The aim of problem management is to minimize the disruption to and impact on the business by proactively identifying and analyzing the root causes of service incidents and by managing problems until these are rectified.
Problem management must identify the root causes of the incidents on a reactive basis and proactively prevent incidents reoccurring. Problems are to be classified as known errors as soon as the root cause of the incident is known and a solution method for avoiding such incidents has been found.
For incident management to receive an optimum supply of information, all known errors and IT services affected must be documented and the associated configuration items identified. Known errors should only be closed once a definitive, successful solution has been found.
Once the root cause has been identified and a decision reached on the solution, this solution must be dealt with by the change management process. Information on the progress, potential workarounds or permanent solutions must be sent to all parties involved.
The closure of problem tickets should always be carried out in accordance with the following reviews:
- Has the solution been precisely documented?
- Has the root cause been categorized in order to provide support for future further analyses?
- Have the customers and support employees affected been informed of the solution?
- Has the customer confirmed that he/she accepts the solution?
- Has the customer been informed if no solution has been found?
The effectiveness of completed solutions to problems must be reviewed. In particular, trends such as for example reoccurring problems and incidents, defects, errors, known errors in planned releases or resource commitments must be identified by employees.
For comparison see the Problem Management Process according ITIL V3. | 
