As defined in ITIL®: "A cause of one or more Incidents. The cause is not usually known at the time a Problem Record is created, and the Problem Management Process is responsible for further investigation."¹

¹ - ITIL V3 Glossary

The different states of a problem include the following:

• Closed -  The finalization of all data related to a problem, including structured data which supports analysis of problem causes, patterns, costs and resolution effectiveness.
• Diagnosed - A problem for which the root cause is understood.
• Further Investigation Request - In the process of resolving a known error, if additional problems are identified, a request is made for additional root cause analysis.
• Prioritized - A problem for which the category and priority are understood and recorded in the problem record. ITIL has the following definitions for these terms:
  • Category
  • Priority
• Reprioritization Request - In the course of monitoring and tracking problems there may be a need to lower or raise the priority of an individual problem due to a change in the business impact. The problem is referred for reprioritization.
• Resolution - Actions taken to repair permanently a known error or implement a workaround.