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Problem Management: a Practical Guide

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Problem Management: a Practical Guide The IT service management process known as problem management is more than simply restoring services and applying permanent fixes to incidents; it is about providing a stable and available infrastructure that supports business processes and enables the success of the business. Written by authors who are recognized experts in problem management, this publication goes beyond existing process theory to serve as an expanded resource for the HDI® Problem Management Problem Management Professional certification course. Not only does it include step-by- step, easy-to-understand examples, real-life scenarios and personal experiences, but it also provides process templates, tables and reports in the appendices to enable you to quickly establish and mature the problem management process within your organization. So whatever your role – be it technical, managerial or operational – if you are an IT professional working, or planning to work, within problem management, then this is the book for you. Problem Management: A Practical Guide shows problem management to be a core business competency that is critical for the reliability and availability of the technology that makes an organization successful. David Cannon, vice-president and consulting director, Forrester Research The ultimate goal of a problem manager is not to manage problems, but to determine how to eliminate them. Problem Management: A Practical Guide will help professionals improve their personal knowledge and skills to investigate the problems that exist within their organization. Organizations no longer need to struggle and experiment with problem management, they can now learn from the experts. Rick Joslin, former executive director, HDI Problem Management A Practical Guide ISBN 978-0-11-708298-4 JIM BOLTON AND BUFF SCOTT III www.internationalbestpractice.com 9 780117 082984 9983 IBP Practical Problem Management v1_0_12.5mm spine.indd All Pages 15/09/2016 14:41 7211 Greening Service v0_7.indd 4 21/07/2011 12:35 Problem Management A Practical Guide London: TSO 10352 IBP Problem Management v0_8.indd 1 15/09/2016 15:57 Published by TSO (The Stationery Office), part of Williams Lea, and available from: Online www.internationalbestpractice.com www.tsoshop.co.uk Mail, Telephone, Fax & E-mail TSO PO Box 29, Norwich, NR3 1GN Telephone orders/General enquiries: 0333 202 5070 Fax orders: 0333 202 5080 E-mail: [email protected] Textphone 0333 202 5077 TSO@Blackwell and other Accredited Agents International Best Practice (IBP) is a framework-neutral, independent imprint of TSO. We source, create and publish guidance which improves business processes and efficiency. We deliver an ever-expanding range of best-practice guidance and frameworks to a global audience. © Propoint Solutions, Inc. 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of Propoint Solutions, Inc. Applications for reproduction should be made in writing to Propoint Solutions, Inc., 9910 Palisade Ridge Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920, USA. Copyright in the typographical arrangement, design and layout vests in the publisher, The Stationery Office Limited. The information contained in this publication is believed to be correct at the time of manufacture. Whilst care has been taken to ensure that the information is accurate, the publisher can accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions or for changes to the details given. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library A Library of Congress CIP catalogue record has been applied for First published 2016 ISBN 9780117082984 Printed in the United Kingdom for The Stationery Office P002794518 c3 09/16 10352 IBP Problem Management v0_8.indd 2 15/09/2016 15:57 Contents List of figures v List of tables vi About this guide viii Foreword xi Preface xiii Acknowledgements xiv 1 Problem management – an ITSM process 1 1.1 What is IT service management? 1 1.2 Processes and functions 5 1.3 ITSM terms and definitions 9 1.4 What is problem management? 11 2 Incident and problem management fundamentals 15 2.1 Introduction to the service resolution and restoration processes 15 2.2 Why incident management must be effective 17 2.3 The differences between incident and problem management 17 2.4 Common goals and objectives 19 2.5 A summary of similarities and differences between incident and problem management 19 2.6 Common process activities between incident and problem management 20 3 Problem management activities 35 3.1 Detection and categorization 40 3.2 Investigation and diagnosis (root cause analysis) 44 3.3 Resolution and recovery 66 3.4 Closure 70 3.5 Major problem review 74 4 Problem management relationships 77 4.1 Problem management’s relationships to other ITSM processes 77 4.2 Problem management’s relationship to ITSM functions 86 5 Organizing for problem management 91 5.1 Roles and responsibilities 92 5.2 RACI matrix 98 5.3 Organizational models 101 5.4 Tips on allocating resources 106 iii 10352 IBP Problem Management v0_7.indd 3 14/09/2016 15:48 Problem Management 6 Measuring problem management 109 6.1 Why measure? 109 6.2 CSFs and KPIs 110 6.3 Management reporting 113 6.4 Process maturity assessments 115 7 Keys to success 123 7.1 Common success factors 123 7.2 Selling problem management – developing your business case 130 7.3 Addressing organizational change 135 7.4 Final thoughts 137 Appendices A Problem management policy template 139 B Sample problem management plan table of contents 145 C Problem management standard operating procedures template 147 D Examples of symptom, resolution and root cause codes 169 E Two-tier categorization scheme example 173 F Service disruption report example 175 G Sample project plan for process implementation 177 H Communication plan template 189 Index 191 iv 10352 IBP Problem Management v0_7.indd 4 14/09/2016 15:48 List of figures Figure 1.1 Using best-practice standards and frameworks for delivering IT services 3 Figure 1.2 Services are delivered through a mix of people, process and technology 4 Figure 1.3 IT services supporting business processes 5 Figure 1.4 The main components that make up a process 7 Figure 1.5 Processes cross organizational boundaries 9 Figure 1.6 High-level overview of the problem management process 12 Figure 1.7 The two main aspects of problem management 13 Figure 2.1 Process flow for restoring and fixing errors in the infrastructure 16 Figure 2.2 Incident management process flow 21 Figure 2.3 Trending ‘detected by’ over time 23 Figure 2.4 Trending ‘reported by’ over time 24 Figure 2.5 Example of a multilevel categorization scheme 25 Figure 2.6 Incident matching and workarounds 33 Figure 3.1 Relationship between an incident, problem and root cause 36 Figure 3.2 Major categories and activities of problem management 36 Figure 3.3 Problem management process flow 39 Figure 3.4 Example of an Ishikawa diagram 57 Figure 3.5 Pareto chart of causes for customer dissatisfaction 59 Figure 3.6 Fault tree analysis diagram 65 Figure 3.7 Process record relationships 71 Figure 4.1 Relationships between ITSM processes, users and the service desk function 83 Figure 4.2 Problem management process relationships 85 Figure 5.1 Organizing for problem management in smaller IT organizations 102 Figure 5.2 Organizing for problem management in larger IT organizations 103 Figure 5.3 Centralized problem management organization 105 Figure 5.4 The task force organizational model 106 Figure 7.1 Adopter categorization 136 Figure 7.2 Reactions to organizational change 137 Figure C.1 Problem management high-level process flow 149 Figure C.2 Problem management process relationships 150 Figure C.3 Standard workflow symbols and abbreviations used within the workflow 152 Figure C.4 Identification and recording 154 Figure C.5 Categorization and resource allocation 157 Figure C.6 Investigate and diagnose: Part 1 159 Figure C.7 Investigate and diagnose: Part 2 161 Figure C.8 Solution identification 163 Figure C.9 Solution implementation 165 Figure C.10 Problem and known error closure 167 v 10352 IBP Problem Management v0_7.indd 5 14/09/2016 15:48 List of tables Table 1.1 Generic process roles and responsibilities 8 Table 2.1 Similarities and differences between incident and problem management 19 Table 2.2 Common data to capture when logging 22 Table 2.3 Initial categorization of an incident 25 Table 2.4 Final categorization of an incident 26 Table 2.5 Example of an ‘impact’ level table 27 Table 2.6 Example of an ‘urgency’ level table 28 Table 2.7 Example of a prioritization model 28 Table 2.8 Expected level of effort based on priority 31 Table 2.9 Escalation scheme based on incident priority 32 Table 3.1 Common states of a problem record 38 Table 3.2 Reactive and proactive triggers for opening a problem record 40 Table 3.3 The six steps involved in investigation and diagnosis 45 Table 3.4 Questions to ask when defining a problem 46 Table 3.5 Example output from a brainstorming RCA technique 53 Table 3.6 Example of sorted events surrounding the scenario problem 55 Table 3.7 Pareto analysis of customer dissatisfaction with service desk 59 Table 3.8 ‘Could be’ but ‘is not’ table 62 Table 3.9 ‘True if’ table 63 Table 3.10 Setting time parameters for problems 69 Table 4.1 Service level management: inputs to and outputs from problem management 77 Table 4.2 Incident management: inputs to and outputs from problem management 78 Table 4.3 Change
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