Avoiding Mistakes when Implementing Incident and Problem Management

Flawless design, implementation
and improvement of Incident and
Problem Management
Javier García Bolao
@JGarciaBolao
fgarciabolao@gmail.com
Avoiding Mistakes

 ITIL®: most commonly accepted set of best practices for
IT Service Management.
 Incident: The unplanned interruption or degradation of an
IT service, or the failure of a component that has not yet
impacted in the service.
 Problem: underlying cause of one or more incidents.
 Any IT organization DEALS with incidents and problems,
but MANAGING them requires putting processes in place.
Laying the Groundwork

 Identifying usual mistakes common to many
implementations of IT processes for incident and
problem management.
 Finding possible solutions to such mistakes.
 Understanding the relevance of:
– Adopting a holistic vision to IT Service Management.
– Ensuring the connections between ITSM processes.
Objectives of this webinar

 Every business has a different answer for this question.
 Interdependence with other processes (sets of activities)
 It is likely that IM and PM could be implemented first, as
long as we don’t neglect the rest of the SLC.
Which process should I implement first?

Thinking that IT is all about the Operation
Stage

Linking Incident and Problem Management

 A problem is the underlying cause to one or more
incidents
 An incident NEVER becomes a problem
 A problem is not an incident that has to be investigated
 A problem is not a major incident
 A problem is not an escalated incident
 Incident and problem are different concepts
Misunderstanding the concept of “problem”

 In order to restore the Service, it may be necessary
applying a bypass solution (workaround)
 The aim of Problem Management should be providing a
permanent solution to the the problem.
Workarounds becoming permanent solutions

 Your Service Desk knows what it takes for being
efficient at solving incidents.
– Ask them to assist you at defining the IM process
– It will facilitate change
– It will help you to discover gaps in other SLC stages
Defining without taking stakeholders into
account

Linking Incident Management with CSI and
KM

 Your Customers are the requestors. Start managing
expectations right from the beginning.
– Meetings for LISTENING and UNDERSTANDING
– Satisfaction surveys
– Periodic follow-up meetings
Defining without taking stakeholders into
account

 Most things work best if they are kept simple (K.I.S.S.)
– The “S” of K.I.S.S. does NOT stand for “sloppy”
 When designing:
– Define the objective of the process
– Keep in mind the objective along the design stage
– First draft with every detail supporting the objective
– Final draft only with the essential elements
– Simple writing, adequate for different audiences
 Mind the culture of the organization
– “Culture eats Strategy for breakfast”.
Bureaucratizing processes

 Understand that you’re leading a change
 Put the right people at the right place
 Maintain the communication with stakeholders
 Service may slip before improving: act in advance
 Be proactive in your relationships with customers.
Transitioning without good communication

 Do NEVER lie about expected outcomes of processes
 Drive the change, but MAKE IT THEIR IDEA
 You are not “doing ITIL”: you are enabling ITSM
Poor organizational change

 Know what and when to communicate
 Educate and re-educate
 “Evangelizing” might not be a good idea within certain
organizational cultures.
 Communicate with your team: share evidences of
improvements.
Being unaware of the organizational culture

Links to Organizational Change
Management

 If the role has been assigned to the Service Desk
Manager, a certain level of authority has to be clearly
defined.
Incident Manager doesn’t have enough
authority

 Getting every incident registered might be challenging,
especially at early stages of the implementation.
 Not registering systematically will delay the maturation of
the process.
 Promote the use of Self-Service tools.
Incidents are not consistently registered

 Stress is a cause for people leaving the SD
 Define an operational margin that will enable them to
manage peaks
 Hold meetings that would allow them to “open the
pressure valve” without risk
 Do NOT tolerate abuse, but manage the required
solution through the right channels
Ignoring that your Service Desk is under
pressure

 SLAs have to be clearly defined and communicated
 Users may want their issues fixed “right now”
 The success of your Service Desk will depend on your
ability to train them on what, when and how to do things.
Lack of links with Service Level Management

“Those who forget History
Are doomed to repeat it”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)
 Make sure that you preserve the knowledge gained
along the IM process and make it available to others who
may need to address a similar incident in the future.
Not managing the knowledge gained at IM

 Measuring is the first thing you should do for improving
the performance of your processes.
 Start with a baseline of the situation, saving data of how
the activities are performing right before the
implementation.
 If you couldn’t capture a baseline, the first measurement
can become your baseline.
 Culture: Metrics are NOT bad!
Not measuring

 Objective CSF KPI Measurement
 Mind the business when you define the objective and the
CSFs
 Present the right information in the right format to the
right persons
 Data Information Knowledge Wisdom
Not measuring (or measuring the wrong
thing)

 A process is just a set of activities for accomplishing a
specific objective.
 Understand that your IT is a system on which different
processes should be naturally inter-connected.
 Make sure that the links between processes are
connected, “clean” and operational.
 MIND THE BUSINESS
Conclusions

There is no one perfect approach for
everyone

Javier García Bolao
@JGarciaBolao
fgarciabolao@gmail.com
es.linkedin.com/javiergarciabolao/
Thank you for attending

Avoiding Mistakes when Implementing Incident and Problem Management

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