Resolving a problem with a change request
Scenario
Bob Baxter, the Calbro problem coordinator, conducts an incident request review on the Calbro Order Processing System (OPS). In the course of the review, Bob discovers that several similar incidents related to the OPS occurred over the past six months. The resulting problem investigation determines that a change to the IT infrastructure is required.
A known error is created, initiating a request for change (RFC), which is assigned to Mary Mann, the change coordinator. Mary approves the change, and Ian Plyment, the specialist, executes and verifies the change. The status of the known error is automatically marked as Corrected.
Bob is notified that the change request has been completed. He notes the permanent corrective action in the problem investigation and changes its status to Closed.
Workflow
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:
For the purpose of this example, assume today's date is 01/19/2020. Therefore, the Last Resolved Date used is six months ago. | After running the search, Bob Baxter, the problem coordinator, looks for incident request records that have not yet been linked to a problem investigation. Bob performs an incident request review on the OPS by querying Incident Management for incidents or recent changes related to the OPS. Bob discovers that over the past six months, several similar incidents were related to the OPS. |
Problem coordinator |
| Bob wants to determine the root cause of these incidents, so he creates a problem investigation from one of the incident request records. Creating the problem investigation from an incident request record ensures that all of the relevant details are copied over from the incident request to the problem investigation. |
Problem coordinator |
| Bob then relates the remaining OPS incidents and the OPS CI to the problem investigation. |
Problem coordinator | The problem coordinator assigns the problem investigation to the specialist. | Bob assigns the problem investigation to Ian Plyment, the specialist, to conduct a root cause analysis. |
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 the physical server on which the OPS runs needs a memory upgrade and sends his root cause analysis to Bob. |
Problem coordinator | The problem coordinator performs the analysis review by opening the problem investigation and independently verifying that the specialist's assessment of the root cause is correct. | Bob reviews and verifies Ian's analysis. Bob then creates a known error, which serves two purposes:
|
Problem coordinator | The problem coordinator creates a known error:
| Bob creates the known error directly from the problem investigation, which transfers all pertinent information to the known error. Bob assigns the known error to Mary Mann, the change coordinator. |
Change coordinator |
| Mary receives the known error and reviews it. She agrees that the change is required and creates a change request from the known error. |
Change coordinator |
| On the change request record, Mary creates a task to implement the change, and assigns the change request to Ian Plyment, the specialist who will perform the work. The coordinator also relates the CI to the change request. |
Specialist | The specialist performs the tasks and closes them:
| Ian implements the change. When he finishes the last task, the system notifies Mary that the tasks are closed. |
Change coordinator | The change coordinator completes the change request:
| After Mary coordinates the change implementation, she reassigns the known error to Bob for verification. |
Problem coordinator | The problem coordinator confirms that the change has solved the problem. Then, the problem coordinator sets the status of the problem investigation and the known error to Closed. | Bob is notified that the change was completed and verifies that it fixed the problem. He then changes the status of the problem investigation and known error to Closed. |
Result
As a result of the incident review and root cause analysis, the server on which the Calbro OPS runs receives a memory upgrade. The infrastructure at Calbro is better equipped to meet the business requirements.
Benefit
By performing a memory upgrade, Bob has taken proactive steps to prevent similar incidents from occurring.