the likelihood of incidents.

Integration

Problem Management interacts with incident management, risk management, change control, knowledge management, and continual improvement.