Search for	Example	Results
A single word	`cat`	Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats".
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase.	`"cat food"` (quotation marks)	Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase.

Search for	Operator	Example
Two or more words in the same topic	`AND` `and` `+` (plus symbol) `&` (ampersand)	`cat AND dog` `"cat food"+milk` `"cat food"&"dog food"`
Either word in a topic	`OR` `or` `\|` (pipe)	`cat OR dog` `cat \| dog`
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase	`NOT` `not` `!` (exclamation point)	`NOT cat` `! dog`
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another	`^` (caret)	`cat ^ mouse`
A combination of search types	`( )` parentheses	`cat + (dog \| mouse)` `cat \| dog + (! mouse)`

Service Manager9.41

Use > Problem Management > Problem Management workflows and user tasks > Evaluate a problem

Evaluate a problem

Part of Workflow(s):

Problem Management: Categorization

Problem Management: Investigation

Applies to User Roles:

Problem Analyst

Problem Coordinator

The goal of evaluating a problem is to determine what priority resolving the problem has in your organization. A problem's priority is a combination of the problem's impact, urgency, severity, frequency, and risk. For example, the frequency of reoccurring incidents may influence the urgency to resolve the problem. Furthermore, you may need to perform a risk assessment to determine the problem's impact on the business, such as whether the problem affects service availability or customer satisfaction. Due to resource constraints, it is important to focus on those problems that have the highest impact on the business.

To evaluate a problem, follow these steps:

Click Problem Management > Search Problems.
Use search or advanced search to find one or more records.
Discuss the problem with stakeholders (for example, during a meeting) and answer the following questions:
- What is the priority of resolving this problem?
  - Update the Impact, if necessary.
  - Update the Urgency, if necessary.
- Is this problem correctly documented? If the problem is not correctly documented, update the problem documentation.
- Does the problem need further investigation?
  - If the problem is still relevant, update the Status field to Deferred and schedule it for investigation at a later date.
  - If the problem is no longer relevant, close the problem record.
In the Activities tab, select an update type in the New Update Type field.
In the New Update field, type a description of your update.
Click Save & Exit.
If you have determined that you can close the problem record, follow these steps:
- Make sure all known errors are closed. For more information, see the related topics.
- Complete the necessary actions until the problem record progresses to the Review phase.
- Click Close in the taskbar, confirm that the subcategory and area are correct, and then select an applicable closure code.
- Click Finish to close the problem.

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