I have been doing Problem Management for a couple of years. We need to draw a line in the sand on when is a Major Incident really a Major Problem. Does anyone have any guidelines that you use on determining when a Major Problem is really a Major P

[mindyhynes]

Does anyone have any guidelines that you use on determining   when a Major Problem is really a Major Problem?

[jstoecklein]

Hi Mindy:

Major Incidents are not by default major problems. There is no element of crisis management in Problem Management.

• Incident Management — restore service as quickly as possible
• Problem Management — identify the root cause of one or more incidents and permanently remove the defect  

There are major problems, but the purpose is not to restore service. The purpose is to get to the root cause of the issue and find a way to permanently fix it. Users that are impacted by a major incident should not be waiting on Problem Management for service restoration. Major incidents might be worked in conjunction with a major problem, but the two are different processes and should be worked separately.

You probably already know this since you've been doing Problem Management for a while, but I think it's important to reiterate. I'm sure you aren't the only person who struggles a bit with Problem Management.

You may already be doing this, but if not, my suggestion is to make sure that the Incident Management (including major incident, and Problem Management (including major problem) processes are handled and resourced separately.

I have two reasons for making this suggestion. The first is that when I've seen major incident and 'major problem' processes overlap, Problem Management spends most of its time in firefighting mode and has little or no time to step back and take a holistic view of the issue. The other reason for this suggestion is that the skills required for facilitating a major Incident aren't necessarily the same as those required for the detailed, persistent and systematic approach required by the Problem Management process.

I really think that Problem Management is most effective when it is kept out of firefighting mode and is focused on the critical work of identifying and permanently removing issues.

As to when you have a major problem, this is a tough question to answer since each organization is a little different. What ITIL tells us is that major problems should be based on priority, which is typically calculated using Impact and Urgency. Typically, when I see confusion around major incidents and major problems, or the two have become intertwined, it's because Problem Management is being used as an extension of Incident Management, which is incorrect. It happens to the best of us, but should be corrected if that's the case.

Sorry to be a little late to the party; I hope this is helpful to someone.

Jodi