33 Ways to Successful Problem Management

Have you struggled with getting Problem Management off the ground in your organization? I have some advice for you.


  1. Find a motivated person, eager to take on the challenge. Or become that person.
  2. Organize weekly meetings to review progress.
  3. Don't limit Problem Management to root-cause analysis only. Own problems end-to-end, until final change installation and problem resolution.
  4. Follow up on overdue changes which solve your problems. Get them implemented.
  5. Publicly announce next steps, owners and deadlines. That includes your next steps.
  6. Think of yourself as a detective.
  7. Become best friends with your Service Desk people.
  8. Become friends with everyone else in IT.
  9. Get expert help for root cause analysis.
  10. Learn from results of root-cause analysis. Relate facts quickly.
  11. Research other ways to analyze problems for root causes. Become better at what you do.
  12. Provide feedback on quality of incident records. Be constructive and get your point across.
  13. Don't put off your work. You will never get it done this way.
  14. The root cause can be a human error. Be persistent, but sensitive.
  15. Learn how to approach people. Don't get them defensive.
  16. Get a soft-skill training course. It will make the previous point easier.
  17. Go beyond your job description. Be willing to do something extra.
  18. Solve problems, don't just identify them. That should be obvious.
  19. Be concerned when you have too few problems.
  20. Form a Problem Management Community. Share experience and best practices.
  21. Organize a training course for prospective Problem Managers. Teach them or hire someone to do it.
  22. Set some time off for quality RCA. Don't interrupt yourself.
  23. Deal with unsolvable problems gracefully.
  24. Get involved in major incidents.
  25. Deliver quality reports of your work.
  26. Become a role model. Make others aspire to become Problem Managers.
  27. Elevate the status of Problem Management on IT career path in your organization.
  28. Be mindful of time. Use it to its full potential.
  29. Quality analysis over hasty and inaccurate results.
  30. Use good tools to aid your work. ITSM software actually helps a lot in this case.
  31. Learn enough about your technology to understand reports of your specialists.
  32. Don't be discouraged by setbacks.
  33. Keep asking "why" until you get a satisfactory answer. Most likely you will not have to ask more than 5 times.
Care to add to this list?

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