• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

This view of service management...

On the origin and the descent of managing services. We put meat on the bones.

  • Kanban Software
  • Services
    • Kanban Software Solutions
    • Consulting & Coaching
    • Training and Seminars
  • Posts
  • Events
    • Events – Agenda View
    • Events – Calendar View
  • Publications
    • Our Publications
    • Notable Publications
    • Quotes
  • About us

Be proactive like a true pro

30 November 2014 by Robert Falkowitz 1 Comment

Some organizations consider proactive problem management to be the work of resolving problems when they are not currently causing any incidents. This understanding is in direct conflict with an alternative interpretation, wherein proactive problem management concerns the identification and resolution of problems before they have caused any incidents at all.What is truly puzzling about the first understanding of the term “proactive” is that it leaves little room for “reactive” problem management. Sorting this out is useful, because it can help avoid tons of miscommunication. The simplest way of explaining the differences is in the following table:

ActivityInterpretation 1Interpretation 2
Resolving easy incidentsIncident managementIncident management
Resolving complicated, major or hard to resolve incidents“Reactive” problem managementIncident management
Identifying recurring incidentsProactive problem managementReactive problem management
Analyzing and resolving problems that have related incidents, but none that are currently openProactive problem managementReactive problem management
Identifying weaknesses and other risks in production that are likely to cause incidents if unresolved, but have not yet done so? (this probably never gets done)Proactive problem management

Here is a timeline showing a series of events and how they are handled according to interpretation 1 and interpretation 2:

Problem management timeline

My own view of these interpretations is heavily in favor of interpretation 2. I believe that interpretation 1 is just a bunch of rhetoric used by people who are trying to put a better face on their work than it truly merits. It is based on a poor process architecture, where two different processes—incident management and problem management—are used for a single purpose—resolving incidents. This is very bad design. Because interpretation 1 thinks of resolving incidents as being reactive, it therefore considers preventing future incidents—even though in reaction to past incidents—is “proactive”. Interpretation 2 has none of this confusion, is much purer, simpler and easier to manage. I think it is a much more professional understanding.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 International License.The diagrams in this posting are licensed to you under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
Summary
Be proactive like a true pro
Article Name
Be proactive like a true pro
Description
There is a lot of confusion about what proactive problem management is. For some people, it's resolving a problem before it provokes another incident. For others, it means resolving a problem before it provokes any incidents.
Author
Robert S. Falkowitz
Publisher Name
Concentric Circle Consulting
Publisher Logo
Concentric Circle Consulting

Filed Under: Problem Management Tagged With: proactive problem management, problem, reactive problem management

Subscribe to our mailing list

Click here to be the first to learn of our events and publications
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Phone
  • Twitter
  • xing
  • YouTube

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michael HallMichael Hall says

    1 February 2015 at 10:32

    I have to agree Robert. I was reading along with your commentary thinking that again, problem managers are called in to fill a skills gap in the incident management team (why not just train your incident managers properly?). The you came down on the other side and point out that incident management is perfectly able to resolve incidents without specialised help from problem management. While I rarely agree with people’s definitions of reactive and proactive – who cares? Just solve the problem, don’t stress about how you discovered it – I find I can happily live with this interpretation

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Kanban eLearning

Kanban training online

Recent Posts

  • Verbs, nouns and kanban board structure
  • The role of the problem manager
  • The Three Indicators

Tag Cloud

problem value stream process service manager process definition manifesto for software development cause leadership resource liquidity ITSM tools risk process metrics lean kanban training histogram agile incident knowledge management kanban board impact ITIL kanban Incident Management context switching rigidity priority service request lean management flow efficiency automation change management incident management tools waste manifesto knowledge work service management tools bias Cost of Delay flow
  • Kanban Software
  • Services
  • Posts
  • Events
  • Publications
  • Subscribe
  • Rights & Duties
  • Personal Data

© 2014–2023 Concentric Circle Consulting · All Rights Reserved.
Concentric Circle Consulting Address
Log in

Manage Cookie Consent
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}