SmartSuite for the Incident and Problem Manager
The Incident and Problem Manager owns restoration and prevention: coordinating major incidents to resolution, running post-incident reviews, and managing problems through root cause analysis, known errors and permanent fixes. They report incident trends and problem backlog to IT leadership.
What you own
The Incident and Problem Manager owns restoration and prevention: coordinating major incidents to resolution, running post-incident reviews, and managing problems through root cause analysis, known errors and permanent fixes.
- Coordinate major incidents and communications to resolution
- Own the incident process, priorities and escalation
- Run post-incident reviews and track actions
- Manage problem records, root cause analysis and known errors
- Drive permanent fixes through change
- Report incident trends and problem backlog
Reporting lines
Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.
Reports to
Direct reports
Works closely with
How SmartSuite supports this role
Lead
Incident. Coordinates major incidents with timelines, tasks, stakeholder updates and post-incident review actions.
Problem. Manages problem records with root cause analysis, known errors and linked incidents and changes.
Change. Raises changes for permanent fixes and tracks them to deployment.
Reporting. Reports incident trends, MTTR and problem backlog to IT leadership.
Products this role uses most
Industry reference
ITIL 4's incident management and problem management practices define the role, with ISO/IEC 20000-1 requiring both processes and COBIT 2019's DSS02 and DSS03 setting the control objectives. Regulators look at the record: DORA requires major ICT incidents to be classified and reported on staged timelines (Article 19: an initial notification, an intermediate report when the status changes materially and a final report once root cause analysis is complete), NIS2 requires early warning within 24 hours, US banks must notify regulators within 36 hours, HIPAA requires security incident procedures and FedRAMP requires incident reporting for authorized systems.
Related roles
Explore Further
Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.
Frequently asked questions
What does an Incident and Problem Manager own?
The Incident and Problem Manager owns restoration and prevention. On the incident side, that means the incident process, priorities and escalation rules, coordinating major incidents and their communications to resolution and running post-incident reviews with tracked actions. On the problem side, it means problem records, root cause analysis, known errors and driving permanent fixes through change. They report incident trends and the problem backlog to IT leadership, which is how the two halves are judged together.
How does SmartSuite help an Incident and Problem Manager coordinate a major incident?
IT Incident Management coordinates major incidents with timelines, tasks, stakeholder updates and post-incident review actions. The timeline records what happened and when, tasks are assigned to the people restoring service, stakeholder updates go out from the same record, and the review actions are captured when the incident closes rather than lost in a meeting. The Service Desk Manager and Security Operations Manager see the same incident, so communication during restoration comes from one place.
How does SmartSuite manage problem records and known errors?
Problem Management manages problem records with root cause analysis, known errors and linked incidents and changes. Each problem shows the incidents that raised it, the analysis of the root cause, the known error and workaround while a fix is pending, and the change that will remove it. That linkage is what lets the Incident and Problem Manager show that recurring incidents are being prevented, not just restored, and it is the problem backlog they report on.
How are permanent fixes driven through change in SmartSuite?
Change Management raises changes for permanent fixes and tracks them to deployment, linked back to the problem record that justified them. The Incident and Problem Manager can see which problems have a change raised, where that change sits with the Change and Release Manager and when it was deployed, and then confirm the related incidents stop recurring. Knowledge Management holds the known errors and workarounds so the service desk applies them consistently in the meantime.
How does this role report incident trends and MTTR to IT leadership?
SmartSuite reports incident trends, MTTR and problem backlog to IT leadership from the incident and problem records themselves. The Incident and Problem Manager can show the IT Service Manager and IT Operations Director how time to restore is moving, which services generate repeat incidents and how many problems are open with and without a change raised. Because the data comes from the records, the trend is defensible when regulators such as DORA or NIS2 supervisors ask about the incident history.
What does an IT team need to get started with incident and problem management?
An IT team needs its incident priority matrix, escalation rules and the list of open problems and known errors. New customers can start with SmartSuite Onboarding, a guided four-week program around one or two priority workflows; for this role the first workflow is major incident coordination in IT Incident Management, with Problem Management following. Historic incidents give the trend reporting a baseline, and the service desk keeps logging incidents in the same records.
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