Problem Management – reactive activities when starting out

When implementing Problem Management I have always started with reactive activities to blitz any potential quick wins. The first things I have done in the past when implementing Problem Management are as follows:
(1) Create a way of logging Major Incidents. If I don’t have a Service Management toolset, I use MS Office, for example, a word document to capture the detail and a spreadsheet to track the reference numbers, dates and summary details.

(2) Create a way of logging Problems and any associated reports in a similar way for tracking Major Incidents (above)

(3) Look at categorisation and prioritisation

(4) Create basic reports / metrics to provide a summary of Major Incident & Problem Management activity to all stakeholders.

(5) Set up Problem Review Boards. These are regular meetings with all stakeholders to review and progress all outstanding Problem records.

(6) Engage with the Service Desk and establish clear roles and responsibilities.

(7) Engage with Change Management and attend the CAB to give and receive updated on Problem Management related Change activity.

(8) Look at Problem open / close criteria

I will focus on each of these items in later posts.

Change Management – how to create Change communication notice to be issued via the Service Desk

Following on from my previous post on thinks to look at when reviewing a Change; you might find it useful to have a template for Change communications. The following is a sample communication template:

SERVICE A
Release Note

Release Date: Sunday 3rd August 2008


1. Overview.. 1



Overview

This document outlines the content of the release at a high level. The intended readership is for Volunteer testers, and those people that wish details about what is changing in the TBC system.
The general format is; Change or Known Error Number, followed by a brief summary of the enhancement / issue, then some detail about how it has been addressed.

Change 1234 – Service A Enhancements
This SERVICE A release is to include new …

The following data items have been added:

etc, etc

Change Management – how to create Change implementation plans

Following on from my previous post on thinks to look at when reviewing a Change, you might find it usefully to have a template for implementation plans. Depending on the nature of the change, simple tasks like making a network port live may only require a couple of sentences but more complex change will require a plan (or support from your Release Management function if you have on). The following is a sample plan for updating a website, you will see that as well as detailing each task, the owner, contact and escalation details are included for visibility.