Troubleshooting in General
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KamillTroubleshooting in General
Uploaded by
KamillDefinition of Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting is more of an art form than an exact science
Troubleshooting is the art of locating and eliminating the source of trouble in any
flow of work
Problems occur (usually) at the most inopportune times
Method of drilling down in order to pin point the cause of the problem
You must be methodical and organised
How to approach troubleshooting
Listen to customers description of problem
Define the work that is being performed
- What is your customer trying to do?
- Which application is he/she using?
Ask probing questions to locate the problem
- Discovery
- Determine what is NOT the problem
Based on customers responses, isolate the problem and formulate a theory
- Hypothesis
- Analysis
Perform necessary actions to test theory
- Testing
Develop new theories as needed
- Further Hypothesis and Testing
Continue until solution is reached or resources exhausted
- Resolution
4 Phases Of Troubleshooting
Discovery
Discover what the root of the problem is with well aimed questions, determine what is
NOT the problem.
Hypothesis
From the answers gathered formulate a Hypothesis, what the problem possibly is.
Testing
Once you have the Hypothesis, you have to test it, so you can determine if you are
right about the problem or not.
Possible more Hypothesis and Testing
Resolution
Your theory has been tried and tested. If you know the solution but not able to solve
it or you dont know it at all, gather all troubleshooted information, the questions
you asked and the given answers and dispatch it to the appropriate second level
unit.
How do we determine whats gone wrong?
Questioning
Fault Reproduction
Isolation of the components
( hardware, software, communications, network )
Elimination of component
1. Questioning
In order to find out what the problem is you have to ask questions
The question must be case specific, that is constructed for the task at hand
IE The computer wont start:
Is it plugged in?
Is the switch down?
Is the switch on the back of the unit ON?
And so on.
1.1 Questioning techniques
Keep your questions short and logical
Keep your questions simple
Try not to confuse the customer
Do not try to impress the customer with your knowledge as this will
only serve to confuse
2. Fault Reproduction
Fault reproduction is the same as reconstructing the scene of a crime
The aim is to reconstruct precisely the same actions the user performed prior to the
fault occurrence
This may not be possible, so a plan of similar action to the ones that the user may have
performed would be:
Re-enacted in a specific order
Each stage of the testing would be noted
Any faults found would also be noted
3. Isolation of the component
There are many ways this could done
Systematic approach:
Problem: no Intranet
Check users rights
Check other Intranet pages
Check everything from your side as well
Check other network resources
Check network availability (servers, routers, etc)
Check hw components on the PC
Check sw components (drivers, protocols, web browsers, etc) on the PC
Check users account (you log in to the PC, user logs in to an other PC)
Logical approach:
By testing each component individually, it is possible to find the fault or broken
component
4. Elimination of components
By eliminating a component and re-testing the system it is possible to find a
piece of faulty equipment
By removing one component at a time out of the equation systematically a
problem part can be detected, and a new part replaced
This method however is a time consuming
Main Benefits of Troubleshooting
Customer satisfaction First Time Fix
EKMS logs for new problems
Increased knowledge (desk specific)
Ability to detail correct information for Second Line Support
Ability to gauge your personal level of technical ability for a specific problem
Points to remember
No fix is complete without confirmation by the customer that the job is done!
Make sure that the problem no longer exists
Ask the user to test the solution and confirm customer satisfaction
If a fix cannot be found then ensure that the customer is aware of your pending
actions
