Problem Management

Problem Management is the ITSM process that addresses the underlying causes of incidents and aims to eliminate these causes permanently. In ITIL, a problem is defined as the unknown cause of one or more incidents. Problem Management thus goes a step further than Incident Management: instead of only treating symptoms, it tries to identify root causes. Those responsible (problem managers or the Problem Management team) analyze recurring or serious incidents in order to uncover the underlying problem.

Once a problem has been identified and resolved, this can eliminate several incidents at once. Problem Management comprises reactive activities (root cause analysis after incidents have occurred) and proactive activities (identifying potential failures in advance, e.g. through trend analyses or risk assessments). Its tasks also include documenting Workarounds for problems that are not yet resolved and initiating permanent solutions (changes) to prevent recurrence. Together with Incident Management and Change Management, Problem Management forms a core area of ITSM.

Through effective Problem Management, organizations sustainably reduce the number and frequency of incidents and improve the stability of their IT services. Suitable ITSM software helps to manage such processes centrally and document them traceably.