Can anybody explain about "workaround" field in Problem Management?

[gaurav56]

Can anybody explain about "workaround" field in Problem Management?

[Tom Alday]

How ours is setup is that any information added to the Workaround field is inserted into the Customer Comments field of any attached Incidents when the "Communicate Workaround" UI action is used. This way all affected users are sent the workaround as soon as possible without having to manually go into each Incident.

[djquinones]

The workaround field is a part of both the Incident and Problem applications in ServiceNow.   So the short answer to your question would be..."The same way it is used in Incident Management".   But let's explain that   so it is clear to everyone.

Without giving everyone the ITIL lesson, we all understand that the main objective of Incident Management is to get the Service restored, regardless of what the root cause is.   A workaround does just that...It is that activity or task that gets the service up and running.   The workaround does not resolve the issue, it resolves the incident.   If the same incident occurs in an hour, you apply the workaround again.   Of course, there should be someone that can see the pattern here and raises a flag and hence creates a problem ticket using the previous Incident tickets as the source.  

So, let's say a day goes by and the incident occurs again...APPLY the WORKAROUND.   As a matter of fact that same workaround should be listed on the PROBLEM Ticket...unless a different more long-term   workaround is identified by the problem team.

So, maybe that will help.   But let us not forget to clearly define the term Workaround.   Do we have to do that?   I would think not, but as we all do not think as one (thank goodness), here is the ITIL definition of workaround:

Reducing or eliminating the Impact of an Incident or Problem for which a full Resolution is not yet available. For example by restarting a failed Configuration Item. Workarounds for Problems are documented in Known Error Records. Workarounds for Incidents that do not have associated Problem Records are documented in the Incident Record.

However this one seems a bit clearer:

• Workarounds are temporary solutions aimed at reducing or eliminating the impact of Known Errors (and thus Problems) for which a full resolution is not yet available.
• As such, Workarounds are often applied to reduce the impact of Incidents or Problems if their underlying causes cannot be readily identified or removed.