Yes, finally somebody that agrees with me.. and YES I long for the days when I did work that made a difference.. But hey the pays good

A manager would probably say that this allows them to prioritize the problems and weed out insignificant issues and “user errors.” Whether that’s true or not, or justifies this additional person, is unclear.

Part of problem management is having a third party who is independent of the technical teams involved in causing the problem in the first place. Without a third party in charge of the investigation, you are less likely to reach the true root cause. So your job is to be an auditor/investigator. Secondly, sometimes two groups blame each other for an issue, so in this case you are the mediator. Additionally, the people who do the work everyday are not likely to come up with out-of-the box solutions to the root cause. Of course their input is needed, but you also must sometimes be an innovator. Although, I am not a problem manager myself, I value the position in my company because they work hard to prevent problems before they occur and prevent problems from occuring again after they happened. It sounds like you either need some training or some better management.

This is completely true. One of my manager is a ‘project manager’ and believe me its the same thing. He makes about 20 dollars an hour to have me do all his work. I emailed this link and told him this is him. He told me to f**k off.

I find these comments a little unfair and one sided. A person who has seen a real Problem Management process put in place and properly implemented would not make these comments. The need for Problem Management is increasing with very large corporations who’s structure and environment are so complex that it requires a “facilitator” to bring everyone to the table to find and address root cause. This is particularly true for companies who outsource or contract some of their support services (helpdesks) to save cost. In my personal opinion, Problem Management saves money, and this has been statistically and financially proven by several large companies. I’m not convinced that the people commenting here on Problem Management truly understand the meaning of the job or are ITIL certified for that matter.

This definitely sounds like an excellent b****t job. Keep up the good work! How about getting an assistant to help with all those progress reports? ps if you need some time off, tell them all the information on your blackberry got wiped off by the fridge magnet you bought at the airport duty free. That will save you having to get back to anyone for a while.

As an IT Problem Manager, I actually wondered if it was a bull**t job myself until I found myself uncovering chronic..even systemic issues that was not only wasting company money, but was making our IT techs’s jobs beyond frustrating to the point that they were overworked and blamed for a lot of issues that were not their fault… dare I say that much of it pointed to management decisions or lack of.. bottom line.. who else is going to speak for the ‘underdog’ who doesn’t have a voice… and present the facts that speak for themselves.

An effective IT Problem Manager makes work life better for all IT .. techs and management alike.

The key is creating a culture where IT management is willing to see themselves as part of a ’solution’…a rare commodity… but achievable!

I’m unemployed; my job is to find a job – until I do I am not getting paid. MY job is a bullshit job – you’re sounds great! Tell you what, since you hate your job, let’s trade jobs. You take my job,I’ll take yours. Then we can both be happy!