Incident Management
Your go-to for putting out fires. When critical systems fail—whether it’s a crashed server, payment gateway outage, or employees locked out of collaboration tools— the primary role of Incident Management is to restore service as quickly as possible to minimize the impact. Think of it as the emergency response team for IT.
Key Principles:
- Speed over perfection: Temporary fixes (like rebooting a server) are okay if they get systems back online.
- Prioritization: Incident prioritization framework, e.g., based on SLA (Service Level Agreement).
- Communication: Make sure that users are aware of the technical issue, track progress, and close the loop as soon as possible.
Examples:
- A hospital’s EHR system goes down during patient intake.
- An e-commerce site crashes during a flash sale.
- Employees can’t log in after a security patch.
Incident Management is your crisis control—great for emergencies, but it won’t stop the next outage. Tools like help desk, service desk or ITSM platform act as the backbone for logging and resolving issues fast.
Problem Management
Problem Management serves as the ITIL framework’s proactive discipline, systematically investigating the underlying causes of incidents to eliminate recurring disruptions - like Incident Management does. It analyzes patterns, reviews logs, and conducts root cause analyses to identify systemic flaws. For instance, if a database fails weekly, Problem teams might discover a memory leak in outdated software or misconfigured batch jobs straining resources during peak hours. They then implement permanent fixes, such as deploying patches, adjusting configurations, or rescheduling maintenance tasks. This process often involves collaboration with Change Management to ensure solutions are tested and deployed safely. By addressing why issues occur—not just how to temporarily resolve them—Problem Management transforms repetitive firefighting into long-term stability.
Key Principles:
- Root cause analysis: Don't address the symptoms (e.g. 'server is overloaded') and identify the underlying causes (e.g. 'multiple demanding applications running').
- Prevention: Fix systemic issues to stop incidents before they start or recur.
- Knowledge base: Having everything documented ensures that teams don't have to reinvent the wheel in the future.
Examples:
- Repeated network outages traced to a faulty router.
- Customer complaints about slow app performance linked to API connection.
- A pattern of failed logins due to outdated authentication protocols.
IT Asset Management (ITAM) is a key tool that supports Problem Management by doing more than just tracking specs—it logs every repair, update, and change. This historical data becomes your go-to guide for troubleshooting and preventing future problems.
Change Management (Change Enablement)
After the Problem Management team identifies the root cause, Change Management (Change Enablement as newly defined in ITIL 4) takes charge of planning and implementing the solution. For example, if the fix requires a server migration or critical patch, Change Management crafts a rollout strategy that includes risk assessments, stakeholder approvals, and scheduled maintenance windows. Teams might use phased deployments (e.g., updating non-production environments first) or A/B testing to minimize customer impact. All changes undergo rigorous scrutiny by a Change Advisory Board (CAB), ensuring compliance with ITIL 4’s ‘start where you are’ principle by building on existing workflows. Change Enablement transforms Problem Management’s diagnostics into stable, sustainable improvements—keeping both systems and user trust intact.
Key Principles:
- Risk assessment: Analysis (e.g. in the Configuation Management Database) of how a change will affect related services and systems.
- Approval workflows: It is necessary to involve key stakeholders and get their approval (security, management, etc.).
- Rollback plans: Have a backup plan in case something goes wrong.
Examples:
- Migrating a bank’s core systems to the cloud.
- Patching a zero-day vulnerability without breaking legacy apps.
- Change the server configuration to improve stability and performance.
The use of both ITAM and ITSM and CMDB tools is key. The CMDB maps out the relationships between Configuration Items (CIs) and helps teams plan and implement changes with minimal risk.
What is the relationship between Incident & Problem & Change management?
Imagine a retail website crashes during Black Friday’s critical sales period, Incident Management acts immediately—restoring service via temporary fixes like server reboots to minimize revenue loss. Problem Management then investigates, identifying root causes (e.g., outdated auto-scaling rules failing to handle traffic spikes) and updating configurations to prevent recurrence. Finally, Change Management implements a permanent solution—a phased cloud upgrade—with risk-mitigation strategies like automated rollbacks and off-peak deployment windows.
Overview of the agendas
Aspect | Incident Management | Problem Management | Change Management |
Focus | Fix now | Find why | Don’t break it |
Timeframe | Immediate | Medium-term | Pre-planned |
Success Metric | MTTR (time to resolve) | Recurring incidents ↓ | Change success rate ↑ |
Conclusion
Incident, Problem, and Change Management are interconnected pillars of effective IT management. If you skip one, you will have undermined the others. This means you can't do just one or the other.
If your organization is struggling with these processes, ALVAO provides a complete ITSM solution with built-in tools like Ticketing, ITAM, and CMDB to support them effectively. Start your free 30-day trial today and see the difference for yourself.