What is problem management? A complete guide

When your IT department starts to feel like the Macrodata Refinement team in Severance — sorting through cryptic data, fixing mysterious issues, and watching them return with no clear explanation — that’s a sign your business could benefit from a stronger approach to problem management.

Problem management is more than just solving incidents. It’s also about digging deeper to understand why they happen in the first place. It gives your team the tools and processes to stop putting out the same fires and start preventing them altogether. 

Our guide to problem management can help you break out of the loop and learn how to improve your IT service desk, transforming IT from a reactive support function into a proactive force with full visibility into the bigger picture.

More in this guide:

• Why is problem management important?
• How problem management relates to other ITSM processes
• Key benefits of problem management
• How the problem management process works
• Problem management best practices
• Frequently asked questions/a>
• Excel in problem management with Zendesk

Why is problem management important?

It’s no secret that businesses lean heavily on technology; it powers everything from internal workflows to customer interactions. When something goes wrong, like an app crashes or a server goes down, the consequences can quickly ripple into lost time, unhappy users, and damage to your brand reputation.

Problem management helps break the cycle of recurring issues. Instead of treating symptoms again and again, it looks for root causes and long-term solutions. That shift enables IT teams to spend less time in crisis mode and more time on initiatives that move the business forward.

What is an example of problem management? 

Let’s say your company’s email ticketing system keeps going down every few weeks. The IT team restores service each time by restarting the servers, but the outages keep coming back. That’s where problem management comes in.

A deeper investigation reveals a memory leak from a recent software update that gradually degrades performance. Once identified, the team works with the vendor to fix the issue permanently, stopping the outages for good.

How problem management relates to other ITSM processes

Problem management works best when it’s part of a larger strategy. It connects with other ITSM processes to form a more complete and resilient approach to service delivery.

Problem management and knowledge management

Knowledge management is what turns one-time fixes into lasting improvements. When your team uncovers a root cause and resolves an issue, that insight shouldn’t vanish. It should be documented and shared across teams. That’s where knowledge management comes in, creating an internal library of lessons learned.

At the same time, digging into a problem often reveals gaps in documentation or highlights unclear procedures. In that way, these two processes feed into each other, helping your organization learn and improve with each challenge.

Problem management and incident management

Incident management and problem management often work together, but they serve different purposes. Incident management focuses on fast recovery, restoring service quickly when things break. Problem management takes a longer view, analyzing why the issue happened in the first place and how to prevent it from happening again.

Say your customer portal goes down during peak hours. Incident management gets it back up as quickly as possible. Problem management takes it from there, looking at server logs, recent updates, and underlying issues to prevent another outage down the line. Both are critical, but they address different parts of the problem.

Problem management and service request management 

Service requests, like resetting a password or installing software, are routine and expected. Problems and customer complaints, on the other hand, tend to come out of nowhere. Still, patterns in service requests can point to larger issues.

For example, if your team notices a sudden spike in password resets, problem management might step in to see if there’s a deeper issue, like a glitch in your authentication system or a software update causing mass lockouts. It’s a bit like Severance, where the Macrodata Refinement team spends their days sorting through seemingly random numbers without knowing what they really mean. 

Without problem management, you risk doing the same, addressing surface-level tasks without ever seeing the bigger picture. When these two processes work together, they help ensure routine requests don’t obscure more serious system problems.

Problem management and change management

Change management oversees how updates and fixes are rolled out across systems. Often, problem management uncovers the need for those changes in the first place.

When investigations show that a particular configuration or software version is behind recurring issues, a change management process helps implement fixes in a controlled, low-risk way. This collaboration ensures that changes improve system health without introducing new instability, allowing both teams to work smarter, not harder.

Key benefits of problem management

When done right, problem management keeps things running while making your entire operation stronger. It brings stability to your systems, saves time and money, and improves the customer and employee experience.

Improved employee service

Reliable technology means fewer distractions for your teams. Instead of troubleshooting issues or waiting on IT support, employees can stay focused on their actual work. That consistency builds momentum, moving projects forward without technical hiccups slowing them down.

And when issues do happen, past problem management work pays off. Your IT team already knows the likely causes and has tested solutions at the ready. That means faster fixes and less downtime across the board. When IT systems work reliably, employee communication improves naturally, as teams can focus on their work instead of reporting recurring tech issues.

Boosted customer experience

Every customer-facing system, like your website, app, or self-service portal, depends on effective operations behind the scenes. When those systems go down, it’s more than just an inconvenience for users. It can chip away at trust in your brand.

Problem management helps reduce the risk of those disruptions by identifying weak points before they fail. Over time, your team develops a clearer picture of how systems behave under stress, allowing you to plan more effectively for high-traffic periods or complex updates. That preparation directly improves the customer experience, even if they never realize it.

Decreased downtime

Downtime is costly, both financially and operationally. Problem management helps cut it down by preventing repeat incidents and speeding up root cause resolution when issues arise.

Analyzing trends and staying ahead of potential issues helps your team address risks before they impact users. Reduced downtime also improves system reliability metrics, which can be crucial for meeting your service-level agreement (SLA) obligations and maintaining customer trust. 

Increased cost savings

While problem management requires time and investment up front, the ROI is clear. Preventing a major incident, like an extended outage or widespread bug, can save more than the entire yearly cost of your problem management program.

Savings show up in all kinds of ways: fewer emergency escalations, lower infrastructure costs, and improved productivity. And when your IT team spends less time fixing recurring issues, they can focus on work that drives growth, not just maintenance.

How the problem management process works

Problem management brings structure to what can otherwise feel like chaos. It’s a methodical approach that turns scattered incidents into actionable insights and lasting solutions.

It often starts when recurring patterns appear in incident logs, monitoring tools flag unusual activity, or a noticeable spike in service desk tickets. From there, a consistent process kicks in to ensure that teams get to the real cause of the problem.

Here’s a breakdown of the typical problem management workflow:

1. Identify the problem: Spot trends or potential issues based on incident data or monitoring alerts.
2. Categorize and prioritize: Assess the scope, urgency, and business impact to determine what to tackle first.
3. Investigate and diagnose: Analyze the issue thoroughly using logs, tools, and expertise to find the root cause.
4. Document a known error record: Capture the problem’s characteristics, causes, and workarounds for future reference.
5. Create a workaround (if needed): Put a temporary fix in place to minimize disruption while working on a permanent solution.
6. Resolve and close the problem: Implement a lasting fix, verify it works, and formally close out the case with documentation.

This approach builds a smarter, more responsive IT environment that improves with every problem it solves.

Problem management best practices

Successful problem management takes strategic thinking, commitment across teams, and the right tools. Follow these best practices to get the most from your problem management strategy.

Use AI and automation where possible 

The best problem management strategies leverage artificial intelligence and automation to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them. Zendesk AI agents are a prime example: They are built on natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and trained on billions of real customer interactions, allowing them to excel at pattern recognition and spot trends human analysts might miss.

Real-time monitoring and automated alerts can flag issues early, allowing for faster responses or even preemptive action. AI-powered problem management software provides 24/7 support, resolving common issues like password resets and surfacing relevant articles, while also knowing when to route complex problems to a human IT rep. The strongest setups combine automated detection and analysis with human oversight and decision-making.

Partner with qualified software 

Your problem management tools should work the way your team does, not the other way around. Look for software that integrates seamlessly with the systems you already use, offers visibility across your tech stack, and allows customization as your needs evolve.

Advanced analytics, flexible workflows, and detailed reporting features all make a difference. Whether you opt for a cloud-based or on-premise solution, the goal is the same: to give your team the insights and functionality needed to manage problems effectively at scale.

Prioritize proactivity 

Reactive problem solving is part of the job, but prevention is where you start to see lasting impact. That means regularly reviewing incident trends, identifying risks before they escalate, and allocating resources to reduce the chance of disruptions.

Proactive service takes time and commitment. It might involve expanding your monitoring setup, adjusting team roles, or carving out space for deeper analysis. But over time, it transforms the way IT operates, from constantly responding to issues to actively preventing them.

Encourage team-wide participation 

Some of the most useful observations come from outside the IT department. Employees may notice patterns or recurring issues that aren’t yet visible in dashboards or logs. Using employee management software can help you quickly collect feedback from across the organization to give your team a fuller picture of what’s going wrong and where to look next.

When it’s time to implement fixes, cross-functional collaboration helps ensure the solution works for everyone it affects. Involving the right mix of voices leads to more practical, long-lasting results.

Strive for continuous improvement 

Problem management should evolve along with your business. As your systems grow more complex, your process should grow more capable. That means reviewing what’s working, learning from what isn’t, and using data to guide each update.

Set benchmarks and track your progress. Metrics like time to resolution, recurrence rates, and employee satisfaction can show whether your approach is improving and where you may still have blind spots. Treat every resolved problem as a chance to refine the process for the next time.

Frequently asked questions

Wintec

Wintec drives 97% customer satisfaction across multiple departments

“While Zendesk doesn't allow us to predict and fix everything before it becomes a problem, it has allowed our service engineers to be on the frontlines. When people need help, we can go straight to where they are and help them,”

Bradley Vines

Executive Director

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Excel in problem management with Zendesk

Teams that don’t prioritize problem management often find themselves trapped in a loop—fixing the same issues again and again without understanding why they happen. Zendesk helps organizations break that cycle.

Our ITIL problem management software gives you the tools to take control of recurring issues. With integrated incident correlation, clear root cause tracking, and built-in knowledge management, Zendesk makes it easier to capture what your team learns and apply it consistently. Automation and advanced analytics help you spot patterns faster, while seamless integration with your existing tools ensures you don’t have to overhaul your entire setup to improve results.

Problem management is about building systems that get smarter over time instead of chasing every glitch. Zendesk helps you do that, so your team can spend less time reacting and more time improving.