ITIL 4 Problem Mgmt flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Problem

A cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents. A problem may exist without any incident yet having occurred, which is why proactive identification matters.

Known error

A problem that has been analysed but not resolved, with a documented root cause or a documented workaround. It is recorded in the known error database for reuse.

Workaround

A solution that reduces or eliminates the impact of an incident or problem for which a full resolution is not yet available. It may be temporary and may be acceptable permanently.

Incident versus problem

An incident is an unplanned interruption or quality reduction; a problem is its underlying cause. Incident management restores service, while problem management prevents recurrence by removing causes.

Reactive problem management

Problem management triggered by incidents that have already occurred, typically investigating recurring or high-impact incidents to find and eliminate their causes.

Proactive problem management

Identifying and analysing potential causes of incidents before they occur, often using trend analysis, monitoring data, and capacity or availability reports.

Three phases of problem management

Problem identification, problem control, and error control. Identification finds problems; control analyses them; error control manages known errors and permanent fixes.

Problem identification

Detecting and logging problems from incident records, major incident reviews, monitoring, trend analysis, supplier reports, and customer feedback before they cause further harm.

Problem control

The phase covering problem analysis, documenting workarounds, and raising known errors when a root cause is found but a permanent fix is not yet available.

Error control

Managing known errors, assessing and prioritising the need for permanent fixes, and re-evaluating known errors when circumstances or priorities change.

Problem prioritisation factors

Impact on business and users, urgency, frequency of recurrence, and severity of associated incidents. These determine the order in which problems are investigated.

Problem record lifecycle

Identification, logging, categorisation, prioritisation, investigation and diagnosis, workaround, known error, resolution, and closure. Each stage has defined entry and exit criteria.

Problem closure criteria

The permanent fix is implemented and confirmed effective, the known error record is updated or closed, and related incidents have stopped recurring.

Major problem review

A structured review of a significant problem examining what happened, why, how the response performed, and what actions will prevent recurrence.

Problem management interfaces

Key interfaces include change enablement for permanent fixes, knowledge management for workarounds and known errors, supplier management for third-party causes, and incident management for escalation.

Problem management practice owner

The role accountable for the effectiveness and continual improvement of the problem management practice across the organisation, including its metrics and capability.

Problem manager

Coordinates the practice, owns the problem record process, and ensures problems are prioritised and progressed. May not personally perform all root cause analysis.

Subject matter experts

Technical and specialist teams who perform root cause analysis and develop workarounds and permanent fixes, typically within product or service teams.

Incident manager interface

Incident and major incident managers escalate recurring or unresolved incidents to problem management and request workarounds to restore service quickly.

Service owner accountability

The service owner is accountable for the affected service and approves prioritisation and resourcing decisions for permanent fixes to problems affecting it.

Change enablement role

Change enablement authorises the changes that implement permanent fixes. Problem management proposes fixes but does not approve its own changes.

Knowledge management role

Ensures workarounds and known errors are captured, validated, and made available to service desk and support staff through the known error database.

Distributed problem management

In ITIL 4's product-and-service-team model, problem management activities are distributed across teams rather than centralised, coordinated by the practice owner.

Supplier problem responsibilities

Suppliers and partners may hold problem management responsibilities defined in contracts and service level agreements; shared accountability must be made explicit.

5 Whys

A technique that repeatedly asks 'why' to drill from symptom to root cause. Simple to apply but can miss multiple contributing causes if used alone.

Ishikawa diagram

A fishbone diagram grouping possible causes into categories such as people, process, technology, data, and environment to structure brainstorming about root causes.

Kepner-Tregoe analysis

A structured problem analysis method using is/is-not comparison and must/want distinction to narrow the fault domain and identify the true cause.

Fault tree analysis

A top-down technique working from an undesired event using AND/OR logic gates to identify combinations of causes that could produce it.

Pareto analysis

Applying the 80/20 principle to incident and problem data to focus effort on the few causes producing most of the impact.

Trend analysis

Analysing incident and monitoring data over time to detect recurring patterns, supporting proactive problem management before incidents escalate.

Known error database

A repository of known errors with their root causes and workarounds, used by service desk and support staff to resolve incidents faster.

Problem management metrics

Measures include problems resolved, percentage of incidents linked to problems, known error database coverage, and reduction in repeat incidents over time.