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2. Speed up Error-Free Delivery
This time you free up can be put towards more effective and valuable delivery. We want to be increasingly agile, but there is a saying about that: ‘You can’t have agility without stability’. Most texts about Agile and Lean development or service highlight the importance of structured problem solving – e.g. Eric Ries The Lean Startup and Henrik Kniberg Lean from the Trenches – for precisely this reason: To eliminate systemic issues that slow down delivery or reduce quality.
What’s more, solving problems permanently makes your business services more stable and able to deliver:
It is worthwhile doing root cause analysis because it not only impacts the current incident but will prevent future similar incidents as well. Not to mention a whole lot of other potential incidents that may not look similar on the surface. In other words, underlying conditions in your operating environment, ranging from technology issues all the way through to staff attitudes, are capable of causing multiple service interruptions unless they are addressed comprehensively.
A real example: A root cause was related to a faulty automated procedure for provisioning a service. It turned out that the way procedures were being automated and tested – a missing validation step – was the main root cause. Addressing this seems likely to have stopped many other future service automation issues as well, not just the provisioning one.
So, put these two factors together and your
agility will go up while the stability of systems also increases.
Bottom Line: Improving the accuracy and quality of delivery is another benefit of effective problem management.
3. Improve Customer Net Promoter Scores
For customers, effective problem management also has obvious benefits, chief among which are more stable, continuously improving services.
Eliminating underlying problems reduces incidents – remember that incidents are service interruptions and have a direct negative impact on customers.
With service delivery teams not distracted by fighting fires and with issues with deployments reduced, more services can be delivered more quickly, with higher quality and greater value (as noted above). More valuable and reliable services make customers happier and over time feeds into improving NPS.
You will find that if you can report that issues causing concerns previously are now addressed comprehensively and will not recur – and then proving it over time – makes a big impact on stakeholders.
Bottom Line: The third part of problem management’s value proposition is that it leads directly to more satisfied customers, who are more likely to build engagement over time. Nothing beats ‘It just works!’