Published: April 25, 2008

Position of the Problem Management SMF Within the MOF IT Service Lifecycle

The MOF IT service lifecycle encompasses all of the activities and processes involved in managing an IT service: its conception, development, operation, maintenance, and—ultimately—its retirement. MOF organizes these activities and processes into Service Management Functions (SMFs), which are grouped together in lifecycle phases. Each SMF is anchored within a lifecycle phase and contains a unique set of goals and outcomes supporting the objectives of that phase. The SMFs can be used as stand-alone sets of processes, but it is when SMFs are used together that they are most effective in ensuring service delivery at the desired quality and risk levels.

The Problem Management SMF belongs to the Operate Phase of the MOF IT service lifecycle. The following figure shows the place of the Problem Management SMF within the Operate Phase, as well as the location of the Operate Phase within the IT service lifecycle.

Figure 1. Position of the Problem Management SMF within the IT service lifecycle

Before you use this SMF, you may want to read the following MOF 4.0 guidance to learn more about the MOF IT service lifecycle and the Operate Phase:

• MOF Overview
• Operate Phase Overview

Why Use the Problem Management SMF?

This SMF should be useful to anyone who is tasked with identifying underlying problems to prevent incidents before they occur. Typically, the focus of Problem Management is on complex problems that are beyond the scope of a request for incident resolution.

Specifically, this SMF addresses how to:

• Document the problem.
• Filter the problem.
• Research the problem.
• Research the outcome.