A couple of ITIL Service Operation (Intermediate) questions

[Annie321]

Hi,

1. I'm getting a little confused with Incident/Problem Management. Am I right in saying that when even the 2nd line Incident Management guys can't fix an incident and there is no fix in the KEDB, it is escalated to Problem Management who create a problem record.
When a workaround/root cause has been found and applied, do Problem Management officially close the problem record? Are there any instances when Incident Management would create a problem record?

2. If calls are escalated from the Service Desk to Access Management and Request Fulfillment, who closes such calls after they have been actioned?.

Any help is much appreciated

[BorisBear]

1. Possibly, but it sounds like you are going down the route that unresolved incidents are escalated to problem management which is not the case.

2. It depends - I don't think there is a definitive answer (could be wrong) - it could be service desk, it could be access management but always with confirmation from the customer that their request has been fulfilled.

[Diarmid]

1. If it is proving difficult to resolve an incident, it probably should be escalated - to a more urgent, more resourced incident status. but until it is resolved, problem management is irrelevant to incident management.

Problem management has no contribution to make to the resolution of an incident, but rather is required to investigate the underlying cause of the incident and propose actions to avoid it's recurrence. such activity may go on in parallel with the resolution process under incident management, but must not interfere with it.

2. define what steps and criteria (resolution in place; service behaving normally; verification by user/customer; that sort of thing) are required for the closure of calls, identify staff and management who are in a position to carry out and ascertain this and authorise those staff to close calls by following your defined procedures.

In many organizations this will be confined to service desk staff, but it is a wholly practical matter to maintain clarity and certainty in the process. The key is defining what has to be done and identifying those in a position to do it properly and effectively rather than what section they are in.
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"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

[Annie321]

Thank you very much for your replies, much appreciated!

[MikkoH]