6.2 Scope of Problem Management

Problem control, error control and proactive Problem Management are all within the scope of the Problem Management process. In terms of formal definitions, a 'Problem' is an unknown underlying cause of one or more Incidents, and a 'Known Error' is a Problem that is successfully diagnosed and for which a Work-around has been identified.

Inputs to the Problem Management process are:

• Incident details from Incident Management
• configuration details from the Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
• any defined Work-arounds (from Incident Management).

The major activities of Problem Management are:

• Problem control
• error control
• the proactive prevention of Problems
• identifying trends
• obtaining management information from Problem Management data
• the completion of major Problem reviews.

Outputs of the process are:

• Known Errors
• a Request for Change (RFC)
• an updated Problem record (including a solution and/or any available Work-arounds)
• for a resolved Problem, a closed Problem record
• response from Incident matching to Problems and Known Errors
• management information.