Your feedback? How long did it take you to implement Prob?

[ITILKH]

I have a few questions if any of you would share your experiences with me.

1. did you implement problem management and incident management together? Or did you first do incident management then go back to problem?

2. what were your lessons learned about how you did it?

3. how long did the problem piece take you (to get to at least an initial level of stability) and what were the key lessons learned about how you went about it?

4. After an initial implementation, did you have another major iteration that you launch or was it just incremental improvement after that ?


Kevin

[Alok]

Hi,

I my scenario of about 7000 IT users and about 4000+ IT incidents per month, we implemented problem management after incident management.

The lesson learnt were that, intially we had a large count of problem reported, though the problem resolution rate was very low. then as we proceeded with 3 months the problem closure and open rate had become stable. The issue which we faced was the resource allocation to resolve the problems. This was because management was bit more inclined towards showing the process than using it.

Initial piece took us 4-5 months when got a stabilized reporting, incident analysis, regular KEDB update etc.

Well proactive problem management started in next phase. This was due to the reason that it needed more interaction with availability and capacity reports which are not fully implemented in my scenario. The requirements of tools and effort for proactive problem management was supported by the effective work shows in 'reactive' problem management.

The continuous improvement is increasing the success rate in adhering to the predicted resolution date of the problem and also the time within which a problem becomes a known error.

Regards,
Alk
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Alok
Process Consultant

[ITILKH]

THANKS for sharing Alok.

By the way, did you use a fully integrated toolset that included Problem Management where problem records are linked to CIs, Incidents, and Change records ? Or did you get by with something more disconnected?

[Alok]

Hi Kevin,

No, actually we do not have any toolset that integrates CI's, incidents, CRs etc and thats a major gap that needs to be bridged. This is because the management has its own financial constraints.
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Alok
Process Consultant

[ITILKH]

Alok, I have never used them, but have you looked at any of the open source solutions? might be a way around the constraints.

[Alok]

Kevin, No i have not seen any open source solutions. Do you know any, can you share that. Let me evaluate them.
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Alok
Process Consultant

[ITILKH]

By the way Alok, it sounds like you might need to give a strong business case to management. Stronger Problem Management that is integrated with the rest of Service Management could pay for itself depending on your environment. If you aren't doing it in an integrated fashion, I think there is probably ample opportunity for ROI. But the analysis would have to be done. If you have so few problems and so simple problems that a manual offline analysis and linkage is sufficient, then OK. But more than likely the PM activities take longer than necessary, or are not as effective as they should be because of the likelihood of not immediately noticing key trends or relationships. Also, just the count of problems is not enough. You also have to understand the business impact of problems that linkage can help address more efficiently or effectively.

However, it is possible that you are operating at such a high level now, that small improvements would not pay for more integration, but I think that is unlikely.

If you ever need any help with the business case, I know some folks that can help you.

Kevin

[Alok]

Hi Kevin,

Thats a very true analysis you did for my scenario, and currently i am doing a assessment and analyzing gaps thats can be filled by least possible means.

But i need your comments on a situation, where a type-3 vendor ( out-sourced infrastructure support) can influence the customer to commit resources, in terms of tools and funding, so that such processes can be well integrated and improved.
The customer for vendor is the IT department of a business and the IT's customer is the business, which in itself is not very healthy. The direct approach of the vendor to the business is not that feasible.
There is no involvement of the vendor in IT financial management, and thus its tough to present the impact.
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Alok
Process Consultant

[ITILKH]

Alok

My company does not have the type of situation that you described so I am not the best person to give you an opinion on that very challenging issue. I can recommend someone if you like. I know of a few good consulting firms that I would recommend who might be willing to start with some casual conversation.

- KHP

[Alok]

Hi Kevin,

I would be thankfull if you can do that.

Even if other gurus and experts in this forum and discuss or comment on this it willbe very helpfull.
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Alok
Process Consultant

[ITILKH]

Alok,

I don't like to do public testamonials, so I will send you my referrals if you email me at

paulsforthecause-at-gmail.com

of course, replace the "-at-" with the @ symbol.

Kevin