Despite best practice guidance such as ITIL being around since the late 1980's, Problem Management is still a process that is eluding many organisations. This presentation explores why and how to overcome the challenge being faced by so many.

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3. GET
ID ON’T
IT
JOR
IT MA
ISN’T IDENT
INC
ING?
H ANDL
Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

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5.  “……ITIL’s
clarifica/on
of
an
“incident”
versus
a
“problem”
clears
up
confusion
about
what
ac/ons
need
to
take
place
during
which
process”
 “An
incident
occurs
at
the
moment
a
service
request
or
outage
is
called
into
a
service
center.
ACer
that
call
the
company
works
to
get
that
customer
up
and
running,
at
which
point
you
close
the
incident
and
deploy
a
separate
team
to
handle
the
problem,
which
is
defined
once
the
team
find
a
series
of
incidents
that
can
be
/ed
together”
 “That’s
when
you
have
your
root
cause
which
becomes
a
known
error”
Susana
Schwartz
quo/ng
John
Long
(Tivoli
technical
strategist
for
IBM)
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

6.  An
Incident
is:
An
unplanned
interrup-on
to
an
IT
Service
or
reduc-on
in
the
quality
of
an
IT
Service.
Failure
of
a
Configura-on
Item
that
has
not
yet
affected
Service
is
also
an
Incident.
 A
Problem
is:
A
cause
of
one
or
more
Incidents.
The
cause
is
not
usually
known
at
the
-me
a
Problem
Record
is
created,
and
the
Problem
Management
process
is
responsible
for
further
inves-ga-on.
An Incident NEVER becomes
or turns into a Problem!!!!
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

7.  “Whilst
most
organisa/ons
develop
processes
and
procedures
around
Incident
Management
many
fail
to
do
the
same
for
Problem
Management”
 “OCen
this
is
due
to
a
lack
of
clear
understanding
of
the
characteris/cs
of
the
two
ac/vi/es.”
 “Incident
Management
is
the
simplest
ac/vity
to
understand
because
it
involves
puQng
structure
around
the
response
to
service
interrup/ons”
Victor
Capella
“A
Framework
for
Incident
and
Problem
Management”
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

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9.  ITIL
itself
is
to
blame!
 Quality
Incident
Management
data
 Major
Incident
handling
is
INCIDENT
MANAGEMENT
 Problem
Management
should
be
inves/ga/ng
root
cause
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

10.  The
“Hero
Factor”
 Ask
the
hard
ques/ons
 Change
the
reward
system
 Management
commitment
 Quick
Wins
 Marke/ng
–
sell,
sell,
sell!!!
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

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12.  Don’t
underes/mate
the
effort
 Good
Incident
Management
 The
right
people
" Business
knowledge
CULTURE
" Facilita/on
and
coordina/on
CHANGE!
" Think
outside
the
square
" Good
verbal
and
wri_en
communica/on
skills
" Analy/cal
and
diagnos/cs
skills
" Problem
solving
techniques
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

13.  Knowledge
base
 Ownership
 Suppor/ng
tools
 Business
priori/es
 Target
preventa/ve
ac/on
/
resources
 Interfaces
 Suppliers
 Development
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

14.  Integra/on
 Incident
Management
 Configura/on
Management
 Change
Management
&
Release
Management
 Financial
Management
for
IT
Services
 Availability
Management
 IT
Service
Con/nuity
Management
 Service
Level
Management
 Development
lifecycle
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

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16.  Kepner Tregoe Analysis
 What? Where? When? How much?
 Ishikawa Diagram
 Cause and Effect Analysis
 Pareto Analysis
 80/20 rule
 Causal Table
 Why-Because Technique
 Creative Problem Solving
 Lateral Thinking / SIMPLEX / SCAMPER etc.
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

17.  Grid Analysis
 Used when a number of good alternatives exist and many
factors are to be taken into account
 Force Field Analysis
 Looks at all forces for and against
a decision
 Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)
 Decision making tool when both qualitative and
quantitative aspects need consideration
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

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19.  Remove
“red
herrings”
 Educa/on
 Design
 Tes/ng
 “Super-­‐user”
 Delete
the
cover-­‐ups
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

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21. 
Financial

Problems
fell
by
39%

Reduced
mean/me
to
iden/fy
failures
by
20%

Reduced
mean
/me
to
resolve
by
27%

Reduced
mean
/me
to
recovery
by
52%
 Educa/on
 Reduc/on
in
cri/cal
&
urgent
Incidents
from
22
per
week
to
1
over
12
months
 Energy
 30%
reduc/on
in
high
severity
Incidents
over
3
months
 Outsourcer
 Opportunity
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

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23.  Don’t
implement
Problem
Management
in
the
guise
of
Incident
Management
 Retain
“true”
Problem
Management
staff
 Equip
staff
with
the
right
tools
and
techniques
 Acknowledge
the
conflict
of
interest
 Ensure
the
experts
you
engage
really
understand
the
difference!
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009

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25. Karen.Ferris@itsmf.org.au
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Australian IT Service Management & Help Desk Summit 2009