V3 traps for the ITIL V2 folks

Question: When is the BEST time for a Known Error record to be created?
Answers (choose one):
A. When a temporary solution or workaround has been found, even if the cause has yet to be diagnosed
B. Upon the Problem resolution, so a permanent historical record of all actions is retained in case of recurrence.
C. As soon as it becomes obvious that a quick resolution of the Problem will not be found
D. It is inadvisable to set a specific point when a Known Error record must be raised. It should be done as soon as it becomes useful to do so

Most of you would have chosen Answer A.

In fact, I did too when this question was first presented to me since I am an ITIL V2 practitioner for many years and ITIL V3 is still quite new to me.

But …..the answer is not A if you are sitting for a ITIL V3 examination.

In ITIL V2 Service Support book, under the section Error Identification and Recording, “A Known Error status is assigned when the root cause of a Problem is found and a Work-around has been identified”. In other words, A Known Error record is created (could be based on a previous Problem record) when a workaround has been found. So the answer A would be correct if based on ITIL V2.

In ITIL V3, under the section Raising a Known Error record, it is stated that “As soon as the diagnosis is complete, and particularly where a workaround has been found (even though it may not yet be a permanent resolution), a Known Error Record must be raised and placed in the Known Error Database – so that if further incidents or problems arise, they can be identified and the service restored more quickly.
However, in some cases it may be advantageous to raise a Known Error Record even earlier in the overall process – just for information purposes, for example – even though the diagnosis may not be complete or a workaround found, so it is inadvisable to set a concrete procedural point exactly when a Known Error Record must be raised. It should be done as soon as it becomes useful to do so!” In other words, a Known Error record could be raised before the root cause or workaround has been found. For example, it may be good for Service Desk staff to know that a newly reported incident that is recurring had been investigated by a problem management team and he can then inform the user accordingly.

So the answer is D if the question based on ITIL V3. A is still correct but not quite and the question was asking for the BEST answer.

Gotcha!

One more gotcha for those who are exposed to ITIL V2. This is more straightforward.

Question: The group that authorized changes that must be installed faster than the normal process is called the?
Answers (choose one):
A. Urgent Change Board (UCB)
B. CAB Emergency Committee (CAB/EC)
C. Urgent Change Authority (UCA)
D. Emergency CAB (ECAB)

In ITIL V2, the answer would have been B.
In ITIL V3, D is the correct answer.

Also note in the ITIL V2, the Forward Schedule of Change (FSC) is a document that contains all approved changes and their implementation dates. The Projected Service Availability (PSA) is a document used by Change Management to outline effects of Changes on the levels of availability defined in the SLAs.

In ITIL V3, the Change Schedule is the new name for FSC.
The Projected Service Outage (PSO) is a document that identifies the effect of planned changes, maintenance activities and test plans on the agreed service levels.