Can I enable Problem Record access for end users on Employee Center?

[Sumant Servesh]

Some Key and business users from our organization want to keep an eye on/track the Problem Tickets created for some repeated and critical incidents. They want to make sure that people are working on it, what is the current status, etc. Also, there is no Additional Comment field on Problem Record, how can end users follow up with support on progress of Investigation?

[AshishKM]

Hi @Sumant Servesh ,

As per ITIL best practice, the end user always raise issues via incident and it's org team ( process team ) to manage the life cycle of PRB record, it's become an internal for problem management team that's the reason OOTB additional comments field are not there ( but can be added ), work notes and work notes list is there for any user interest in update. PRB always linked with an INC ( more can be added ). If end user is itil role based then they can view PRB linked with INC they reported/open.

For business users, you can create dashboard with multiple filter condition. Like, open today, closed today, daily work notes status for open PRB. PRB Task Open, Closed.

Lets us know if this make any sense, 

-Thanks,

AshishKMishra11

[Sumant Servesh]

Hi @AshishKM ,

Thanks for replying. In my scenario, business users got work around and awaiting a PRB fix. After every few month they keep getting the error and have no way other than following up manually/log another incident to know the progress. Agree with the suggestion that we can create a custom Dashboard/view similar to what we see on Hi Portal for Problems.

[e-milio]

@Sumant Servesh: I will reply this from an ITSM perspective, independently of Servicenow platform.

- Yes. Users could access workarounds to respond to incidents and seek service restoration on their own. But workaround records are different from problem records, and are typically documented as knowledge articles. So, you don't need to grant user access to problem records but Knowledge Bases.

- Yes. Users are waiting for definitive solutions (not precisely "fixes"), but definitive solutions are usually materialized through changes that produce new service versions, and those new service versions reach users through proactive deployments or on demand through service requests through the service desk. Again: There is no reason why users should access problem records.

- The fact that time passes and users continue to experience incidents does not justify that users should have access to problem records, since in many cases temporary and/or definitive solutions do not depend on technological but rather administrative factors (we must remember that problem management does not solve problems: it analyzes the problems, identifies the root cause, defines known errors and determines temporary and/or definitive solutions that will have to be developed by other practices such as change enablement, release management or deployment management).

- Yes. Some key stakeholders (service desk agents, service owners, practice owners among others) must have access to reports, statistics and KPIs from Problem Management, but not users.

Emilio Ramírez | ITIL Managing Professional

[e-milio]

@Sumant Servesh: I will reply this from an ITSM perspective, independently of Servicenow platform.

- Yes. Users could access workarounds to respond to incidents and seek service restoration on their own. But workaround records are different from problem records, and are typically documented as knowledge articles. So, you don't need to grant user access to problem records but Knowledge Bases.

- Yes. Users are waiting for definitive solutions (not precisely "fixes"), but definitive solutions are usually materialized through changes that produce new service versions, and those new service versions reach users through proactive deployments or on demand through service requests through the service desk. Again: There is no reason why users should access problem records.

- The fact that time passes and users continue to experience incidents does not justify that users should have access to problem records, since in many cases temporary and/or definitive solutions do not depend on technological but rather administrative factors (we must remember that problem management does not solve problems: it analyzes the problems, identifies the root cause, defines known errors and determines temporary and/or definitive solutions that will have to be developed by other practices such as change enablement, release management or deployment management).

- Yes. Some key stakeholders (service desk agents, service owners, practice owners among others) must have access to reports, statistics and KPIs from Problem Management, but not users.