Problem Management for Permanent Improvement

Problem management delivers permanent improvement by reducing the likelihood and impact of incidents. It does this by identifying underlying causes, managing known errors and workarounds, and driving preventive change, with the persistence to look beyond the first plausible explanation.

• Select problems using impact and recurrence. Not every incident needs a problem record; opening a problem for every incident is a named pitfall. In the article's example, recurring login failures become a prioritised problem because their aggregate lost time exceeds the impact of several higher-profile incidents.
• Investigate causes systematically. Stopping at the first plausible cause is a common mistake. Make assumptions explicit and identify early warning signals.
• Document known errors and workarounds. Recording known errors and their workarounds is part of the practice, and known-error use is one of the measures worth tracking.
• Track corrective action to benefit. A problem should not be closed simply because a change has been raised. Measure repeat incident reduction and corrective action effectiveness to confirm the fix delivered real benefit. Begin by baselining repeat incident reduction and agreeing who can act if the result moves in the wrong direction, then review results with delivery teams and affected consumers.