Indicating a problem investigation at an impasse

This user scenario describes how to indicate a problem investigation at an impasse. Incident Management and Problem Management must be installed to follow this user scenario.

During Bob Baxter's incident request review of the Calbro Payroll service, he discovers also that over the past six months multiple incident requests have been registered related to slow searches against the Payroll service database. Bob assigns the problem investigation to Ian. Ian's problem investigation finds a defect in the database management software that might be corrected by a future patch. Ian notes the root cause, but because a permanent solution in not yet available, he moves the problem investigation status to Pending. Bob performs periodic checks against problem investigations with a status of Pending, to see if permanent solutions have become available.

The following table describes the typical steps involved in this user scenario:

Role	Actions	Explanation
Problem coordinator	The problem coordinator performs an incident request review: From the Incident console, the problem coordinator creates a custom search that has the following characteristics: `Service = Payroll` `Impact => 2-Significant/Large OR 1-Extensive/Widespread` `Last Resolved Date >= 07/19/2009` For the purpose of this example, assume today's date is 11/19/2009. The Last Resolved Date used in this example, therefore, is six months ago.	Bob performs an incident request review by searching incident requests registered against services with the following characteristics: For which Bob is the problem coordinator. That have not yet been linked to a problem investigation. That were resolved with a workaround.
Problem coordinator	The problem coordinator opens an incident request record that is related to the Payroll service search issue and creates a problem investigation. The incident record's details are copied from the incident request record to the Problem form, and a relationship is created between the problem investigation record and the incident request records. The problem coordinator completes the Problem form.	Bob spots another trend-numerous incidents have been reported against the Payroll service related to the length of time it takes to run a search against the database. Bob creates a problem investigation record directly from one of the incident request records. Creating a problem investigation directly from an incident request record transfers all relevant information from the incident request and automatically establishes the relationship between the incident request and the problem investigation.
Problem coordinator	The problem coordinator relates all the related incident requests to the problem investigation.	Bob then relates the other incident requests to the problem investigation.
Problem coordinator	The problem coordinator assigns the problem investigation to a specialist.	After creating the problem investigation, Bob assigns it to Ian.
Specialist	The specialist accepts the assignment and performs the root cause analysis.	Ian accepts the problem investigation assignment and begins a root cause analysis. During the root cause analysis, he determines that the problem is with a defect in the database management software. Ian also determines that none of the database management software patches fixes this problem. The problem might be fixed in a future release.
Specialist	The specialist notifies the problem coordinator. The specialist verifies that the problem coordinator is assigned as problem coordinator. The specialist changes the problem investigation status to Assigned.	Ian notifies Bob that he has completed the root cause analysis and determined the problem is with the database management software. He also tells Bob that, currently, no patch from the database software vendor fixes the problem.
Problem coordinator	The problem coordinator performs the analysis review by reviewing the work information recorded on the problem investigation. The problem coordinator independently verifies that the specialist's assessment of the impasse is correct.	Bob performs an analysis review and double-checks that Ian's assessment of the situation is correct.
Problem coordinator	The problem coordinator indicates that the problem investigation is at an impasse. The problem coordinator indicates why no further action can be taken against the investigation and changes the problem investigation status to Pending.	Because no current fix for the root cause is available, Bob determines that the problem investigation is at an impasse.
Problem coordinator	Periodically, the problem coordinator checks the problem investigations with a status of Pending. If a solution is now available, the problem coordinator reassigns the problem investigation to a specialist for follow-up and implementation. If a solution is still unavailable, the problem coordinator records information about the periodic check.	Bob performs periodic checks of all problem investigations with a status of Pending to determine if a solution has become recently available.

Indicating a problem investigation at an impasse

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