Using the problem management application

Out of the box, Service-Now provides problem management application for facilitating the problem management process. If we talk about the problem as per ITIL then 'Problem' is the unknown cause of one or more incidents, often identified as a result of multiple similar incidents, In general words if your support team is receiving many incidents related to one CI (Configuration Item) then it is considered as a problem and a problem ticket must be created for permanent fix.

Getting ready

To step through this recipe, all you need is an active Service-Now instance, valid credential and Admin/ITIL role.

How to do it...

1. Open any browser standard browser.
2. Type the Service-Now instance web address (http://{instance_name}.service-now.com) provided by your organization in the address bar, now enter your credentials in respective fields and press enter button.
3. To search the problem application you need to type Problem  and Service-Now will search out Problem Application for you. As an option, you can directly type problem.do to create a new record or to view all the records in the problem management module type problem.list in the search box.
4. Now, under the problem management application, click on the Create New module to create a new problem record:
   

   Problem management application

5. After click on the Create New module, you will able to view blank problem form so now enter necessary details in the form and click on Submit as follows:
   

   Problem management form

6. Now, a new problem ticket generated PRB0040003 for reference purpose of the user.

How it works...

A dedicated problem table is available in Service-Now. When you click on Create new in the problem management module, a default problem management form appears, and after submission of the problem task, a unique sysId and number is assigned to the problem task, which serves as a parent.

There's more…

To manage, problem management process Service-Now has problem table and all problem-related records are stored in problem table only which extends to the task table. In addition, a part Service-Now admins, only IT users or users with ITIL roles are allowed to create problem records. It is important to note that many organizations have dedicated problem manager positions to handle problem related task so in term of process only problem manager may have access to create problem tasks.