Hello,
Let me share with you in this post a couple of 'issues' for want of a better word we face all the often when it comes to the invaluable and unfortunately neglected process of Problem Management...
It is vital that due consideration is given to the assignment of Roles. Keep in mind that roles are ultimately mapped over to the responsibilities that are then accorded to assigned resources for implementation. So what we come across in so many organisations today is assignment of the Incident Manager and Problem Manager being given to one and the same person.
This is akin somewhat to asking the bowler during a cricket match to also wear the hat of the wicket keeper! It might be possible for the bowler to also be a part-time fielder (by trying to catch shots that come in his direction). However, would you not agree that it would not be prudent for the bowler to also be the wicket keeper since their objectives are variant in nature? Similarly, the roles of Incident Manager and Problem Manager should certainly not be assigned to a single person.
The misunderstanding in this regard can stem from not fully comprehending the focus of each of these processes. Incident Management is a fire fighting process whose target is in essence 'speed' and therefore the people tasked with this process focus on restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible. Acceptable sacrifices may need to be made in other areas to achieve this. Problem management however is not measured against the clock. Rather, the performance of this process in your organisation is assessed based upon preventing recurrence of Incidents. Therefore the depth of technical know-how and analytical focus of this process places it fathoms apart from Incident management. When they are combined under a single manager, inevitably over the passing of time Incident management naturally garners more and more attention consequently receding Problem management to the wayside.
Another overlooked area affecting Problem management is in respect of the Problem Manager's authority and influence with key stakeholders. If he/she does not have the visible management support, their involvement and management of major problem reviews and being involved in root cause analysis can be restricted by other support group staff (who may wrongly view the Problem Manager's involvement as an intrusion of their territory). Therefore, upon assignment of the Problem Manager, there needs to be an ongoing awareness and communication of the role of the Problem Manager and how it complements the work of Second Level Support teams, specialists from Third Party Support providers and other staff involved with problem investigation and analysis.
Another key aspect which impacts effectiveness of Problem Management is a lack of appreciation of the business value of the Problem Management. Subsequently, the requisite resources for Problem Management are not devoted to the process and implementation suffers gaps in execution. Consider the following examples of the impact of technology failure:
Your comments as always are welcome on musabqureshi4[AT]yahoo.co.uk.
Let me share with you in this post a couple of 'issues' for want of a better word we face all the often when it comes to the invaluable and unfortunately neglected process of Problem Management...
It is vital that due consideration is given to the assignment of Roles. Keep in mind that roles are ultimately mapped over to the responsibilities that are then accorded to assigned resources for implementation. So what we come across in so many organisations today is assignment of the Incident Manager and Problem Manager being given to one and the same person.
This is akin somewhat to asking the bowler during a cricket match to also wear the hat of the wicket keeper! It might be possible for the bowler to also be a part-time fielder (by trying to catch shots that come in his direction). However, would you not agree that it would not be prudent for the bowler to also be the wicket keeper since their objectives are variant in nature? Similarly, the roles of Incident Manager and Problem Manager should certainly not be assigned to a single person.
The misunderstanding in this regard can stem from not fully comprehending the focus of each of these processes. Incident Management is a fire fighting process whose target is in essence 'speed' and therefore the people tasked with this process focus on restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible. Acceptable sacrifices may need to be made in other areas to achieve this. Problem management however is not measured against the clock. Rather, the performance of this process in your organisation is assessed based upon preventing recurrence of Incidents. Therefore the depth of technical know-how and analytical focus of this process places it fathoms apart from Incident management. When they are combined under a single manager, inevitably over the passing of time Incident management naturally garners more and more attention consequently receding Problem management to the wayside.
Another overlooked area affecting Problem management is in respect of the Problem Manager's authority and influence with key stakeholders. If he/she does not have the visible management support, their involvement and management of major problem reviews and being involved in root cause analysis can be restricted by other support group staff (who may wrongly view the Problem Manager's involvement as an intrusion of their territory). Therefore, upon assignment of the Problem Manager, there needs to be an ongoing awareness and communication of the role of the Problem Manager and how it complements the work of Second Level Support teams, specialists from Third Party Support providers and other staff involved with problem investigation and analysis.
Another key aspect which impacts effectiveness of Problem Management is a lack of appreciation of the business value of the Problem Management. Subsequently, the requisite resources for Problem Management are not devoted to the process and implementation suffers gaps in execution. Consider the following examples of the impact of technology failure:
- Amazon suffered an outage in 2008 for a duration of 2 hours; the company lost $3.8 million and suffered a drop in stock value of 4.6% on the same day
- A Coleman Parkes Research report analysed feedback from 200 North American organisations and found the average financial impact of downtime per annum per organisation was:
- $224,000 + in lost revenue affecting Financial sector organisations
- $196,000+ in lost revenue affecting Manufacturing organisations
- $117,000+ in lost revenue affecting their Retail equivalents.
[Reference: http://www.arcserve.com/us/lpg/costofdowntime.aspx]
Therefore, it is evident that the fire-fighting process of Incident Management is not sufficient in reducing risks and maintaining a level of Availability that can serve business requirements. This is where Problem management provides a real helping hand by the following:
- Greater staff motivation as they have ready access to Workarounds and Known errors which assists in more accurate diagnosis and speedy resolution.
- Problem management gears resources on retaining support knowledge in a form and fashion that can be shared by all ITIL processes. Known Error records are made available to search for solutions at any time of the analysis and investigation stages. The result is inevitably a reduced frequency of failure and a reduced impact of failure where it does take place.
- A reduction in support cost due to a reduction in repeat Incidents.
It can be seen that placing greater emphasis on Problem management, its adoption and more focussed implementation results in the aforementioned benefits being attained along with an enhanced level of preventing or reducing the impact of failures as and when they occur.
Your comments as always are welcome on musabqureshi4[AT]yahoo.co.uk.
Best regards,
Musab Q.
