Incident integration: Problem Management

HPE Service Manager provides separate modules for creating and managing Incident and Problem records, including Known Error records. However, because these modules are fully integrated and share data seamlessly, Incident, Problem, and Known Error records can be linked. Once linked, the relationships between the records are maintained. Users can create Problem records from Incident records (and vice versa), and Service Manager automatically copies all relevant information from the Incident record to the Problem record to minimize retyping. These records are automatically linked. Users can also manually link records.

Known Error records are created as part of the Problem Management process. The Service Manager Problem Management workflow contains two sub-processes:

• Problem Control. This process analyzes the problem, finds the root cause, and allows users to gather all data needed to initiate a new problem review. Problem Control includes two phases:

  • Identification and Classification. This phase includes creating the Problem record. Classification identifies relationships, urgency, assesses the impact on the customer’s business service, determines priority, and assigns the problem to a specialist or support group.
  • Investigation and Diagnosis. This phase examines the symptoms of the problem to identify the root cause.
• Error Control. This process manages correcting the root cause identified by Problem Control. The objective of Error Control is to effect permanent changes to Configuration Items (CIs) with known errors. Phase 1 of Error Control is Error assessment. Phase 2 of Error Control is closing the known error record.

While Service Manager will not automatically close all Incident records linked to a Problem or Known Error record, Service Manager facilitates closing linked records by listing all linked Incident records that need to be closed. Service Manager can be tailored to automatically close these records.

However, HPE does not believe that this supports best practices. Service Manager Problem Management is designed to address infrastructure errors, not immediate issues. Therefore, the technician should manage the closure of the Incident separately to help ensure the customer has received the necessary support.