Ma’am – you don’t have a problem you have an incident….
Posted in Service Management Update, Michael Wedemeyer on Nov 21st, 2008 No Comments »
Ma’am – you don’t have a problem you have an incident….
It’s always an interesting experience explaining to my students the difference between an incident and a problem. I tend to start with the concept that users can NEVER have a “Problem” – they can only ever have an “Incident”. To prove this – I go straight to ITIL theory:
Incident: –“ any event which is not part of standard operation of a service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption to, or reduction in, the quality of that service”. This is exactly what a user “may” experience.
Problem: “Unknown underlying cause of one or more Incidents” (also only caused by errors in the IT infrastructure)
The user is neither concerned with the “unknown underlying cause” or experiences this unknown underlying cause – and therefore can never actually experience a problem…
Once they grasp this concept, I then throw them into another spin by the concept of a “known error”: “Known underlying cause. Successful diagnosis of the root cause of a Problem, and a workaround or permanent solution has been identified”. They accept this until we get into the “absolute” that unless you have a workaround/permanent solution it cannot be a known error! Strong heated discussion ensues and they argue that they know the cause – but there is no solution….. WRONG! – by default – if you know the root cause – YOU MUST know the solution – either temporary, or permanent! Even if the solution is to “write a whole new application” – it’s still a solution.
Some solutions may not be viable – and as such will not be “fixed”… but it still means that it is no longer a problem… it is now a Known error, but we “choose” not to fix it!
Till next time
Cheers from the team at The Art of Service
Michael
