Cornelia

Do you have formal definitions of the boundary - what represents an incident versus a problem - and are they based upon ITIL?   I ask because ITIL is a start - but in my experience (I ran the first ITIL Manager certification class here in the US in 1996 and 1st Expert class outside of UK in 2007) they are 'basic'.   I've written profusely on this - a problem is different in that it is suspected or known to have a 'significant impact'.  

The concept of a major incident blurs the lines - but the missions of incident management and problem are opposite - as mentioned - fix it quick as per what we contracted versus find out whats happening and report in then let management decide how much resource to invest to mitigate the situation or make it go away.

When you say problem tickets - do you mean incidents - or actual problems?   Problems to me have a statement of the problem (factual or hypothetical statement of whats happening, not why), and one or more impact statements - detailing the parties impacted, to what extent (what they cannot do and the consequences).   Stage 1 of problem management?