Incident/Problem Manager - Question

[magicmagpie]

Hi All,

Quick question

I’m responsible for recruiting an Incident Manager role, however the Problem Manager is not under my remit as Service Delivery Manager. I understand the differences between Incident and Problem but what are the main concerns regarding Incident and Problem Manager having the same role (1 person). I know ITIL suggests they should be separate roles but I know for a fact we don’t get that many major incidents to keep the Incident Manager busy full time, what’s the issue if I employee an Incident/Problem Manager (1 person) if the successful applicant fully understands the role and responsibilities of both functions?

Thanks

[baloutang]

There may come a time when they are conflicted with themselves.

Incident managers want to triage and get the service up and running regardless of how it's done.

Problem managers are not as reactive. They want to delve in deeper and rather than just "restarting" the service, they would look want to capture log files and try to figure why it happened in the first place.

It probably can be done with one person, but then how effective will your Incident or Problem management be in the end.

[AnandSancheti]

While its recommended that we have 2 different individual performing Incident & Problem Management Role, its not always feasible in given team for various reasons .... most common being "available FUNDING". In such cases its not uncommon to have same person acting as Incident Manager / Problem Manager.

I & another Member of my team, acted as Incident/ Problem Manager for last year. We wanted to have backup for each other and available funding was only for 2 FTEs