SFIA Problem management PBMG

This page provides deep dive guidance and additional material to help individuals and organisations use and apply this SFIA skill effectively. It supplements the SFIA reference material.

SFIA v6 definition of Problem management

The resolution (both reactive and proactive) of problems throughout the information system lifecycle, including classification, prioritisation and initiation of action, documentation of root causes and implementation of remedies to prevent future incidents.

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• This skill has a relatively low span of skills (level 3, 4 and 5 only). This reflects that the higher level skills related to setting policies and standards are found in other SFIA skills e.g. IT management. In addition the starting point is level 3 as this reflects that this is not merely an administrative role skill and requires a high degree of analysis, coordination to execute successfully.
• The focus of this skill is “process management and execution” ; it reflects coordination / facilitation of the Problem Management process (see ITIL).
• In general; roles which contribute or provide input to resolving problems don't need to have the Problem Management skill e.g. if an Application Developer is involved in finding the root cause of operational problems in an application - they should be aligned to Application Support skill not Problem Management

If you are looking for skills relating to:

• the process of responding to incidents (including initiating problem management); try SFIA Incident management USUP
• identifying and resolving problems in the IT Infrastructure; try SFIA IT Infrastructure
• identifying and resolving problems with applications; try SFIA Application support
• the ongoing management of operational facilities to provide the agreed levels of service; try SFIA Service level management SLMO
• the management of changes to the service infrastructure in order to resolve incidents or problems; try SFIA Change management
• overall development, delivery, support continuous improvement of IT services ; try SFIA IT management

• ITIL
• ITSMF International: Independent and internationally recognised forum for IT Service Management professionals worldwide.
• ITSMF UK Problem Management Special Interest Group
• Kepner Tregoe Method - a powerful problem solving tool
• IT4IT™ Reference Architecture: see the IT4IT Reference Architecture Detect to Correct (D2C) Value Stream
• CMMI® for Services, CMMI-SVC, V1.3 Improving processes for providing better services
• ISO/IEC 20000-1

• Service Management

By focussing on work outputs/work products we can move the focus from activity/knowledge to performance and provide a direct link to business results. See 6 boxes model.

Leading

• stakeholder relationships and relationship management plan
• management commitment to problem management processes, tools, continuous improvement
• sufficient resources and capability to enact problem management
• organisational model for provision of problem management

Managing

• operational plan for meeting problem management commitments
• flexible, responsive process
• log of issues, dependencies, conflicts and actions needed to improve service quality and stability
• engaged resolver groups who understand and execute their contributions
• client relationships
• 3rd party supplier relationships
• capable team of problem analysts
• tools and performance support for problem management
• problem management resource and deployment plans
• problem management performance reports (e.g. process metrics, progress, quality of deliverables, compliance to standards)
• knowledge management
• reviews to ensure quality deliverables

Doing

• facilitated workshops
• engaged stakeholders
• education, guidance support to aid adherence and adoption of problem management processes
• action plan to resolve issues
• root cause analysis
• current state analysis
• recommendations gap analysis
• reports
• presentations
• known error database