30 Problem Management

I. Problem Management

• Definition (from Wikipedia): "The primary objectives of problem management are to prevent problems and resulting incidents from happening, to eliminate recurring incidents, and to minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented."
  • Key Relationship: Problem Management is closely related to Incident Management. The definition itself highlights this connection by mentioning "incidents" multiple times. Problems are often the root cause of multiple incidents.
• Purpose (Explained):
  • Aggregation: Problem records are used to group together multiple related incidents (e.g., many users reporting the same network outage).
  • Communication: A problem record allows for centralized communication about the issue, reducing the influx of new incidents.
  • Root Cause Analysis: Problem Management focuses on identifying the underlying cause of incidents. This is a key difference from Incident Management, which focuses on restoring service.
  • Workarounds: Problem records can document temporary workarounds to mitigate the impact of the problem while a permanent solution is being developed.
  • Prevention: The ultimate goal is to prevent future incidents by addressing the root causes of problems.
  • Maintain Information Maintaining resolution to reduce reoccuring incidents.
• Key Concepts:
  • Related Incidents: Problem records have a related list showing all associated incidents.
  • Problem Tasks: Problems can have associated tasks that need to be completed as part of the resolution process.
  • Workarounds: Temporary solutions to minimize impact.
  • Root Cause: The fundamental reason for the problem.
• Table: Problem records are stored in the problem table.

II. Demo: Problem Management in ServiceNow

• Problem Application Modules: Similar structure to the Incident application:
  • Create New: Creates a new problem record.
  • Assigned to me: Problems assigned to the current user.
  • Known Errors, Open, Pending, All: List views of problems.
  • Overview: Problem statistics dashboard.
• Problem Record Form View (Similarities to Incident):
  • Number: Unique identifier.
  • Business Service, Configuration Item: Similar to Incident.
  • Change Request: A field to link the problem to a related change request.
  • Major Problem, Knowledge: Checkboxes.
  • State, Impact, Urgency, Priority, Assignment Group, Assigned To: Similar to Incident.
  • Short Description, Description: Similar to Incident.
• Sections on the Problem Form:
  • Notes: Similar to Incident (work notes, etc.).
  • Closure Information: Closed By, Closed Date, Close Notes.
  • Related Records:
    • Related Incidents: Shows incidents linked to the problem.
    • Problem Tasks: Shows tasks associated with resolving the problem.
• Managing Related Incidents:
  • The Edit button on the Related Incidents list allows manually adding incidents.
  • New incidents can be created directly from the problem record, automatically linking them.
  • Navigating to a related incident shows the problem record in the "Problem" field.
• Problem Tasks:
  • Clicking New in the Problem Tasks related list creates a new problem_task record.
  • The Problem Task form is relatively generic, with fields for Number, Configuration Item, Priority, Due Date, Problem (reference to the parent problem), Short Description, Description, Work Notes, State, Assignment Group, Assigned To, and a Work Notes List.
• Related Links (UI Actions):
  • Communicate Workaround: Sends the problem's workaround to all related incidents.
  • Post Knowledge: Creates a new knowledge article from the problem.
  • Post News: Creates a knowledge article in the "News" category.
• Creating a Problem from an Incident:
  • The Create Problem UI action on the Incident form creates a new problem record and automatically links the incident. This highlights the close relationship between the two applications.
• Resolving Incidents from a Problem:
  • The Resolve Incidents UI action on the Problem form resolves all associated incidents, using the problem's close notes. This streamlines the resolution process when a problem is fixed.

Key Takeaways:

• Problem Management is about prevention and root cause analysis, while Incident Management is about restoration of service.
• The Problem and Incident applications are very closely linked in ServiceNow. They share many similar fields and have UI actions to create records from each other.
• Problem Tasks provide a way to break down problem resolution into manageable steps.
• The "Communicate Workaround" and "Resolve Incidents" UI actions are powerful tools for efficient problem management. They automate communication and resolution across multiple related incidents.
• The problem record acts as a central hub for managing a larger issue that is causing multiple incidents.