TRIGGER: ITIL Incident and Problem Management do the same thing, why have both?

SETTING: IT Operations (ITO) leaders often confuse Incident and Problem Management, leading to more service disruptions of longer duration. Here we explore how an ITO leader can use each to reduce the quantity and duration of service disruptions.

SUMMARY: Incident and Problem Management are not the same, although they are interdependent. If you do not have each then you most likely have more user downtime, lower customer satisfaction and higher costs than you should -- reducing ITO Return on Investment (ROI). Incident Management aims to restore service quickly by reducing the duration of disruptions. Problem Management seeks to prevent service disruptions by discovering the causes (or potential causes) of disruptions, and creating workarounds and permanent resolutions to them. Marquis research shows these two can reduce both the quantity and duration of disruptions significantly. However, if you do not make the goals of each a priority, they tend to fall off in response to the day-to-day pressures of supporting users. It is just as important for you to allocate staff and require activities to develop workarounds, identify root-causes and perform trend analysis as to restore service. If one functional group cannot do both well then consider two groups – but you must ensure both Incident and Problem Management activities get the management attention required for both to operate well.

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KEYWORDS: service metrics, service level agreements, business perspective, operational terms, proven solution, business impact, existing service, service performance, business transactions, service quality, business performance, business process