Incident Management vs Problem Management

Businesses today heavily rely upon computers and mobile devices to communicate, perform tasks, meet organizational goals and pursue missions. Connectivity is a vital component of the modern business environment and, in times of technology disruption, it can wreak havoc, cost significant amounts of money and generally cause harm to a business.

Inevitably, all organizations will experience a problematic technology issue at some point. These issues are often referred to as an incident or a problem. While the two terms may sound similar, they are not exactly interchangeable – there are key differences. This is especially true as new technology continues to add layers of complexities as to how and what a business needs to successfully operate.

Modern IT services need to maintain numerous applications, cloud configurations, software, hardware and networks. In a typical setting, all of these components are symbiotic with one another. If one breaks down, it can be disruptive across an organization’s entire technology ecosystem.

In this article, we’ll define incident management vs problem management, look at the differences and examine how the two can work together.

What is Incident Management?

Incident management refers to the errors or complications emerging in a network, database or other systems that need remedying. Often a single, unplanned event that is temporary in nature, the resolution process encompasses how organizations identify, track and resolve events that might cause disruption in normal business activities. Events typically classified as incidents include:

• Unplanned interruptions, e.g., power outage)
• System outages,
• Bugs and glitches
• Cybersecurity events, e.g., malware, ransomware, phishing or other threats
• Data loss
• And other issues

Typically a reactive process, IT personnel act as swiftly as possible to reach a resolution. The goal is to resolve the incident as soon as possible and get things up and running again. The longer an outage, the higher the likelihood a business will lose substantial amounts of money, experience reputational damage, enter a state of non-compliance and face other consequences.

What Is Problem Management?

If the incident cannot effectively be resolved and/or happens repeatedly, it escalates to becoming a problem. Problem management refers to issues occurring in technological environments that are not a one-time occasion. Problems are usually more complex and the management of them typically takes a more proactive stance. Usually persistent in nature, an IT problem is something that has occurred multiple times and may need deeper “digging” to identify the root cause. Events typically classified as problems include:

• Servers reaching high CPU utilization
• Databases exceeding storage capacity
• Failed login attempts
• Substantial drops in a website’s response time
• No business continuity plan in place if a power outage occurs
• Repeated error messages in applications
• Other recurring situations causing disruption and/or service failures

These and other problems can lead to significant disruption and, if not resolved, will continue. Most often, they will need to be escalated to a team that is equipped to investigate to identify the root cause and eliminate it by implementing a fix.  Over time, recurring IT problems can harm productivity, cause loss of profitability, create reputational damage and cause a business to face other consequences.

Differences Between Incident Management and Problem Management

To analogize incident management and problem management, let’s compare it to healthcare. A person may go to the doctor because they are experiencing back pain. The doctor may prescribe one or more medications to help alleviate symptoms.

However, the back pain persists and won’t go away. In that case, a deeper investigation as to the root cause of the chronic back pain is needed, which may involve diagnostic tests, physical therapy, surgery or other remedies. Much like how a healthcare provider might address a back pain issue, the same type of philosophy can apply to identifying and repairing the root cause of IT problems.

Understanding the key differences between the terms “incident” and “problem” in the IT environment is important because how the situation is approached, and the resources utilized will come into play. You don’t want to waste time and money going into deep diagnostic tests for incidents if they can be resolved more quickly and efficiently, whereas you likely would need to invest more when attempting to diagnose a problem.

In a nutshell, incident management focuses on restoring services quickly and is a short-term tool to get systems up and running as soon as possible without further disruption. On the other hand, problem management places a focus on long-term responses to identify and resolve underlying causes to prevent recurrences.

With that being said, it’s not simply incident vs problem management – the two are absolutely linked.

How Incident Management and Problem Management Work Together

Incident management and problem management can and should work together. Here, we’ll take a look at the resolution processes for both and then look at how they can work together.

Incident management resolution

Incident resolution feeds into problem management for long-term stability. The steps involved include the following:

• Identifying the incident. The responsible IT team will need to observe the incident to see exactly what is happening. In some instances, there may be automated tools in place to highlight an incident and send a notification for the team to investigate and see what types of interventions may be necessary to fix the issue.
• Reporting the incident. When detected, an incident should be reported. This is a formal process that catalogs the event and records it, including a description of the issue, what type of category it is and who it affects.
• Prioritizing incident resolutions. Not all incidents cause massive disruption, so a team will need to evaluate the scope of what and who it affects, whether it causes a “domino effect” and determine which incidents need to be fixed first.
• Responding and containing the incident. A team of IT personnel and/or automated tools will work to troubleshoot the incident to minimize disruption. If necessary, they’ll isolate the incident so it does not spill over into other areas and affect other systems and/or people.
• Reaching incident resolution. Resolving an incident is critical to help an organization resume normal services and operations. Fixes may include patches, workarounds, new hardware configurations or taking a server temporarily offline, to name a few.

Lastly, incident documentation and communication will need to occur. This essential step of the process is to help an organization avoid similar incidents in the future. Generally speaking, the details of the incident will be recorded and entered into a knowledge base, so individuals can search for them later on and find the fix they need. This type of documentation often proves very valuable in the future and helps to prevent problems down the road.

Problem management resolution

Problem management reduces recurring incidents, improving IT efficiency. The steps involved include the following:

• Assessment of the problem. A business must determine if an incident is a problem or a singular event; if identified as an ongoing or recurring issue, then it needs problem management resolution.
• Logging and categorizing the problem. The business must enter the identified problem into its log and then track each occurrence to ascertain any patterns or other attributes to help them find a solution.
• Analyzing the root cause. The team assigned to IT problem management will need to study the root cause of the problem(s) and then develop a plan for a long-term and/or permanent solution.
• Conducting problem-solving. Once the root problem is identified and understood, the team tasked with problem management can now actively find and implement a resolution.
• Postmortem activities. The postmortem takes place when the IT team handles the problem, finds a solution, implements a fix, discusses the event and learns from it. Some may offer suggestions for improvement and share ways to avoid the problem in the future; others may simply provide feedback. This is a good time for an organization to honestly talk about what went wrong and what went right so they can add it to their collective knowledge base.

How do incident and problem management work together?

Incident management and problem management can work hand-in-hand with one another because both have the same goal – to keep IT operations up and running. While incident management emphasizes immediate issues, problem management steers itself toward identifying root causes.

Both are important when it comes down to maintaining connectivity and remaining operational because they work together to maintain stability and avoid or minimize disruptions. The two management approaches can collaborate through:

• Information sharing about the issues
• Dual participation in root cause analysis
• Both taking preventative actions based on what is found in the analysis stage
• Actively communicating while working the problem
• Engaging in coordination between both teams

Incident management and problem management are both governed by the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). This “playbook” is a widely adopted framework enterprises and other businesses can use as guidance for both management approaches.

Best Practices for Incident and Problem Management

To succeed in resolving technical issues, following best practices for both incident and problem management is essential.

• Clearly log/define incidents and problems
• Be proactive about prioritization of issues to ensure the most critical and urgent issues are addressed first
• Utilize good root-cause analysis techniques
  • 5 Whys
  • Ishikawa Fishbone diagrams
  • Pareto charts
  • Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
  • Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
  • PROACT® RCA Method
• Facilitate the engagement between two teams so they can easily collaborate to make continuous improvement
• Establish a knowledge base where people working on incidents and problems can add their findings to, so it can serve as a reference if an issue resurfaces or a similar event occurs
• Designate effective communication channels, so teams can easily talk to one another when necessary
• Integrate incident and problem management processes so they can be leveraged to address underlying causes of technical issues
• Offer routine training and awareness sessions; this way, those involved are educated on what to do and how to follow established protocols
• Perform routine reviews on incident and problem management processes to ensure the protocols still work; revise where necessary
• Set a procedure for post-event review, so teams can openly and honestly discuss experiences, what they’ve learned and other factors

Automated tools can be integrated to help expedite and streamline processes for steps such as incident logging, escalation of issues and providing status updates.

Importance of Understanding Incident Vs Problem Management

When dealing with IT issues, organizations need to take a holistic view of their systems, but also need to recognize when it’s more feasible to employ quick fixes with proactive problem-solving. While incident management places emphasis on rapidly resolving disruptions to one or more technology assets, problem management involves a more strategic approach to identifying the root causes of recurring issues and seeking a long-term solution.

Enterprises that assemble protocols and teams for incident management and problem management typically find they can better maintain their systems and smooth operations. Successfully doing so can result in increased customer satisfaction, increased employee satisfaction, lower amounts of downtime and less money spent from budgets, since protocols are in place to identify the best solutions.

Ready to Evaluate Your Incident Vs Problem Management Processes? Red River Can Help!

Establishing a culture encompassing both incident and problem management is vital. IT teams should aim to go beyond simple incident resolution as they occur and be proactive by knowing when problem-solving for underlying issues is necessary.

Incident management and problem management have a lot of overlap and both are designed to improve reliability. If either type of issue goes unresolved, it can cause severe disruption in an organization. Businesses may find it challenging to allocate the resources and personnel they need to handle comprehensive troubleshooting.

This is an area we can help! To learn more about Red River’s services, contact us today to schedule a consultation.