Problem Management Process Design Guide - Webstg.servicenow.kr
Problem Management processdesign guideOrlando releaseUpdated: January 2020
Table of contentsIntroduction .3Principles and basic concepts .3Process scope .3Process objectives .4Roles and responsibilities.4Process owner . 4Problem coordinator . 4Problem manager . 5Technical support . 5Specialist roles . 5How problems are initiated .6Problem Management lifecycle .6Process overview . 7State: New . 8State: Assess . 9State: Root Cause Analysis . 10State: Fix in Progress . 12State: Resolved . 13State: Closed. 13Other processes .14Incident Management . 14Change Management . 14Configuration Management . 14Knowledge Management . 14User experience . 14Process governance .14Measurement . 14Metrics. 152 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
IntroductionThis process guide will provide a detailed explanation on how the problem managementprocess is enabled within the Now Platform. It is intended that this process be followed asclosely as possible. ServiceNow encourages simple, lean ITSM processes and that isreflected in the out-of-the-box design. Additional functionality can be incorporated intowhat is offered; however, this should only be in scenarios where there is a required businessoutcome gained that could not be achieved using an out-of-the-box method. Following thisapproach should also ease upgrade paths and the ability to expand the use of the platform.Principles and basic conceptsA problem is defined as the underlying cause of one or more incidents. The root cause is notknown at the time a problem record is created, and the problem management process isresponsible for further investigation. A problem can be: The occurrence of the same or similar incidents multiple times An incident that impacts a service(s) with many users The result of diagnostics revealing systems not operating in the expected way that willlead to an incident; a service impact has not yet occurredThere are three primary goals of the problem management process. The first goal is toprovide a mechanism to understand the cause and permanently solve incidents that haveoccurred. These are cases where the incident process may have only identified a temporarysolution purely to restore service. The second goal of the problem management process is toprevent incidents and service impacts from occurring. Finally, problem managementattempts to minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented.A known error article is a type of knowledge article the problem management team cancreate to help with incident deflection. A workaround or root cause may not be known.A root cause is defined as the underlying or original cause of an incident or problem.A workaround is defined as a temporary way to restore service failures to a usable levelServiceNow focuses on the use of automation and information to speed the path to rootcause identification and permanent resolution.Problem Management relies heavily on: The CMDB for problem assignment and impact analysis The incident management process for providing details of individual related incidents The change management process for controlling changes needed to solve problems The knowledge management process for sharing information about known errorsProcess scopeThe scope of Problem Management includes: The identification and diagnosis of problems through Event Management, technicalidentification, and proactive Problem ManagementThe diagnosis of all problems as quickly as possible using:–Problem and error control3 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
–––Event and incident trendsIdentifying workarounds to reduce incident durationIdentifying and implementing permanent solutions to eliminate incidents reoccurringProcess objectivesThe objectives of Problem management are to: Determine the root cause of incidents, identify viable workarounds, and drive topermanent solutions that prevent recurrence Maintain information about problems, associated workarounds and permanent solutions Communicate information appropriately to reduce and eliminate the number andimpact of incidents over time Identify and solve problems proactively to improve IT services and prevent potentialincidents from occurringRoles and responsibilitiesProcess ownerThe problem management process owner’s primary objective is to own and maintain theproblem management process. The role of the process owner is usually a senior managerwith the ability and authority to ensure the process is rolled out and used by all stakeholders.Responsible for: Defining the overall mission of the process Establishing and communicating the process mission, goals, and objectives to allstakeholdersDocumenting and maintaining the process and procedures Resolving any cross-functional (departmental) issues Ensuring proper staffing and training for execution Ensuring consistent execution of the process across the organization Monitoring, measuring, and reporting on the effectiveness of the process to seniormanagement Continually improving the processServiceNow role required: There is no role in ServiceNow it is a functional role to support theprocess.Problem coordinatorThe problem coordinator is the responsible owner for getting a problem permanentlyresolved or prevented as soon as possible. They must also manage and co-ordinate allproblems through the process.Responsible for: Assessing problems to ensure they are genuine Monitoring and controlling the detection, recording, assignment, escalation, andresolution of problems4 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
Coordinating technical and service subject matter experts (SMEs) Documenting problem information Publishing workarounds Publishing known error articles Coordinating decisions on whether to apply a fix Deciding whether to accept the risk of not applying a fix Reviewing problems to check for quality and completeness Driving the efficiency and effectiveness of the problem management processServiceNow role required: The problem coordinator role is required in ServiceNow.Problem managerThe Problem Manager is responsible for the overall Problem Management process and canconfigure Problem Management settings as well as act as a problem coordinatorResponsible for: Can configure whether a problem or problem task can be re-opened and if so by whichroles. Can configure whether accepting risk of not fixing this problem moves the problem toresolved (still active) or closed.ServiceNow role required: The problem manager role is required in ServiceNow.Technical supportTechnical support teams assist the problem coordinator to investigate problems, identify, andimplement solutions.Responsible for: Providing subject matter expertise Conducting investigation into problems Identifying the root cause of problems Identifying workarounds, and notifying Service Desk and Technical Support ofworkaround availability Publishing known error articles Identifying technical solutions to eliminate faults Providing stakeholder communication on active problems Resolving problems, through Change Management where applicableServiceNow role required: The problem task analyst role is required in ServiceNowSpecialist rolesRequest read and write rolesRoles to assign access permissions at a granular level when the ITSM Roles — ProblemManagement plugin (com.snc.itsm.roles.problem management) is activated. sn problem read5 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
sn problem writeThese roles are added when the ITSM Roles — Problem Management plugin is installed. Thenew roles added are: sn problem read: The user with this role has read access to the Problem Managementapplication and related records.sn problem write: The user with this role has write access to the Problem Managementapplication and related records.Business stakeholder roleThe business stakeholder role to approve, view, or read records across the organization andview reports.This role is an extended form of an approver role and contains the sn incident read,sn problem read, sn change read, sn request read, and approver user roles.You can assign this role to any user who is a business stakeholder to review and approverequests only if you have the appropriate entitlement from your organization. This role isadded when the Business Stakeholder plugin (com.snc.business stakeholder) is installed.How problems are initiatedDirectly in ServiceNow – A service desk agent, incident manager, problem coordinator orother IT user can create a problem directly when they believe they see an underlying issuethat is worth investigating.Directly from an incident – Incident Managers, Service Desk Analysts, Problem Managers orother IT Support staff can raise a problem from an incident where they are seeing evidenceof a problem based on the incident record/s.Automatically via integrations – Problems can be automatically generated via externalsystems such as a vendor system integration.Problem Management lifecycleStates in any ServiceNow application serve a specific purpose. They are designed to make itclear where in a process a record currently resides and to display progress. States shouldrepresent a unique phase in a process where a specific set of related activities are groupedtogether designed to achieve a particular outcome in order to move to the next phase ofthe process. Our recommended Problem Management process has the following statemodel: New Assess Root Cause Analysis Fix in Progress Resolved Closed6 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
Process overview7 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
State: NewWhen a problem is first created it is in a state of New. This is where very basic information isadded that may suggest a problem exists. All known information about the symptomsexperienced is captured. At the very least enough to warrant some kind of investigation.The mandatory fields are: Problem statementIf other fields such as CIs are known at this point, they can still be added and will beautomatically if they are coming from an existing incident record; however, they do notneed to be mandatory to progress.Problem assignmentAt New state it is necessary to identify the appropriate assignment group to assess theproblem in the next phase of the lifecycle. This will need to be a Problem Managementgroup or if a dedicated function does not exist in the organization then the group that willperform that function such as the service owner or incident management team, these userswill require the problem coordinator role. This assignment is best achieved by automaticallyupdating the Assignment group field rather than letting the user try to pick the correct groupmanually since this approach is prone to error.At this point the assignment group (problem management group) will need to choose anindividual problem coordinator to take responsibility for the problem on behalf of the group.This is done by populating the Assigned to field.Once the mandatory fields are populated the problem coordinator is expected to click theAssess button. This will move the problem into the lifecycle where it is considered live andsomething that requires attention.8 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
State: AssessAt Assess state the problem coordinator is primarily assessing the problem to determinewhether it is genuine or not.The new Assigned to individual (the problem coordinator) will now conduct an initial reviewof the problem primarily to check that it is indeed a real problem. If the problem coordinatordetermines that this is a duplicate problem, they click Mark Duplicate and select theproblem this is a duplicate of. If the problem coordinator recognizes it is not a genuineproblem they will simply click Cancel and populate a Work Note to explain why they do notconsider the problem to be genuine and something that requires further investigation. If theyare comfortable to proceed with the investigation, before clicking Confirm they will updatethe Priority, Business Service, and CI.Establishing priorityProblem prioritization typically drives the criticality associated with the handling of theproblem and the order in which problems will be focused on. Priority is calculated through acombination of impact and urgency.Impact is the affect that a problem has on business.Urgency is the extent to which the problem’s resolution can bear delay.Priority is generated from urgency and impact according to the following table.Urgency1 – HighImpact2 – Medium3 – Low1 - High2 – Medium3 - LowPriorityPriorityPriority1 – Critical2 – High3 – MediumPriorityPriorityPriority2 – High3 – Medium4 – LowPriorityPriorityPriority3 – Medium4 – Low4 – LowIt is possible to automatically establish the priority of the problem based on the CI that isidentified in the problem record. With this technique, the business criticality value of the CI isused to determine the priority of the problem. For example, an online banking service wouldbe considered critical to a financial organization. If this CI is related to the problem thepriority can be automatically set to Critical as a result. This ensures a more accurate andconsistent prioritization of problem, as the determination of impact and urgency can be asubjective call. If this automated method is being used this can occur at New state when theproblem is first raised as it will be helpful to the problem coordinator to see this immediately.Business services and CIsThe Business service and CI fields are used to identify what is being impacted by theproblem. These fields use CMDB data which is also used across other ITSM processestherefore creating a valuable link and traceability particularly for business services. This also9 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
offers the use of the dependency views feature that displays the relationship map from theservice/CI in question to other related CMDB components and will display any ongoingincidents or changes that may exist to aid with root cause analysis.If the ServiceNow Agile Development application is in use, existing defects should besearched to look for possible causes or relationships to the problem.Once this data has been entered the problem coordinator will click Confirm to move to theRoot Cause Analysis state.State: Root Cause AnalysisThe problem coordinator may now need to engage one or more technical support teams toinvestigate and potentially help fix the problem. This is achieved using problem tasks.Problem TasksThe parent problem record remains assigned to the problem coordinator throughout theentire process. The coordinator creates and assigns individual tasks out to the varioustechnical support teams to aid in the investigation and diagnosis. Each team will capturetheir own investigation and discoveries in their individual tasks and the problem coordinatorwill review and coordinate them all. There are two types of problem tasks: Root Cause10 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
Analysis and General. The RCA type should be selected for specific tasks required toinvestigate the root cause and should be created by the problem coordinator at this point.During the Root Cause Analysis state four main activities are intended to occur:1. Discover a workaround (if possible) – The problem coordinator should enter it into theWorkaround field and communicate it to all open related incidents using theCommunicate Workaround related link. This populates the text from the Workaround fieldinto the Activity Log of all related open incidents explaining that it is a workaround fromthe problem record.2. Discover the root cause and document if using the Cause notes field on the problem – Ifthe problem coordinator needs help to discover the root cause, they can assign a RootCause Analysis problem task to the relevant team who will attempt to document thecause code, cause notes, proposed fix and provide a workaround on the problem task.3. Discover a permanent fix for the problem to prevent it from happening in the future –Enter it into the Fix notes field and communicate it to all open incidents using theCommunicate Fix related link. As with the root cause, if the problem coordinator needshelp to discover a permanent fix, they can use a problem task to gather that information.4. Communicate that this problem is known and currently being worked on that can help todeflect incidents – Since it could take time to implement a permanent fix, this might behelpful. The problem coordinator should create and publish a known error knowledgearticle. Known error articles show up when an end user goes to create an Incident via theService Portal. Click the Create Known Error article related link to create a known errorarticle from a problem which creates a link between the two records displayed in thePrimary Known Error article field in the problem record. The Problem statement,Description, Workaround, and Cause notes are copied over when creating a known errorarticle. The known error article will be in the draft state and can then be published. If it isnot deemed necessary to publish the known error in the Knowledge Base, service deskanalysts and other technical support users can simply search for all problems to find theseand use the information as they require it. Most commonly this will be used by the servicedesk if they are trying to resolve an incident, find a workaround or if they recognize apattern of similar incidents.These activities can all happen in parallel and may be discovered at different times throughroot cause analysis. It is possible that none of these are discovered, some or all four.If the root cause and a permanent fix are discovered, then the problem can be moved tothe Fix in Progress state using the Start Fix button. If a fix cannot be discovered or the fixcannot be implemented, the problem coordinator can use the Accept Risk button andprovide reason why they are accepting the risk of not fixing this problem for now.11 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
State: Fix in ProgressThe Fix in Progress state represents a problem that has been investigated and is now needinga fix. At this state it becomes mandatory to enter Cause notes and Fix notes.The problem coordinator can create or relate to one or more change requests to show theclear path to resolution.Once the change(s) are implemented and the problem considered to be resolved the Statefield is now updated to Resolved using the Resolve button.Risk AcceptedFrom the Root Cause Analysis or Fix in Progress states, the problem coordinator can acceptthe risk of not fixing the problem for now: Due to cost implications the business may determine it is not worth the cost of fixing A fix cannot be determinedThe resolution code is set to Risk Accepted.Risk Accepted problems in these situations can be reviewed by the problem coordinator atappropriate intervals. The coordinator establishes whether the impact has increased or thesituation has changed to the point where either the problem will be fixed or is no longerrequired due to some other change that has occurred and resolved it. The problemcoordinator can then choose to reanalyze the problem, so the problem process can then beworked through to find the solution.ServiceNow recommends that Risk Accepted problems are not set to Closed since the goalof the process has not been achieved and the problem still exists. Setting a problem to12 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
Closed suggests that it is no longer a problem and can be misleading since closed recordsare considered inactive as a standard across the platform.Risk Accepted problems should be set to Resolved and can remain in Resolved indefinitely. Itis important to remember that this is a key difference between Incident and ProblemManagement. Incident Management is concerned with the restoration of service as quicklyas possible using whatever means possible. Problem management is concerned withpermanently resolving the issue and ensuring it will not reoccur, therefore it is acceptable forthis to take as much time as is required. There should be no driver to close out unresolvedproblems purely because they are not going to be fixed at that time and are sitting in a list ofactive problems.State: ResolvedOnce the problem has been moved to Resolved state the Assigned to individual will need topopulate the Mandatory Fix notes field with text to describe exactly what has been done tosolve the issue.At the Resolved state it is also possible for an organization to conduct a review of theproblem if their process requires it. Additional fields can be added here to capture thatinformation. Alternatively, problem tasks can be assigned out by the problem coordinator asrequired.A set period can also be observed before setting the problem to Closed state to confirm thatthe known error has been solved. If evidence suggests that the issue persists, the state can beset back to Root Cause Analysis using the Re-analyze button. The process can then beworked through again to continue to find the solution.If the problem is confidently considered solved, then the Assigned to individual will close theproblem using the Complete button.State: ClosedAt Closed state several resolution codes are displayed. These are automatically determinedby certain actions that occurred during the process: Duplicate – The problem was marked as a duplicate of another problem. Any relatedincidents will be moved over to the problem that this one is a duplicate of. This isconfigurable in the problem properties. Canceled – The problem was canceled. There are very few scenarios where a problem isgenuinely canceled. This will only occur when a problem was raised in error usuallyprematurely before realizing there is no real problem. Fix Applied – A permanent fix was applied and the problem was resolved. Risk Accepted – The problem has not been resolved but it has been accepted that thesolution is not to be applied at this time. If that decision changes the problem can revertNote: the problem management properties determine whether a closed problem can be reanalyzed, for example: additional incidents are added to this problem after the fix wasapplied. Set the role to Nobody if you do not want to be able to reanalyze the problem, ifyou do that, should the problem reoccur, create a new problem ticket and set the firstreported by field to refer back to this problem so you can trace it back later on.13 2020 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, Now Platform, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks ofServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
Other processesIncident ManagementMost problem records are triggered in reaction to one or more incidents. Incident historyhelps identify trends or potential weaknesses as part of proactive problem management.Incident records that are related to problem records which are pending resolution, areautomatically updated when a problem is resolved.Change ManagementFor problems, implementing the workaround or the permanent solution will require work on aservice, hardware, or software. Conducting this work will require a change record to beraised. Thi
Resolving problems, through Change Management where applicable ServiceNow role required: The problem_task_analyst role is required in ServiceNow Specialist roles Request read and write roles Roles to assign access permissions at a granular level when the ITSM Roles — Problem
problem record is created, and the Problem Management process is responsible for further investigation. Reactive Problem Management: Resolving problems in response to one or more active (opened) incidents. Proactive Problem Management: Identifying problems based on periodic scheduled reviews and an analysis of closed incident patterns.
Problem Management RACI Information 9. Problem Management Associated Artifacts Information 18. . Process Activity Name: PBM-02.01 Associate Relevant Incident Records to Problem Record 31. Process Activity Name: PBM-02.01 Associate Relevant Incident Records to Problem Record 31.
learn to solve problem through hands-on learning experience [16]. Problem solving is also defined as learning that uses the problems of daily activities and problem situations that are simulated as a context for learning mathematics [17, 18]. The problem in problem solving can also be non-routine problem. Non routine-problem is problem where
Business Process Management (BPM) (for Masters of IT) Lecture 10: Process Monitoring and Mining . Business Process Lifecycle Management 2 . 3 Process design Process execution Imple- mentation Process design Process execution (Re-) implemen- tiation Process Monitoring & Controlling
problem (seeDrira et al.for a detailed review) is the process plant layout problem, on which this work primarily focuses. Process plant layout problem addresses the layout problem for items in a typical chemical process plant. 5 Previous approaches to process plant layout design were from a practical point of view, where
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