Fix what keeps coming back.

Problems are not backlogs. They are operational pain. Traditional Problem Management measures how many records are open; Signal9 measures which problems are still causing incidents.

The Problem Performance dashboard ranks operational pain, not records: incident load, repeat incidents, pain concentration, burn rate, and known error coverage. Engineering time should follow operational impact, not the age of a ticket.

A problem should not start with a blank page. The investigation is promoted into the problem, carrying timelines, findings, affected services, workarounds, and prior experience. Problems begin with understanding, not reconstruction.