Promote problem to known error

[chrisnutt]

Hi Everyone,

TL:DR - Can I convert a problem type into a known error type somehow?

I'm feeling a bit perplexed. Maybe I'm being dim. Hopefully not, but I thought I'd ask away anyway!

In Supportworks, you raise a problem then provide a workaround then publish as a known error then close the known error.

I was never really happy with this, mainly because I seemed to get asked at least once a month "How do I close a problem". Usually by the same people! I always thought it would make sense to be able to treat them as two entities and allow them to be raised and closed independently of each other BUT also keep the functionality to publish a problem as a known error if required.

In Service Manager, I am delighted that most of that has happened. However, there is one thing that is puzzling me. Can I convert a problem type into a known error type somehow?

If not, am I supposed to ask people to close their problem when they have a workaround and raise a known error or just leave it as a problem?

If the latter, then what is the benefit of having the KE type? Is because sometimes when you are raising something you already know the root cause? I don't relish the idea of explaining this distinction to a bunch of infrastructure engineers who consider ITIL the biggest pain in their job.

Grateful for all opinions on this topic from Hornbill staff and users of the platform 

I've seen the following thread and didn't really get an answer: 

I've also read the wiki on this topic and couldn't find anything. It is possible I missed it.

I'm very much at the developmental stage with a problem process and would love to develop it with Service Manager capabilities as the driver but as of right now I am wondering if I even bother with KEs.

Thanks in advance all!

[ArmandoDM]

Hi @chrisnutt,

Problems and Known Errors are treated as separate entities and its not possible to convert the one into another.

In this thread is discussed in more details about the difference between Problems and Known Error

Hope this helps

Regards,

Armando

[James Ainsworth]

Hi @chrisnutt

Nice to hear your feedback on having Problems and Known Errors as separate entities.  We wanted to make sure that we could offer that ability to create Known Errors for a KEDB without having to step through the creation of a problem first.

In order to take an existing Problem Record and create a Known Error record you will want to use the Linked Request Action on the Problem Record to create a linked Known Error from the Problem Record.  This will take you through a progressive capture and some of the information from the Problem Record will be automatically brought into the progressive capture and added to the Known Error.  A link between the two request types is also created.

There may also be some options that would help automate this as part of a BPM Workflow.  

I hope this helps,

Regards,

James

[chrisnutt]

Thanks, both.

Yes, you have both helped! Good to know before I delve into designing a new process!

Chris

[dwalby]

On 6/29/2017 at 5:26 PM, James Ainsworth said:

Hi @chrisnutt

Nice to hear your feedback on having Problems and Known Errors as separate entities.  We wanted to make sure that we could offer that ability to create Known Errors for a KEDB without having to step through the creation of a problem first.

In order to take an existing Problem Record and create a Known Error record you will want to use the Linked Request Action on the Problem Record to create a linked Known Error from the Problem Record.  This will take you through a progressive capture and some of the information from the Problem Record will be automatically brought into the progressive capture and added to the Known Error.  A link between the two request types is also created.

There may also be some options that would help automate this as part of a BPM Workflow.  

I hope this helps,

Regards,

James

I'm currently in the process of building a Problem Management Business Process and am looking at ways to link it with Known Errors. Is it possible to capture the action of creating a linked Known Error as you suggest within the HUD? I.e. Within the Problem Record, once a linked Known Error has been created, the business process detects this and a stage checkpoint can be marked with 'Known Error Created' or 'Workaround Available' for example?

I was hoping there'd be a 'Wait for Linked Requests' task available when setting a suspend automated task, but there doesn't appear to be one.

[James Ainsworth]

Hi @dwalby

Thanks for your post.

I was wondering if there is a particular activity that takes place prior to knowing if a KE needs to be raised or not?  Having an Activity scheduled for someone to investigate and determine if a KE needs to be raised or not could also be used to suspend the workflow.  

When I work with Problems and Known Errors, I don't have a Problem Record and a KE open at the same time for the same issue, so I would look for this transition from Problem to KE at the time of resolving or closing the Problem.  I would work the problem up to the point where a decision can be made on how to proceed.

• The Problem can be closed without raising a KE as a permanent fix was provided
• The Problem can be closed and a KE is raised with workaround information as the issue may still exist in the environment
• The Problem can be closed as there is an existing KE already available for this issue
• The Problem needs to remain open as we don't yet know the root cause or have a way to work around it.  No KE raised and continue to investigate.

Using a Human task in your BPM workflow with defined outcomes could reflect what needs to be done next.  Your outcomes could be a simple Yes and No on a Human Task that confirms if a KE is required.  The decision node could then take this outcome and direct the workflow accordingly and include checkpoints to signify if a KE was raised or not.

Lots of options and different approaches.  It would be great to hear from others and how they determine the transition from Problem to KE.  

Regards,

James

[dwalby]

Hi @James Ainsworth

Thanks for the quick response. The concept of not having a KE and Problem open at the same time makes sense. With that in mind, is it therefore possible to resolve a Problem, then automatically raise a Known Error copying over relevant details by utilizing BPM workflow?

[James Ainsworth]

Hi @dwalby

I was going to suggest this operation for automatically raising a KE record but at the moment the only options are incident and service requests.  I'll check and see where we are with adding KEs to this option.

Regards,

James

[dwalby]

Hi @James Ainsworth

Thanks, I saw that operation before and thought I'd found what I needed, but as you say, currently there're only incident and service request options. I'd be interested to hear when KEs or indeed any other request types are added to this option

Thanks

[Jeremy]

I am currently going through this process and would also like the ability to automatically raise KE's from PB's as part of the Business Process, if this cannot be done is there a way to link a Human Task/Automatic Task to a BPM?

[James Ainsworth]

We are soon to complete the development work which will provide the ability to raise any request type from the BPM.   We hope to make this available over the next couple of weeks.

Regards,

James

[James Ainsworth]

To conclude this post, the new BPM operations for raising all request types is available in the live environment. 

Documentation can be found here

Regards,

James