Cookies on Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

We’d like to use analytics cookies so we can understand how you use the framework and make improvements.

We also use essential cookies to remember if you’ve accepted analytics cookies.

View cookies
Skip to main content

Beta Complete our 3 minute feedback survey to help us improve the framework.

Problem manager

Find out what a problem manager in government does and the skills you need to do the role at each level.

Last updated 30 November 2024 — See all updates

Contents

What a problem manager does

Problem managers aim to resolve and control the root causes of incidents caused by errors within the IT infrastructure. In this role, you will be expected to work to prevent the recurrence of these incidents.

Problem manager role levels

There are 2 problem manager role levels, from problem analyst to problem manager.

The typical responsibilities and skills for each role level are described in the sections below. You can use this to identify the skills you need to progress in your career, or simply to learn more about each role in the Government Digital and Data profession.

1. Problem analyst

At this level, you will be responsible for maintaining software systems once they are up and running and, where necessary, support the problem manager in co-ordinating the resolution of any problems.

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • EO (Executive Officer)
  • HEO (Higher Executive Officer)
Skill Description

Asset and configuration management

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • track, log and correct information to protect assets and components

Availability and capacity management

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Change management

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • implement change requests
  • apply change control procedures under supervision

Community collaboration

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • contribute to the work of others
  • motivate and empower teams
  • create the right environment for teams to work in, and can identify the best team makeup depending on the situation
  • recognise and deal with issues

Continual service improvement

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • identify process optimisation opportunities with guidance, and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions

Continuity management

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • explain the basic principles of IT standard continuity management processes and procedures

Incident management

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • diagnose and prioritise incidents, investigate their causes and find resolutions

Ownership and initiative

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • own an issue until a new owner has been found or the problem has been mitigated or resolved

Problem management

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • initiate and monitor actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems
  • effectively consult specialists where required
  • determine the appropriate resolution and assist with its implementation
  • determine preventative measures

Service focus

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • take inputs and establish coherent frameworks that work

Service management framework knowledge

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show you have a Level 3 service management framework qualification

Technical understanding

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness of the relevant subject matter and a high level understanding of what it involves

User focus

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • identify and engage with users or stakeholders to collate user needs evidence
  • understand and define research that fits user needs
  • use quantitative and qualitative data about users to turn user focus into outcomes

2. Problem manager

A problem manager picks up feeds from numerous sources, such as the service desk, with the aim of putting in place continual improvements to stop incidents such as regular service outages recurring.

At this role level, you will:

  • resolve emerging and recurring problems
  • perform root cause analysis to minimise the adverse impact of incidents caused by errors within the IT infrastructure
  • work closely with major incident managers
  • deal with problems and root cause analysis

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • HEO (Higher Executive Officer)
  • SEO (Senior Executive Officer)
Skill Description

Asset and configuration management

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • track, log and correct information to protect assets and components

Availability and capacity management

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Change management

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • analyse and assess the impact of change
  • document change requests
  • action changes from change requests

Community collaboration

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work collaboratively in a group, actively networking with others
  • adapt feedback to ensure it’s effective and lasting
  • use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them
  • identify issues through Agile ‘health checks’ with the team, and help to stimulate the right responses

Continual service improvement

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • analyse current processes, and identify and implement opportunities to optimise them
  • lead and develop a team of experts to deliver service improvements
  • help to evaluate and establish requirements for the implementation of changes by setting policy and standards

Continuity management

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • manage the runbooks and the processes around service continuity
  • test the runbooks to ensure that service availability is maintained

Incident management

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • lead the investigation and resolution of incidents

Ownership and initiative

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • take accountability for issues that occur and be proactive in searching for potential problems
  • achieve excellent user outcomes

Problem management

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • ensure that the right actions are taken to investigate, resolve and anticipate problems
  • co-ordinate the team to investigate problems, implement solutions and take preventive measures

Service focus

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • see the bigger picture by taking groups of services and investigating how to get the best of underlying services

Service management framework knowledge

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show you have a Level 3 service management framework qualification

Technical understanding

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand the core technical concepts related to the role, and apply them with guidance

User focus

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • identify and engage with users or stakeholders to collate user needs evidence
  • understand and define research that fits user needs
  • use quantitative and qualitative data about users to turn user focus into outcomes
Role Shared skills
Change and release manager

Asset and configuration management

Availability and capacity management

Change management

Community collaboration

Continual service improvement

Continuity management

Incident management

Ownership and initiative

Problem management

Service focus

Service management framework knowledge

Technical understanding

User focus
Command and control centre manager

Asset and configuration management

Availability and capacity management

Change management

Community collaboration

Continual service improvement

Continuity management

Incident management

Ownership and initiative

Problem management

Service focus

Service management framework knowledge

Technical understanding

User focus
Incident manager

Asset and configuration management

Availability and capacity management

Change management

Community collaboration

Continual service improvement

Continuity management

Incident management

Ownership and initiative

Problem management

Service focus

Service management framework knowledge

Technical understanding

User focus
Service transition manager

Asset and configuration management

Availability and capacity management

Change management

Community collaboration

Continual service improvement

Continuity management

Incident management

Ownership and initiative

Problem management

Service focus

Service management framework knowledge

Technical understanding

User focus
Application operations engineer

Asset and configuration management

Availability and capacity management

Change management

Continual service improvement

Incident management

Ownership and initiative

Problem management

Service focus

Service management framework knowledge

Technical understanding

User focus

Updates

Published 7 January 2020

Last updated 30 November 2024

30 November 2024

The skill 'asset and configuration management' has been updated. The level descriptions were edited to improve clarity and to ensure consistency with the rest of the framework

The skill 'availability and capacity management' has been updated. The level descriptions were edited to improve clarity and to better meet the definitions for each level.

In the 'expert' level description of the 'community collaboration' skill, the second requirement referring to 'understand the pychology of the team and have strong mediation skills' was removed as it is duplicated meaning of other requirements and does not meet framework guidelines for technical skills. This ensures consistency with the rest of the framework and allows for the skill to be shared with roles previously using the 'community collaboration (frontend developer)' skill.

The skill 'problem management' has been updated to improve clarity and ensure consistency across the framework, allowing it be shared with roles previously using the skill 'problem resolution (data). No change was made to the meaning of skill level descriptions.

The skill 'service management framework knowledge' has been updated to improve clarity. No change was made in the meaning of the skill level descriptions.

30 August 2024

The skill level descriptions for 'change management' and 'continuity management' have been updated to improve clarity and ensure consistency across the framework. No change was made to the meaning of skill level descriptions.

7 January 2020

First published.