Incident categories ->Symptoms & Problem categories-&

[javierarcal]

Hi,

I am implementing problem management, in a big company, we are thinking in defining different categories for Incident Management and for problem management.

Our idea is that Incident Management categories will be based in the symptoms of the failure detected and that Problem Management will base its categories in the true root cause of the problem.

For e.g. In a web application many users have “Error Http:// 500” so they cannot authenticate, we can classified this incident as “Software->Application->User authentication”

Afterwards Problem Management team detected is a problem of data base configuration, so the problem associated to this incidents will be classified as “Software->Database->Configuration”

Please let me know you thoughts about defining:

Incident categories based in Symptoms

Problem categories based in Root cause
_________________
--
Javier G. Arcal
PhD Engineer by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
ITIL V3 Accredited Trainer
ITIL Service Manager® Certified by EXIN
ITIL Foundation® Certified by UK ISEB
ITIL Consultant and Trainer
Email: javier.arcal@gmail.com
MSN: javierrmad

[jpomales]

Sounds interesting. I like your concept. But keep in mind that you have to relate the Incidents to the Problems in a one to one or a one to many basis.

My main concern here would be not necessarily the technicalities of having Incident records and Problem records related, but rather the metrics and reporting. So for example if I wanted to have reports Problems and the Incidents they cause, I want to make sure that I'm catching all the related records. I would not want to have a report in which I miss an Incident or two. My rationale being that usually a single Problem is linked to multiple Incidents.

This is just a very technical (tool related) concern. Your original idea about having different categories for Incidents and Problems is excellent.

Cheers!

J.
_________________
audentes fortuna juvat

[xitil]

I think it is an excellent approach. Base your incident categories on the services you provide, and the type of Incident the user faces... it will be easier to categorize for the support team, will match the customer point of view.

For categorizing the problems, use a "root cause" approach. This is what will make most sense from the problem management point of view.

Regaring the reporting question, as incidents should be linked to problems, you should not have any orphean problems, and should be able to build the reports you need, if your reporting tool allows for it...
_________________
Better have remorse than regrets