Ensure the Application's Problems and Known Errors Are Documented

This chapter explains how to ensure that the Problems and Known Errors affecting an Application are documented, even when another organization manages them.

Problems and Known Errors

A Problem is the underlying cause of one or more incidents. A Known Error is a Problem whose cause has been identified, often with a documented workaround, but which has not yet been permanently resolved. Problems and Known Errors are frequently identified, captured, and documented by the Operations and Support or Service Management organizations as part of the enterprise’s Problem management process, rather than by the Application team itself.

Why “Ensure” Rather Than “Establish”

Because Problems and Known Errors are often managed outside the Application team, the Application Manager’s responsibility is to ensure that they are documented and connected to the Application, not necessarily to document them personally. What matters is that anyone working on the Application can find its Problems and Known Errors, their workarounds, and the Defects or changes that will resolve them.

Ensure Problems and Known Errors Are Documented

• Confirm that the enterprise’s Problem management process records Problems and Known Errors against the Application.

• Ensure that each is recorded with its symptoms, cause, workaround, and planned resolution.

• Link Problems and Known Errors to the related incidents, Defects, and Releases.

• Ensure that workarounds are reflected in the Application’s runbooks and support documentation.

Document and Share Problems and Known Errors

Link the Application Documentation to the authoritative Problem and Known Error records, and include open Known Errors and their workarounds in the information available to support teams. Review them with every Release.

Best Practice: Ensure the Application’s Problems and Known Errors Are Documented

Ensure that every Problem and Known Error affecting the Application is recorded against it, with its cause, workaround, and planned resolution, linked to related incidents and Defects, and reflected in its runbooks, whether it is managed by the Application team or by another organization.

Benefits: Documented Problems and Known Errors let support teams apply known workarounds immediately rather than rediagnosing recurring incidents. Linking them to Defects and Releases ensures that root causes are actually fixed rather than worked around indefinitely.

Connections to Related IF4IT Practices and Inventories

The Service Management Best Practices addresses Problem and Known Error management.