What distinguishes "incident management" from "problem management"?

Incident management and problem management serve distinct yet complementary roles in IT service management. The primary objective of incident management is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible in response to an incident. This could mean resolving a service disruption, reducing downtime, and ensuring that users experience minimal impact during incidents.

In contrast, problem management goes deeper by identifying the underlying root causes of incidents. Its goal is to prevent future incidents by eliminating these root causes or by implementing a workaround to reduce the impact when incidents do occur.

Thus, the focus of incident management on the quick restoration of service differentiates it from problem management, which is more about long-term resolution and preventing re-occurrence. This core distinction is fundamental to effective IT service management practices and clarifies roles and responsibilities within IT operations.

The other options do not accurately capture the essence of the difference. While customer satisfaction is an important aspect of incident management, it doesn't fully encompass the operational focus. Budgetary issues are typically handled at a management level rather than specifically within incident management. Lastly, documentation is indeed important for both processes but does not effectively highlight the differences between them.