Document and communicate workaround to let others know that you are aware of the issue. The workaround is a temporary way to restore service failures and lessen the impact of a Problem for which an actual resolution is not yet available.

Before you begin

Role required: admin, problem_admin, problem_manager or problem_coordinator

About this task

When you communicate a workaround, notification is sent to related incidents that a workaround is available. The Incident process is designed to use the workaround information or to notify the user of the same. For more information on notification, refer Synchronization between incident and problem records.
Note: The topic applies to Problems where you have activated the Problem Management Best Practice — Madrid (com.snc.best_practice.problem.madrid) plugin.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Problem > Open.
  2. Open the Problem record.
  3. Enter the information in the Analysis information > Workaround field.
  4. Save the record.
  5. Under Related Links, click Communicate Workaround.

Communicate workaround (legacy)

You can enter a workaround note into a problem record, and then post the information into every associated incident.

Before you begin

Role required: itil or admin

About this task

The Communicate Workaround related link on the Problem form eliminates the need to manually update each incident related to the Problem.

Procedure

  1. Open the problem for which you have a workaround.
  2. Enter the information in the Workaround field.
  3. Click Post.
  4. Click the Communicate Workaround related link.
    The problem number and the content of the Workaround field are added to the activity stream on all related incidents. By default, any entries made in an incident activity stream field generate an email notification to the Caller that you mention on the Incident form.

    If group on-call rotation scheduling is in effect when you communicate a workaround, the system stops the escalations on the associated incidents. Escalation stops because a workaround is available. This action effectively communicates knowledge to the appropriate audience, but does not create a knowledge article.