ITIL4F Key Concepts of ITIL 4 Practice Question
During a major incident, the IT team implements a temporary workaround to restore service. Later, a permanent fix is applied. Which ITIL 4 practice is primarily responsible for ensuring the permanent fix is identified and applied?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse Incident Management's responsibility for restoring service with Problem Management's responsibility for finding the permanent fix, especially when a workaround is involved.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Problem Management
Problem Management is the ITIL 4 practice responsible for identifying the root cause of incidents and ensuring permanent fixes are developed and applied. In this scenario, the temporary workaround is an Incident Management action, but the permanent fix requires Problem Management to conduct root cause analysis (RCA) and coordinate the implementation of a known error resolution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Change Management
Why it's wrong here
Change Management (now often referred to as Change Enablement in ITIL 4) is primarily concerned with controlling the lifecycle of all changes, ensuring they are assessed, authorized, and implemented with minimal risk to IT services. While a permanent fix identified by Problem Management would eventually be implemented as a change, Change Management's role is not to identify the root cause of incidents or develop the solution itself. Its focus is on the successful deployment and control of pre-defined changes.
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Service Desk
Why it's wrong here
The Service Desk serves as the single point of contact for users, responsible for logging incidents, fulfilling service requests, and providing initial support. Its primary objective is to restore normal service operation quickly, often by applying known workarounds or escalating to other support teams. However, the Service Desk does not perform in-depth root cause analysis or manage the process of developing and implementing permanent solutions for recurring issues.
- ✓
Problem Management
Why this is correct
Problem Management is the practice responsible for reducing the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents and managing workarounds and known errors. It conducts thorough root cause analysis to understand the underlying issues, coordinates the development of permanent solutions, and ensures their implementation to prevent recurrence, making it the correct practice for identifying root causes and coordinating permanent fixes.
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Incident Management
Why it's wrong here
Incident Management coordinates the immediate restoration of service through workarounds, but its scope ends once service is restored; it does not own the process of identifying, developing, and deploying a permanent fix. That responsibility belongs to Problem Management, which conducts root cause analysis and manages the known error database to ensure a structural resolution is implemented. Incident Management is tempting because it handles the initial response and coordinates the workaround, so candidates may assume it also oversees the permanent fix. It would be the correct choice if the question asked which practice restores service during an outage.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This ITIL4F practice question is part of Courseiva's free PeopleCert certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the ITIL4F exam.