I've noticed that although ITIL has been around for more than 20 years, there's still a lot of confusion about what Incident Management is all about and how it differs from Problem Management.
I hope that the following list, which I'll keep adding to, will help you to understand and if necessary "sell" these differences. Given more time I'll start categorizing them under People, Processes, Products, and Partners (or feel free to do this for me).
Feel free to dispute any item on this list, and also feel welcome to send me more recommendations to be added to this list. It's only a start and I won't rest until I've found at least 100 differences between these two processes!
| Incident Management | Problem Management |
|---|---|
| Mainly reactive | Mainly proactive |
| Strong focus towards business and user community | Strong focus towards IT and technology experts |
| Uses the Known Error Database (KEDB) | Populates the Known Error Database (KEDB) |
| Restores services as quickly as possible | Less emphasis on speed, more emphasis on finding real solutions |
| Not responsible for creating known error records | Responsible for creating known error records |
| Predominantly applies temporary fixes, also known as workarounds or band-aid fixes | Is all about finding more structural permanent solutions |
| Typically deals with single individual incidents | Performs analysis on large volumes of incidents to detect trends and/or patterns |
| Applies a high level of people language | Applies a high level of technical language |
| Has a strong relationship with SLAs | Has a strong relationship with OLAs and contracts |
| Processes reoccurring incidents | Eliminates reoccurring incidents |
| Frequency and impact of related incidents typically not taken into account when prioritizing a (new) incident | Frequency and impact of related incidents typically taken into account when prioritizing a (new) problem |
| Users are able to generate incidents | Users are not able to generate problems |
| Increases support costs due to the repetitive nature of resolving repetitive incidents without providing a structural long-term solution | Reduces support costs with resolving repetitive incidents in a structural long-term manner |
| incident records may be the same | problem records should be unique |
| The focus is short-term | The focus is long-term |
| Escalates incidents to other teams (still part of the incident management process) to ensure timely service restoration | Submits change requests into the change management process with proposed solutions that eliminate known errors |
| Does not influence the number of incidents that are reported by users | Does influence the number of incidents that are reported by users |
| Investigation and diagnosis are often performed in parallel | Investigation and diagnosis are often performed sequentially |
| An incident can be closed although it may be unclear what has caused it (the so called root cause is often unknown) | Problems cannot be closed without a clear understanding of its root cause |
| Major incident reviews are not mentioned as part of ITIL's incident management process flow (incident model) | Major problem reviews are mentioned as part of ITIL's problem management process flow (problem model) |
| Many incidents may be linked to the same problem | Many problems are typically not linked to the same incident |
| Not responsible for maintenance of the Known Error Database (KEDB) | Responsible for maintenance of the Known Error Database (KEDB) |
| Doesn't improve the overall stability of the IT infrastructure | Does improve the overall stability of the IT infrastructure |
| Able to boost user satisfaction short-term | Able to boost user satisfaction long-term |
| Process members often "static" | Process members often "dynamic" |
| Most effort comes from lower (and typically cheaper) level support teams | Most effort comes from higher (and typically more expensive) support teams |
| Incident resolution techniques are more repetitive across incidents | Problem resolution techniques are more unique for each problem |
| Often includes full-time roles | Often includes part-time roles |
| Often performed with use of internal resources | Often performed with the support of external resources |
| Predominantly operates at a user level | Predominantly operates at an enterprise level |
| Has access to many effective commercial of the shelves (COTS) incident management systems | Has access to fewer effective commercial of the shelves (COTS) problem management systems |
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