Problem, Change,

and Recovery
Management
Aljean Marie A. Salcedo
 While we're all very
dependent on technology,
it doesn't always work.

BILL GATES
TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED:
PROBLEM MANAGEMENT
Overview
Processes
Best Practices and Tips
Roles and Responsibilities
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Overview
Change Management Process
Best Practices and Tips
Roles and Responsibilities
RECOVERY MANAGEMENT
Overview
Planning Considerations
Local Elements
 PROBLEM
MANAGEMENT
 WHAT IS
PROBLEM
MANAGEMENT?
Problem management is the process
of identifying and managing the
causes of incidents on an IT service. It
is a core component of ITSM
frameworks.
BENEFITS OF PROBLEM
MANAGEMENT
DECREASE TIME TO
RESOLUTION
Teams that unlock the
problems behind today’s
incident will be better
prepared to attack incidents
in the future
AVOID COSTLY INCREASE
INCIDENTS PRODUCTIVITY
Avoiding incidents will Stop responding to incidents so
save time, money, and frequently and return resources and
lots of pain. time to teams who could be
shipping new value to customers.

EMPOWER YOUR TEAM TO PROMOTE INCREASE

FIND AND LEARN FROM CONTINUOUS CUSTOMER
UNDERLYING CAUSES SERVICE SATISFACTION
With effective problem management, IMPROVEMENT Better problem
teams continually investigate, learn Problem management management leads to
from incidents, and ship valuable prevents incidents and also fewer incidents, and
updates. delivers value. happier customers.
PROBLEM MANAGEMENT
PROCESS
 PROBLEM MANAGEMENT
BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS
AVOID RELYING ON ENCOURAGE AN OPEN
REACTIVE, ROOT- ENVIRONMENT WHERE
CAUSE ANALYSIS PROBLEMS ARE SHARED

FOCUS ON CRITICAL ASK QUESTIONS AND

SERVICES USE THE ‘5 WHYS’

SPREAD THE BECOME A LEARNING

KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION

TRACK FOLLOW-UP
 PROBLEM
MANAGEMENT ROLES
& RESPONSIBILITIES
PROBLEM MANAGER
manages the overall process for a
specific problem

PROCESS OWNER
responsible for the overall health and success
of the team’s problem management process

SERVICE OWNER
responsible for defining ongoing
operations and health of the service
SERVICE DESK AGENT
often the first to notice and report an
incident or problem

TECH LEAD
individual familiar with the impacted
service experiencing a problem or incident

STAKEHOLDERS
whoever needs high-level info on the
problem but isn’t directly involved in
the problem management process
 CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
 CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
is an IT practice designed to minimize
disruptions to IT services while making
changes to critical systems and services
redefined by ITIL 4 as change control
practice which ensures “that risks are
properly assessed, authorizing changes to
proceed and managing a change
schedule in order to maximize the number
of successful service and product
changes.”

ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
“practice of ensuring that changes in an RELEASE MANAGEMENT
organization are smoothly and “to make new and changed services and
successfully implemented and that lasting features available for use.”
benefits are achieved by managing the
human aspects of the changes.”
 WHY IS I.T. CHANGE
MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT?
A change management practice enables your organization
to ship updates while ensuring stability and mitigating risk.
Change management helps accomplish change in the
following ways:
Establishing a framework to manage the change process
Prioritizing necessary changes to properly allocate
resources
Incorporating relevant information for smarter decision
making
Involving necessary stakeholders from dev and IT for
approvals
Incorporating testing of changes, to avoid incidents
Streamlining and improving the flow of changes to
deliver value more quickly
 TYPES OF STANDARD CHANGES

CHANGE low-risk, commonly repeated, and pre-

approved; performed frequently and

MANAGEMENT
follow a documented, approved process

NORMAL CHANGES EMERGENCY CHANGES

non-emergency changes without a arise from an unexpected error or threat
defined, pre-approved process and need to be addressed immediately
 Step Best Practices
Change request - Someone requests a
Set up an intuitive self-service portal for
change and includes notes on possible risks,
stakeholders and IT staff to easily raise a
expected implementation, and affected
standard change request.
systems.

Change request review - A change manager Use automation to auto-approve the change or
or peer reviewer reviews the initial change kick off a brief approval process before the
request. change gets implemented.

Change plan - The team creates a game plan Align stakeholders quickly with a change
for the change. management kick-off.

Change approval - The appropriate change

manager, peer reviewer, or CAB reviews the Streamline approvals with peer reviews.
plan and approves the change.

Change implementation - The team ships the

Use automation to enable your processes and
change, documenting procedures and results
standards.
along the way.

Change closure - When appropriate, the

Retain accessible knowledge base articles and
change manager reviews and closes the
tickets so teams can learn from previous work.
change when appropriate.
 COMMON CHANGE
MANAGEMENT ROLES
CHANGE MANAGER/COORDINATOR
responsible for managing all aspects of IT changes
CHANGE AUTHORITIES/APPROVERS
responsible for the overall health and success of the team’s problem
management process
BUSINESS STAKEHOLDERS
involved in change management and may be looped into the
authorization process
ENGINEERS/DEVELOPERS
submit changes for approval and document the case for its necessity
SERVICE DESK AGENTS
bring a unique, front-line perspective on incidents and common service
issues that a change may cause
OPS MANAGERS
responsible for keeping systems running on a day-to-day basis
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGERS
represent the voice of the customer
INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICERS AND
NETWORK ENGINEERS
bring important insight about threats and vulnerabilities
 HOW TO POSITION YOUR
CAB AS A STRATEGIC
ADVISOR?
Stop treating change requests in a “one
size fits all” way
Bring change and release management
closer together
WHAT IS A CHANGE Use progresssive releases to test and

ADVISORY BOARD
iterate
Use automation and tools to streamline

(CAB)? change management

Shift left and bring change management
tasked with assessing the risks of and closer to practitioners
approving (or not approving) each Convene experts to enable good
change practices
holds regularly scheduled meetings to
review all proposed upcoming changes,
pulling in experts as needed to explain,
defend, or assess the change with them.
 RECOVERY
MANAGEMENT
 WHAT IS I.T.
DISASTER
RECOVERY
MANAGEMENT?
IT disaster recovery management
refers to the process of managing the
systems and processes that enable an
organization to recover from a disaster.
WHY IS DISASTER
RECOVERY
IMPORTANT?
Businesses must be able to quickly recover
from a disaster. A prolonged operational
disruption significantly increases the risk that
the business will not recover from the event
—ever.

WHAT ARE THE COSTS

OF A DISASTER?
Idle workers
Physical damage to infrastructure,
equipment or the building itself
Lost revenue
Complex data recovery
Repair or replacement of technology
components
Reputation damage
 refers to the planning, protocols and systems that help an

DISASTER
RECOVERY
PLANNING
organization recover its IT systems after an unexpected
outage
having an IT disaster recovery plan is essential for identifying
the systems and procedures that reduce those risks and help
to facilitate a swift recovery when a disaster occurs
every organization is responsible for conducting disaster
recovery planning

WHAT TO CONSIDER IN YOUR

PLANNING?
RPO (recovery point objective)
RTO (recovery time objective)
Technologies
Protocols
Testing

LOCAL ELEMENTS
Frequent Backups
Backup Power Supply & Surge Suppression
Fire Suppression
Remote / Cloud Backups
Third-Party Monitoring and Intervention
THANK YOU!