Problem Management - best practices

[ravikamma]

Hi all - I want to discuss on how you manage certain aspects on problem management.  

RCA Methodology - we use the 5 why's problem solving method for root cause analysis. I think it adds a bit more structure that the plain text field provided OOB . We had incorporated the 5 why box in our instance. Changed the name of a few fields to match the requirements as per the customer/process.

RCA Approval workflow - In our environment, the rca's have to be approved by technical leads . 

We have been debating internally on how much is this needed for the organization , is there value add in customizing the tool and should we do it ? Adding the approval workflow definitely will reduce a lot of emails floating, missed timelines and bring in reporting within the tool . 

what are you thoughts on this ? how are u doing it today ? 

[Swapna Abburi]

hi @ravikamma 

If your RCA process already has a step  to review RCA with technical lead, then automating this step with a flow will definitely benefit in reducing follow ups and manual tracking.

also, in one of my engagements, we have added an optional q&a assessment to problem managers at the end of the problem life cycle to assess the quality of RCA by giving weightage score to each question. 

[ravikamma]

@Swapna Abburi Thanks Swapna. How does it impact the platform typically during the health scans ?

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @ravikamma 

The problem management process can vary from organization to organization, but there are a few common elements. Adding a flow isn’t a bad idea, but on top of that, we should also add an SLA for approving the RCA. This won’t increase customization much but will help stabilize the process. Additionally, by having it approved, it ensures that the approver has reviewed everything before giving their approval. So, go ahead with this approach

[ravikamma]

Thanks @Dr Atul G- LNG