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Manage Problems for IT Services
Track and manage problems efficiently to minimize disruptions, identify root causes, and drive long-term solutions. By creating and updating problems, your team maintains service quality and improves operational performance. You can create change requests directly from a problem, associate it with other records, and even accept risk for problems that can’t be resolved.
Required Editions
| Available in: Lightning Experience |
| Available in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions with Agentforce IT Service. |
| User Permissions Needed | |
|---|---|
| To accept the risk for problems: | IT Service Problem Risk Accepter |
| To reopen a problem: | IT Service Problem Reopener |
| To associate Problem to an Incident: | IT Service Incident Problem Associator |
| To associate Problem to a Change Request: | IT Service Problem Change Associator |
| To associate Problem to a Release: | IT Service Problem Release Associator |
| To resolve an association: | IT Service Problem Association Resolver |
Create Problems
IT service reps can create and manage problems to initiate a formal investigation into recurring issues. By logging problems, reps make sure that the root cause of an issue is addressed, which helps to maintain service quality and improve operational performance.
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From the App Launcher, find and select Problems and then click
New.
Service reps can also create problems from incident record.
Enter Subject, Status, Urgency, and Impact. It’s also recommended to fill out Reported By. These are the mandatory fields. You can fill out the rest of the fields after you’ve created the problem.
- Save your changes.
You can also add or modify details during the problem lifecyle.
Create Change Requests for Problem
Create change requests after identifying the root cause of a problem to ensure long-term resolution of the problems. Linking change efforts to problems ensures that fixes are implemented efficiently and service improvements are traceable and controlled.
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On the Details tab of Problem record, click Create Change
Request.
Enter Subject, Impact, Urgency, Priority, and Risk Level. It’s also recommended to fill out Type. You can fill out the rest of the fields after the change request is created.
- Click Create.
Accept Risk for Problems
Use the Accept Risk action to formally acknowledge and close a problem that poses a known business risk. Problem Managers can select this option when a resolution isn’t feasible but the risk is understood and accepted by the business. This ensures transparency, proper documentation, and progress in issue tracking.
- From Problem Record Details page, click Accept Risk.
- Enter the Resolution Summary providing a justification as to why this problem can be closed with risk.
- Save your changes.
Reopen Problems
Reopen a Problem record to continue investigation or resolution after it was previously closed. This allows teams to take further action when new information becomes available or if the issue reoccurs. Reopening ensures visibility and accountability throughout the problem lifecycle.
- From the resolved Problem Record page, click Re-Open.
- Add a business justification for reopening the problem.
- Save your changes.
Associate Problems to Other Issues
Use associations to link related problems and other records. Associations help identify root causes and recurring issues. Problem associations can be of two type: Caused By (when another ticket caused the issue) and Similar (when there’s a known relationship). These associations improve visibility and streamline problem management.
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To associate a Problem to another record:
- On the Details tab of a Problem record click Associate or go to the Associations tab and click Add.
- Select the Record Type and Relationship Type.
- Select all the records that you would like to associate to the current record. You can associate a single record or multiple records in the same interaction.
- Save your changes.
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To remove an existing association:
- From a Problem record, go to the Associations tab, click Remove.
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Select the Record Type and select the records you want to remove, and then click
Remove.
Removing Associations doesn’t lead to deletion of related records.
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You can use the Associations feature to bulk close records manually:
- From a Problem record, go to the Associations tab, select the Record Type.
- Select the records that you want to resolve, and then click Resolve.
Resolve Problems
Fix the root cause of the problem, and close it to prevent recurrence and maintain reliable operations. Add a note that if a permanent solution isn't available you can document the workaround in a knowledge article and in the workaround field before closing it.
- From the Problem Record Details page, fill out the Problem Analysis and Resolution Information.
- Save your changes and change the status to Closed.

