6.11 Roles within Problem Management

Processes tend to span functions within the organisation. Therefore it is important to define the responsibilities associated with the activities in the process that have to be performed. To remain flexible, it is advisable to use the concept of roles. A role is defined as a set of responsibilities, activities and authorisations. In this chapter, very brief examples of relevant roles within the process are defined.

Roles should be assigned to people or groups within an organisation. This assignment can be full-time or part-time, depending on the role and the organisation.

6.11.1 Problem Manager

The Problem Manager has the responsibility for all Problem Management activities and has the following specific responsibilities:

• developing and maintaining the Problem control process
• reviewing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Problem control process
• producing management information
• managing Problem support staff
• allocating resources for the support effort
• monitoring the effectiveness of error control and making recommendations for improving it
• developing and maintaining Problem and error control systems
• reviewing the efficiency and effectiveness of proactive Problem Management activities.

It is recommended that the Service Desk Manager and the Problem Manager roles are not combined because of the conflicting interests inherent in these roles.

6.11.2 Problem support

Problem support has both reactive and proactive responsibilities, as follows:

reactive responsibilities:

• identifying Problems (by analysing Incident data, for example)
• investigating Problems, according to impact, through to resolution or error identification
• raising RFCs to clear errors
• monitoring progress on the resolution of Known Errors
• advising Incident Management staff on the best available Work-arounds for Incidents related to unresolved Problems/Known Errors
• assisting with the handling of major Incidents and identifying the root causes.

pro-active responsibilities:

• identifying trends and potential Problem sources (by reviewing Incident and Problem analyses)
• raising RFCs to prevent the recurrence of Problems
• preventing the replication of Problems across multiple systems.