Problem Management

The Problem Management Best Practice - Jakarta plugin introduces lookups (impact, urgency and priority) for Problem Management.

Activate the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid — Knowledge Integration (com.snc.best_practice.problem.madrid.knowledge) plugin if you have the admin role. This plugin includes demo data and activates related plugins if they are not already active.

The Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid — State Model plugin (com.snc.best_practice.problem.madrid.state_model) introduces new best practice states and guided actions to navigate the life cycle of a problem.

You can activate the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid — State Model plugin (com.snc.best_practice.problem.madrid.state_model) on your instance using the Problem Management Migration Utility store app.

Activate the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid (com.snc.best_practice.problem.madrid) plugin if you have the admin role. This plugin includes demo data and activates related plugins if they are not already active.

You can activate the Problem Management plugin (com.snc.problem) if you have the admin role. This plugin includes demo data and activates related plugins if they are not already active.

You can activate the Problem Management — ATF Tests plugin (com.snc.problem.atf) if you have the admin role. This plugin includes demo data.

Add the mandatory fields necessary to move a problem or a problem task record from the New state to the Assess state in the assess dialog form. If you miss filling any of the fields, you can always fill those in the assess dialog form.

Add multiple change requests to a problem to capture all the requests that you need to implement to fix the problem.

Associate multiple affected or impacted configuration items (CIs) to a problem to find out all the CIs that are affected by the same problem.

Add multiple incidents to a problem to avoid creating multiple problems for incidents that have the same issue.

Assess a problem task to determine the feasibility of working on the task.

Assess a problem to determine whether the problem requires a thorough investigation.

Knowledge bases house the information an organization wants to keep and share. The Problem form includes four options for creating knowledge and communicating information.

The quick resolution of problems requires gathering as much information as possible about the problem.

The ServiceNow Problem Management application helps you identify the cause of errors in the IT infrastructure that are reported as occurrences of related incidents.

Within the platform, problems are handled using the task record system. Each problem is generated as a task record through various means, and is populated with the pertinent information. These tasks are assigned to Problem Management team members to resolve and then close.

You can prioritize a problem and highlight that it needs a review.

After you complete your main migration, you must do some manual clean-up to make your instance similar to the base version of problem management.

When you activate the problem state model, you need to update the overview dashboard to use the new states.

After you have completed root cause analysis of a problem and have come up with a resolution or fix for that problem, submit change requests to get the problem fixed. Documenting and communicating fix helps user to know the solution to a problem.

Document the cause and resolution of a problem to resolve incoming incidents quickly and avoid further problems to be raised on the same issue.

Document and communicate workaround to let others know that you are aware of the issue. The workaround is a temporary way to restore service failures and lessen the impact of a Problem for which an actual resolution is not yet available.

Resolve and complete the problem task.

Configure problem categories to provide a refined way of monitoring and reporting problems. Add to or remove category and subcategory choices from the list of problem categories or subcategories.

Configure the problem form so the information it collects is relevant to your organization's processes. You can easily modify the form to show only the fields, related lists, and other elements that you need.

Create or redesign problem form layouts to align them with the business process workflow of your organization. Categorize problems for monitoring and reporting. Use data lookup and assignment rules to automatically assign a task to a user or group based on predefined conditions.

A problem is a cause of one or more incidents. Create a problem to identify the root cause of the incidents and try to prevent them from happening again.

Create known error articles as reference material. The known error articles document the root cause and the workaround of the problem to help with deflecting incidents.

Create custom Problem Management models with states and transitions tailored to your use cases.

Create custom Problem Management models with states and transitions tailored to your use cases.

Problem tasks are how the problem coordinator asks subject matter experts for help with identifying the root cause and proposed fix for a problem. Divide the problem into multiple problem tasks to help with the investigation. You can assign the problem tasks to different assignment groups or users.

A problem is a cause of one or more incidents. Create a problem to identify the root cause of the incidents and try to prevent them from happening again.

The form designer allows you to customize elements in the problem form to create different form views, display a field navigator, or provide field properties.

Domain separation is supported in Problem Management. Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

Enable the Problem Management models system property so that you can create and use custom models.

Problem Management supports the ITIL process used to find and fix the root cause of issues that result in incidents. You can record problems, associate incidents, and assign them to the appropriate groups. You can document and communicate known errors and initiate actions to resolve the situation.

Extension points enable you to extend the functionality of an application and integrate customizations without altering the application code.

After you investigate and perform a root cause analysis of the Problem, you can understand whether the Problem can be resolved or you should find a temporary workaround for the Problem. If the Problem can be resolved, implement the fix, or the resolution for the Problem.

Several types of components are installed with activation of the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid plugin, including user roles.

Several types of components are installed with activation of the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid — Knowledge Integration plugin, including tables.

Several types of components are installed with activation of the Problem Management plugin, including tables.

The Introduction activity helps you to understand the purpose of the migration utility.

Identify the root cause of the problem to analyze, track, and resolve recurring incidents permanently.

Description of the field values for the legacy problem form.

Description of the field values for the legacy problem form.

Define how problem records are updated when you migrate the records.

Define how problem task records are updated when you migrate the records.

Migrate active records to apply the new mappings to your active problem and problem task records.

Migrate inactive records to apply the new mappings to all the remaining problem and problem task records.

You have successfully activated the Problem Management Best Practice - Madrid - State Model plugin and updated your problem and problem task records to the new best practice states.

Get your instance ready for the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid — State Model plugin (com.snc.best_practice.problem.madrid.state_model) and so you can update your existing records with the new states.

A modification is any alteration such as addition, deletion, or update that you carry out on Problem Management. If you have made significant modifications, you will need to review and resolve some possible blocking modifications.

The Problem Management Migration Utility, available in the ServiceNow Store, is a guided setup application that helps you upgrade to adopt the base version of Problem Management using the guided problem life cycle.

Use this dashboard to track the progress of open problems across different age buckets. You can break down the problems by priority or assignment group.

The Problem Management use case is described in this section.

Problem Management helps identify the cause of an error in the IT infrastructure, reported as occurrences of related incidents. The goal of this product view is to help you to understand how Problem Management key entities work with the core CSDM framework.

Consider these points while implementing the CSDM framework.

Problem Management manages and uses CSDM tables. Several ServiceNow products benefit from and add value to Problem Management.

Prepare to restore the base functionality that is required for the problem state model you have modified.

You can prepare your instance for migration before you start the migration activity.

To follow ITIL guidelines, problem records are prioritized by the impact and urgency of the problem.

Several user roles are installed with activation of the ITSM Roles — Problem Management plugin (com.snc.itsm.roles.problem_management).

Configure the problem form layout to conform to the workflow and the process of your organization. Add, remove, and customize fields and related lists, create problem categories, and modify links as needed.

Platform Analytics Solutions and in-form analytics contain preconfigured dashboards. These dashboards contain actionable data visualizations that help you improve your business processes and practices.

Track the progress made by different assignment groups in resolving problems in the daily, weekly, and monthly time frames.

Description of the field values for the problem form.

Use this dashboard to gain a high-level view across the problem management process, from opening to closing.

Understand how Problem and Problem task is created, assessed, investigated, and fixed in a Problem or Problem task states.

You can use Problem Management models to tailor processes for specific use cases.

Many of the Problem Management plugins are activated in the base system. Others, you can activate when you are ready to use them. Some plugins include demo data.

Problem Management properties are used to control features such as creating problem task on a closed problem and reanalyzing a closed or a canceled problem.

Description of the field values for the problem task model form.

Description of the field values for the model state transition condition form.

This dashboard shows the current state of open problems.

This dashboard uses advanced features such as interactive filters and workbench widgets to provide a broad view of problem reports, both current and over time.

Description of the field values for the problem task form.

Description of the field values for the problem task model form.

Contextual search display results on forms and record producers based on the text that you provide in a field.

Validate that Problem Management still works after you make any configuration change such as apply an upgrade or develop an application. Copy and customize these quick start tests to pass when using your instance-specific data.

Reference topics provides field descriptions of various forms.

Request the ITSM Roles plugin (com.snc.itsm.roles) to activate the ITSM Roles — Problem Management plugin (com.snc.itsm.roles.problem_management) to gain more control over the access that different service desk agents, technicians, and managers have within your Problem Management process.

Resolve the issue and add detailed note of the resolution for future reference.

Blocking modifications that are detected in your instance are not compatible with the problem state model and you must resolve them before you activate the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid — State Model plugin.

Resolve any blocking modifications and resolve or verify any warning modifications that are detected on your instance.

Repair the plugins in the specified order to restore the base functionality that is required for the problem state model.

Warning modifications do not block the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid — State Model plugin from being activated.

Change in a Problem record impacts related Incident records. Notification is sent to the user for each such update.

After you consider a problem to be resolved, the incidents related to the problem with the state On Hold may be resolved using a UI action from the Problem form.

After a problem is logged, it must be assigned to the appropriate group or individual to handle the problem. You can define assignment rules to automate the assignment process.

You can create a knowledge article from the problem immediately, and not wait for when the problem is closed.

As with incidents, problems often generate information that may be needed in the future. The system can automatically submit a knowledge article when a problem is closed.

Problem Management is responsible for managing the life cycle of underlying problems. State transition of a problem guides you through the stages of a problem life cycle, from creation to closure.

A problem task is the smallest unit of work that you should perform to complete a problem. State transition of a problem task guides you through the stages of a problem task life cycle, from creation to closure.