Problem Manager

Summary

A problem manager picks up feeds from numerous sources, such as the service desk, with the aim of putting in place continual improvements to stop incidents such as regular service outages recurring.

At this role level, you will:

resolve emerging and recurring problems
perform root cause analysis to minimise the adverse impact of incidents caused by errors within the IT infrastructure
work closely with major incident managers
deal with problems and root cause analysis

Background

Background Components

Description	Background
Demonstrates above average communication skills with an aptitude for dealing with users, colleagues and suppliers. Has a good knowledge and understanding of IT concepts and architectures, coupled with some knowledge of problem management and the principles and processes of implementing and delivering IT services. Shows aptitude for analysing and managing problems arising from incidents in the operation of information systems.	Prior Knowledge and Skills

Description

Background

Demonstrates above average communication skills with an aptitude for dealing with users, colleagues and suppliers. Has a good knowledge and understanding of IT concepts and architectures, coupled with some knowledge of problem management and the principles and processes of implementing and delivering IT services. Shows aptitude for analysing and managing problems arising from incidents in the operation of information systems.

Prior Knowledge and Skills

Work Activity Components

Title	Details
Implementation and controls	Ensures implementation of information, and records management policies and standard practice, ensuring that information is protected, available and accessible, and can be retrieved as required. Complies with all relevant information and data security policies and procedures.
Monitoring and communication	Provides information and advice relating to problem management. Supports service level management on reporting on achievement of problem targets in line with service level
Problem reporting	Produces reports and registers on defect/problem reporting data and information (e.g. data extracted from the incident management/configuration management system/known error database). Takes agreed actions relating to problem investigation and resolution within the agreed
Problem analysis	Analyses incidents and problems to show trends and potential problem areas, so that actions can be taken to minimise the occurrence of incidents and to improve the process of problem reporting, analysis and resolution. Assesses and reports the probable causes of incidents and consequences of existing problems and known defects.

Knowledge/Skills

Knowledge/Skills Components

Title	Depth	Details	Type
Analytical Thinking		Acquiring a proper understanding of a problem or situation by breaking it down systematically into its component parts and identifying the relationships between these parts. Selecting the appropriate method/tool to resolve the problem and reflecting critically on the result, so that what is learnt is identified and assimilated.	Behavioural Skills
Information Acquisition		Identifying gaps in the available information required to understand a problem or situation and devising a means of resolving them.	Behavioural Skills
Attention to Detail		Applying specific quality standards to all tasks undertaken to ensure that deliverables are accurate and complete.	Behavioural Skills
Teamwork		Working collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal.	Behavioural
Critical Thinking		The ability to think clearly and rationally; review and evaluation of processes and outputs; the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking; reasoned thinking involving critique.	Behavioural Skills
Application Systems	Proficient in	Technical or functional understanding of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) applications and/or other bespoke software deployed within the organisation in order to provide system configuration, audit, technical, and/or functional support.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Application Development Tools	Familiar with	Software tools which automate or assist part of the development process.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Networking and Communications	Familiar with	The planning and management of the interaction between two or more networking systems, computers or other intelligent devices.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Operating Systems	Familiar with	System software that controls activities such as input, output, dynamic resource allocation, and error reporting, within the operation of a computer configuration.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Operational/Service Architecture	Proficient in	Knowledge of the IT/IS infrastructure and the IT applications and service processes used within own organisation, including those associated with sustainability and efficiency.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Own Organisation’s IT Products and Services	Proficient in	The IT products and/or services supplied to internal and external customers by own organisation.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Third Party IT Products and Services	Familiar with	The IT products and/or services supplied to own organisation by external suppliers.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Incident Management Tools	Familiar with	Including interrogation of incident database, creation of parent and child incidents, creation of queries to seek trends and use of known error logs/ databases.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
DevOps	Familiar with	The collaborative approach consisting of agile practices, processes, and procedures designed to facilitate rapid IT service and product delivery. DevOps emphasizes people (and culture) and seeks to improve collaboration between development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams with the aim of shortening the systems development life cycle to provide continuous release of high-quality software.	Technical Knowledge and Skills
Function or Department Operations	Familiar with	The activities, structure, and position in the organisation of the functions or departments for which services are provided.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Risk Management	Familiar with	Methods and techniques for the assessment and management of business risk including safety-related risk.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Techniques for Effective Meetings	Familiar with	Methods and techniques for running effective meetings and for understanding and influencing the roles played by participants.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Project Planning and Control Techniques	Aware of	Methods and techniques associated with planning and monitoring progress of projects.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Problem Management Tools and Techniques	Proficient in	The use of systematic problem-solving tools and techniques to analyse and diagnose problems, including tools to troubleshoot and test hardware/software installations, and to record progress and report on the root cause analysis of incidents.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Service Level Agreements	Familiar with	The purpose and composition of a service level agreement (SLA); the relationship between an SLA, an OLA (Operational Level Agreement) and an underpinning contract for the supply of services.	Other Knowledge and Skills
Information Assurance	Familiar with	Information assurance methods, tools and techniques (including the Caldicott Principles) used to protect the integrity, availability, authenticity, non-repudiation and confidentiality of user data and manage the risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of information.	Other Knowledge and Skills

Training Activities

Training Components

Title	Details
Service Delivery	The service delivery processes: the systems, products, services, hardware and software environment.
Software Configuration	Installation, configuration and tuning of applications or systems software.
Infrastructure Hardware and System Software	Hardware, communication networks and system software that provides the organisation’s IT infrastructure; features of the infrastructure that need to be taken account of in hardware/software installation, with due attention to sustainability impacts e.g. back-up and recovery, virtualisation techniques to optimise efficient energy use of system hardware components, load sharing in communication networks; availability and use of Cloud services.
Data Protection and GDPR	Data protection legislation, regulatory framework and compliance, including GDPR (General Data Protection Act).
Network Infrastructure Architecture	The frameworks and principles on which networks, systems, equipment and resources are based.
Supplier/Service Provider Training	The installation, testing and commissioning of supplier specific-products and services in a variety of situations and locations.
Security Awareness	Tools and techniques to help users and employees understand the role they play in helping to combat information security breaches and for IT and security professionals to prevent and mitigate risk.
Health and Safety	Understanding statutory health and safety requirements relating to the working environment and/or the tools and techniques to promote, communicate, implement and maintain a health and safety culture.

PDAs

PDA Components

Title	Details
Deputising	Standing in for supervisor or manager on a temporary basis during periods of absence.
Job Shadowing and Special Assignments	Undertaking temporary periods or secondments in other roles, inside or outside IT, particularly those that offer a new perspective on own function or exposure to other environments and cultures.
Research Assignments	Exploring a topic which is not part of own normal responsibilities and presenting findings to colleagues and/or management
Gaining Knowledge of Activities of Employing Organisation	Developing an understanding of the potentially diverse range of activities (service, governance, administrative, regulatory, commercial, charitable, industrial, etc.) undertaken by the employing organisation.
Gaining Knowledge of IT Concepts and Techniques	Undertaking study, learning and, where possible, practice in IT concepts and techniques external to own function.
Participation in Professional Body Affairs	Taking an active part in professional body affairs at branch, specialist group, committee or board level.
Negotiating and Influencing	Undertaking learning and practice of negotiating with and influencing others.
Team Leadership	Undertaking learning and practice of the skills required to lead teams, including motivation, direction, coaching, delegation, appraisal, counselling and developing others.

Qualifications

Qualification Components

Title	Awarding Body
ITIL 4 Specialist Create, Deliver and Support (Managing Professional Module)	AXELOS
ITIL 4 Specialist High-velocity IT (Managing Professional Module)	AXELOS
ITIL 3 Capability Module Operational Support and Analysis (Intermediate)	AXELOS
Registered IT Technician (RITTech)	BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT
Problem Analyst	APMG International
FEDIP Senior Practitioner	FEDIP

Organisation Skills

Framework » Organisation Category » Subcategory	Skill Name and Description	Level
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Asset and configuration management You can conduct life cycle management for assets including hardware, software, intellectual property, licences and warranties. You can manage usage, disposal, compliance, inventory, sustainability, cost optimisation and protection of the asset portfolio. You can help to improve investment decisions and capitalise on opportunities. You can comply with international standards for asset management. You can document information relating to assets including identification, classification and specification of all items, and information related to storage, access and versions. You can apply status accounting and auditing in line with	1 – Awareness You can track, log and correct information to protect assets and components.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Availability and capacity management You can define, analyse, plan, forecast, measure, maintain and improve all aspects of the availability of services, including power. You can control and manage service availability to meet business needs cost-effectively, including managing the capability, functionality and sustainability of service components (such as hardware, software, network resources, and software or infrastructure as a service).	2 – Working You can manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and performance targets.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Change management You can manage service changes, configuration items, organisational change, supplier change and associated documentation. You can request changes in response to incidents or problems that provide effective control and reduction of risk to security performance and availability. You can ensure compliance of the business services impacted by the change. You can understand policy, principles and approach. You can apply understanding and knowledge in project or programme activities. You can develop experience in the use of change management tools and processes.	2 – Working You can analyse and assess impact and develop and document change requests. You can implement changes based on requests for change.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Community collaboration You can contribute to the work of the community, building successful teams through understanding team styles and influencing and motivating team members. You can give and receive constructive feedback, enabling the feedback loop. You can moderate conflict resolution within teams. You can ensure that the team is transparent and that the work is understood externally. You can help teams maintain a focus on delivery while being aware of the importance of professional development.	3 – Practitioner You can work collaboratively in a group, actively networking with others. You can adapt feedback to ensure it’s effective and lasting. You can use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them. You can identify issues through Agile ‘health checks’ with the team and help to stimulate the right responses.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Continual service improvement You can identify and explore opportunities for service and business improvement. You can produce analysis and identify, prioritise and implement improvements and efficiencies, ensuring that the organisation derives maximum value from services. You can recognise the potential for automation of processes, determine costs and benefits of new approaches, and manage change or assist implementation where	3 – Practitioner You can analyse current processes and identify and implement opportunities to optimise them. You can lead and develop a team of experts to deliver service improvements. You can help to evaluate and establish requirements for the implementation of changes by setting policy and standards.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Continuity management You can provide service continuity planning and support. You can identify information and systems that support critical business processes, and assess the risks to their availability, integrity and confidentiality. You can co-ordinate planning, designing, testing and maintenance procedures and contingency plans, to address exposures and maintain agreed levels of continuity.	2 – Working You can manage the runbooks for service continuity. You can manage the processes around service continuity and test the runbooks to ensure that service availability can be maintained in any event.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Incident management You can co-ordinate the response to incident reports, ensuring relevant prioritisation and detail to allow effective investigation. You can identify the correct procedures or channels for resolution, and monitor resolution activity and progress updates for customers. You can understand the relevant change management tools and processes.	3 – Practitioner You can lead the investigation and resolution of incidents.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Ownership and initiative You can take ownership of problems and proactively resolve technical problems, ensuring that technical solutions continue to meet business requirements. You can take full accountability for the actions taken and decisions made.	3 – Practitioner You can take accountability for issues that occur and be proactive in searching for potential problems. You can achieve excellent user outcomes.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Problem management You can understand and identify problems, analysing and helping to identify the appropriate solution. You can classify and prioritise problems, document their causes and implement remedies.	3 – Practitioner You can ensure that the right actions are taken to investigate, resolve and anticipate problems. You can co- ordinate the team to investigate problems, implement solutions and take preventive measures.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Service focus You can maintain focus on the whole life of service delivery (designing, developing, delivering and operating). You can ensure that a set of IT products, suppliers and vendors come together to deliver an IT service.	3 – Practitioner You can see the bigger picture by taking groups of services and investigating how to get the best of underlying services.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Service management framework knowledge You can show an in-depth understanding of service management framework principles and processes. You can apply the technical knowledge in project or programme activities.	1 – Awareness You have a Level 3 service management framework qualification.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – Technical understanding You can demonstrate knowledge of the specific technologies necessary to fulfil the responsibilities and tasks of the role. You can apply the required breadth and depth of technical knowledge. You can actively keep informed of industry developments to make cost-effective use of new and emerging tools and technologies.	2 – Working You can understand the core technical concepts related to the role and apply them with guidance.
DDaT » IT Operations Job Family	IT Ops – User focus You can understand users and identify who they are and what their needs are, based on evidence. You can translate user stories and propose design approaches or services to meet these needs. You can engage in meaningful interactions and relationships with users. You can show that you put users first and can manage competing priorities.	2 – Working You can identify and engage with users or stakeholders to collate user needs evidence. You can understand and define research that fits user needs. You can use quantitative and qualitative data about users to turn user focus into outcomes.

Framework » Organisation
Category » Subcategory

Skill Name and Description

Level