Problem Management in Service Operations Workspace

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Problem Management in Service Operations Workspace

    Problem Management in Service Operations Workspace helps you identify and resolve the root causes of recurring or major incidents to prevent their recurrence. It enables you to manage problems through their lifecycle, share workarounds or fixes with related incidents, and create known error articles to reduce incident volume.

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    Key Features

    • Problem Record Overview Tab: Displays summary, analysis, resolution, tasks, impact, and work notes. It is configurable via the Service Operations Workspace Admin Center.
    • Shortcuts: Optional creation of defects, enhancements, and improvement initiatives directly from the workspace to support Agile Development and Continual Improvement Management.
    • Details Tab: Shows detailed problem information, including all fields available in the ServiceNow AI Platform. The problem state field is read-only here. Work notes can be added from the Compose section.
    • Problem Tasks Tab: Lists tasks assigned to other teams for problem investigation and resolution.
    • Fix Tasks Tab: Displays fix tasks, which in this workspace are configured as change requests.
    • Related Records Tab: Manages related incidents, affected configuration items (CIs), outages, and knowledge articles. Enables easy addition or removal of related records.
    • Contextual Side Panel: Provides Agent Assist for searching relevant records and performing actions within the workspace.
    • Problem Management Models: Allows tailoring of problem management processes for specific use cases.

    Practical Use

    • Create and Investigate Problems: Use Service Operations Workspace to create problems from recurring or major incidents and identify root causes.
    • Manage Problem Lifecycle: Track and update problems, problem tasks, and fix tasks directly in the workspace.
    • Collaborate Across Teams: Assign problem tasks to different teams to facilitate resolution.
    • Knowledge Sharing: Share workarounds and fixes with incidents and create known error articles to deflect future incidents.

    Configuration and Customization

    The workspace allows configuration of UI elements and problem management settings through the Admin Center. You can also configure properties related to fix tasks and problem state transitions to align with your organizational processes.

    Related Capabilities

    This functionality integrates closely with other Service Operations Workspace capabilities such as Knowledge Management, Major Incident Management, On-Call Scheduling, and Collaboration, enhancing your ITSM processes holistically.

    When you have recurring incidents or a major incident, you can create a problem to identify the root cause of the incidents and help prevent them from happening again. Use Service Operations Workspace to manage problems through their life cycle, share workarounds or fixes with related incidents, and create known error articles to help deflect incidents.

    Figure 1. Problem record in Service Operations Workspace
    Problem record in Service Operations Workspace

    Overview tab

    This tab displays the following information about a problem:
    • Summary
    • Analysis information
    • Resolution information
    • Problem tasks and fix tasks
    • Impact
    • Work notes

    You can configure the problem record overview tab and its UI elements in the Service Operations Workspace Admin Center. For more information, see Manage configurations in Service Operations Workspace for ITSM.

    You can optionally enable the following shortcuts, accessible from both the header and Tasks (problem and fix) drop-down menus:

    For all other configuration options, see Configuring Problem Management in Service Operations Workspace.

    Details tab

    This section displays the detailed information of a problem. For information about fields in this section, see Create a problem in Service Operations Workspace.

    From the Compose section, you can add work notes for the problem.

    All fields that are available on the Problem form in ServiceNow AI Platform are available in Service Operations Workspace. However, on the problem form in Service Operations Workspace, the State field is read-only. For information about state transitions of a problem, see Life cycle of a problem.

    For information on how you can configure fields in this tab, see Configuring Problem Management in Service Operations Workspace.

    Problem Tasks tab

    This section displays problems tasks associated with this problem. Problem tasks are created when you need help from other teams to identify a fix for the problem. For information about creating a problem task, see Create a problem task in Service Operations Workspace.

    Fix Tasks tab

    This section displays fix tasks associated with the problem. In Service Operations Workspace, only change requests are configured as fix tasks. For information about the List of related task records (comma-separated) to track as fixes for this Problem property where the fix tasks are configured, see Configure properties for Problem Management in Service Operations Workspace.

    Related records tab

    This section displays the following records related to the problem. You can add a record, create a record, or remove it from the problem.
    • Incidents
    • Affected CIs
    • Outages
    • Knowledge attached from Agent Assist

    Contextual side panel

    From this section, you can access Agent assist and search for relevant records and perform the required actions.

    For more information about Problem Management, see Problem Management.