Proactive problem management process
Proactive problem management seeks out issues, faults, and known errors in IT systems by analyzing past incidents, networking monitor data logs, and other sources of information. It then proceeds to solve them permanently before they arise as incidents. This process is a part of continuous service improvement and is driven from a continual improvement perspective. The trigger is not the result of an active incident, but rather the result of identified risks to service. These risks may include warnings, errors, or potential breaches to thresholds that indicate potential problem areas. As such, proactive problem management activities take place as ongoing activities targeted to improve the overall availability and end user satisfaction with IT services.
The following video illustrates how you can use the Proactive problem management workspace in BMC Helix ITSM Insights.
The proactive problem management process consists of the following stages:
Review incidents
A problem coordinator performs reviews to check for closed and resolved incidents.
During the review, the problem coordinator analyzes the incident data to identify those incidents that are recurring and generate most work for the Service Desk.
Create the problem investigation
When a problem area is identified, the problem coordinator manually creates a problem investigation and relates it to the corresponding incidents.
Alternatively, the problem coordinator can take the following approaches:
- Create problem investigation based on certain incident events.
- Use automated rules to create problem investigations when certain conditions are fulfilled.
For example, you can have automated rules to create a problem investigation every time a major incident is created.
The problem coordinator then assigns the problem investigation to a specialist who has the appropriate combination of skills, availability, and access rights to perform a root cause analysis.
To know more about incident rules, see Configuring incident rules.
To know how to create problem based on certain incident events, see Creating a problem investigation and known error.
Perform a root-cause analysis
When a problem investigation is assigned to a specialist for root cause analysis, the specialist looks for a temporary workaround to restore the affected service.
If the specialist implements a workaround, the specialist adds information about it to the problem investigation record. This helps other specialists resolve future incidents caused by the problem until a permanent solution is implemented. Next, the specialist looks for the root cause of the problem.
Identify changes
Based on the change-related observation, the specialist performs the following actions:
Observation | Action |
|---|---|
Change is required to remove the root cause or to enable a workaround | Request the problem coordinator to include a change coordinator in the analysis. |
Unable to find the root cause or propose a structural solution | Update the problem investigation record with the reason for not being able to find the root cause or to propose a structural solution |
Root cause analysis is complete | Inform the problem coordinator about the completion of root cause analysis |
Close or reassign problem investigations
After the root cause analysis is completed, the problem coordinator reviews the analysis.
Based on the observation, the problem coordinator performs the following actions:
Observation | Action |
|---|---|
Problem has been resolved permanently and satisfactory root cause analysis is performed | Close the problem investigation |
No permanent workaround or solution exists for the problem | Perform periodic reviews of the problem to find a permanent solution in the future |
Resolution did not remove the root cause, or a better solution exists for the problem | Reassign the problem investigation for further analysis |