Manage problems and problem tasks through their life cycle, share workarounds or fixes with related incidents, and create known error articles to help deflect incidents.
Before you begin
If you aren't using the base problem life cycle, you will continue to use the classic experience to manage problems or problem tasks through their life cycle. From the problem record page, select Continue
problem to be redirected to the ServiceNow AI Platform user interface where you can make state transitions. For information about state transitions of a problem, see Life cycle of a problem.
The base problem life cycle is included with the Problem Management  Best Practice - Madrid - State Model (com.snc.best_practice.problem.madrid.state_model) plugin. Use the Problem Management Migration Utility store application to enable this plugin and migrate your records to the base problem life cycle.
Role required: itil, problem_coordinator or higher (for managing the life cycle of
the problem), problem_admin (for deleting the problem)
Procedure
-
Open a problem.
-
Perform any of the following actions on the problem record page.
| Option | Description |
|---|
| View the unified dependency CMDB map in a new tab within the workspace view |
For the reference fields such as Configuration item, Service offering and Service, select the Dependency view icon ( ). |
| Create a problem task associated with the problem |
Select Create problem task, or select New from the Problem Tasks tab. For more information about creating a problem task, see Create a problem task in Service Operations Workspace. |
| Assess a problem |
Select Assess and fill the mandatory fields. |
| Confirm a problem |
Select Confirm to move the problem from the Assess state to the Root Cause Analysis state. |
| Investigate the root cause of a problem |
|
| Create a change request from the problem |
From the drop-down list next to Create problem task, select Create change request, or select New from the Fix Tasks
tab. For information about creating a change request, see Create a change request in Service Operations Workspace. |
| Create an outage associated with the problem |
From the drop-down list next to Create problem task, select Create outage. |
| Create a known error article |
From the drop-down list next to Create problem task, select Create known error article. Known error articles document the root cause and the workaround of the
problem. For a description of the field values, see Known error article form.
|
| Assign the problem to yourself |
Select Assign to me. |
| Mark a problem as a duplicate of an existing problem |
From the drop-down list next to Cancel, select Mark duplicate and fill the mandatory fields. |
| Cancel a problem |
Select Cancel problem and fill the mandatory fields. |
| Delete a problem |
Select the more actions icon ( ) and select Delete. |
| Create a known error article for a high-impact problem |
Note: This option is available when you have the problem-coordinator role and the following conditions are applicable for a problem:
- Impact is high.
- A known error article is not already attached.
- Work notes are not empty.
- From the contextual side panel, select the recommendations icon (
).
- From the Recommended actions tab, select Create article. For a description of the field values, see Known error article form.
|
| Attach knowledge articles or records that help a quick resolution of a problem |
- From the contextual side panel, select the agent assist icon (
).
- Search for a resource and perform the required action.
The knowledge articles attached here are displayed in the Related records tab. |
| Add an attachment to a problem |
From the contextual side panel, select the attachments icon ( ). |
| Copy the record page URL to easily access the record |
Select the more actions icon ( ) and select Copy URL. |
| Share a workaround |
Select the more actions icon ( ) and select Share workaround. |
| Share a fix |
Select the more actions icon ( ) and select Share fix. |
| Create templates for reuse |
From the contextual side panel, select the templates icon ( ). |
| Acknowledge the problem while recognizing there is currently no permanent resolution |
From the drop-down list next to Cancel, select Accept risk and fill the mandatory fields.Note: You can apply workaround notes to a risk-accepted
problem. |
| Re-analyze a problem |
From a problem in the closed or resolved state, select Re-analyze. The state is changed to Root Cause Analysis. |