Advanced Troubleshooting Skill The Best Bedside Manner

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Advanced Troubleshooting SkillThe Best Bedside
Manner

• HDI Meeting July 12, 2006
• Jacky Hood, Instructor, Foothill De Anza
• Business Card or Email address for PowerPoint or
  write to jacky.hood_at_fielddaysolutions.com

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Participant Profiles

• Internal support
• Hardware
• Software
• External support
• Hardware
• Software
• Non-computer support (e.g. human resources,
  telecom)

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Participant Goals

• Knowledge
• 1
• 2
• Skill
• 1
• 2
• Advancement
• Stress Reduction
• Other

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Problem-Solving vs. Troubleshooting

• Problems you encounter
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Typical Troubleshooting
• 1
• 2
• 3

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Problem-Solving Methodologies

• 8D
• Inductive, Deductive, Abductive
• Gestalt
• Problem Space
• Hard Systems
• Soft Systems

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8 DisciplinesProblem-Solvingused extensively in
Quality

• Use Team Approach
• Describe the Problem
• Implement and Verify Short-Term Corrective
  Actions
• Define end Verify Root Causes
• Verify Corrective Actions
• Implement Permanent Corrective Actions
• Prevent Recurrence
• Congratulate Your Team

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Inductive and Deductive Problem-Solving
Methodologies

• Thought Processes
• Inductive Instances to Principles (e.g. biology
  classifications)
• Deductive
• Principles to Instances
• Cause to Result
• Abductive Result to Cause

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Gestalt Problem Solvingexamples from Harish
Kotbagi,Georgia Tech, 1997
Gestalt Whole is greater than sum of parts
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Problem space theory

• Theory by Allen Newell Herbert Simon
• Initial state and end state
• Goal move desk
• Subgoal make desk lighter
• Creativity
• Edward deBono Lateral Thinking
• Arthur Koestler The Act of Creation
• Film Why Man Creates
• Twyla Tharp The Creative Habit

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Hard Systems Problem Solving Methodology

• Asserts that all things can be measured
• Analysis using quantitative methods and tools
• From early systems theorists including Karl
  Ludwig von Bertalanffy

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Soft Systems Problem Solving Methodology

• Approach to organisational process modelling used
  both for general problem solving and in the
  management of change
• Originated by Peter Checkland and Brian Wilson,
  University of Lancaster
• Now incorporated into CST Critical Systems
  Thinking multidiscipline models

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Soft Systems MethodologyDale Couprie et al,
University of Calgary



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Myth of Hard and Soft Approaches to Support

• Myth
• Use Hard methodologies to fix the system
• Use Soft methodologies to fix the customer
• Reality
• Combined methodology builds confidence on both
  sides

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Three Legs
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Troubleshooting Methodologies

• Half-splitting or binary-search
• Last-changed
• Litt
• Knapp

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Half-splittingor binary-search
Drawing from GENERAL MAINTENANCE PROCEDURES FOR
FIRE CONTROL MATERIEL published by US Army

• Ensures minimum number of steps
• Exercise number of steps in various stages

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Last ChangedJackys favorite methodology

• The system was working now its not
• All changes between the working and non-working
  system are suspect, no matter how unlikely they
  appear
• Do not insult the intelligence of the customer by
  asking questions relatedto a system that has
  never worked

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Litts UTP

• Steve Litts Universal Troubleshooting Process
• Prepare
• Get a complete and accurate symptom description
• Make a damage control plan
• Reproduce the symptom
• Do the appropriate corrective maintenance
• Narrow it down to the root cause
• Repair or replace the defective component
• Test
• Take pride in your solution
• Prevent future occurrence of this problem

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Knapps Methodology

• Donna Knapp How to Solve Problems Methodically
  in Customer Service Skills for the Help Desk
  Professional
• Gather all available data and create information
• Diagnose the problem
• Ask questions
• Simulate the customers actions
• Use diagnostic tools
• Develop a course of action

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Game Theory applied to Troubleshooting

• Game Theory (von Neumann, Oskar Morgenstern,
  Nash, Selten, Aumann, Schelling, others)
• Applicable to economics, war, sports, business,
  and games
• Competitors, cooperators
• Zero-Sum and non-zero-sum
• Perfect information and imperfect information
• Gaming Theory beat the house
• Blackjack Poker
• Card counting now useless
• Roulette

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Game Theory applied to Troubleshooting

• Game theory is the study of the ways in which
  strategic interactions among rational players
  produce outcomes with respect to the preferences
  of those players, none of which might have been
  intended by any of them.
• Example Voters chose a minority government
• Trust theory approach the other party as a
  cooperator until that party proves to be an
  adversary
• Applicability to Troubleshooting engineer,
  customer, and system as Cooperators

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Friend or Foe Game Theory and Television Show

• The decisions the contestants make in the 'Trust
  Box' determine the team's winnings and how they
  were divided. Three outcomes were possible
• Both vote "Friend" Each player receives half
  the winnings.
• One votes "Friend," the other "Foe" The
  contestant voting "Foe" takes all the money and
  the "Friend" gets nothing.
• Both vote "Foe" Neither player wins anything.

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Cooperation among the three players

• Two ways to describe/troubleshoot systems
• Correct functioning (anatomy and physiology)
• Malfunctioning (symptom-cause-solution)
• What is the system trying to do? How can we
  cooperate?
• What is the customer trying to do? How can the
  system cooperate?
• Analyzing the disconnects between items 1 and 2
  can lead to resolution

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Workshop One The Cornered Customer

• Work in groups of 2 to 5 people
• Customer lost critical information from boss
  (password) and is showing anger, guilt, fear, and
  embarrassment
• Define the goals of the customer, the system, and
  the troubleshooter
• Devise two solutions one technical and one
  non-technical
• Save face for the customer

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CSI Basics

• Crime scene analysis is a slow, methodical,
  systematic, and orderly process that involves
  protocols and a processing methodology. 
• Far too many investigators cave into pressure to
  get the scene working and functional again,
  especially if it is an area of commerce.
• Having a method or game plan protects against
  charges the scene was ransacked or dropsied.
• It's important to remember communication and team
  work are the hallmarks of good crime scene
  analysis.
• Dr. Tom O'Connor CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION class,
  North Carolina Wesleyan College

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Crime Scene Investigation Techniques for
Troubleshooting

• Basic CSI homicide techniques
• First do no harm disturb nothing
• The board swap disaster
• Obtain coroners findings
• ______ of death
• ______ of death
• Establish chronology
• Eliminate possible causes with valid alibis

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Tools of the Trade

• Active Listening
• Spkr A I would like to learn
• Spkr B Nod, OK, tell me more
• Reverse roles
• Involve the Customer
• Solution Plan

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Active Listening Workshop

• Speaker A I would like to learn
• to drive a Bobcat
• to speak Italian
• how to get promoted
• to play the clarinet
• AJAX programming language
• any other topic
• Speaker B Nod, OK, tell me more
• Reverse roles

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Solution PlanTen Steps

• 0. Calm the customer
• -------------------------------
• 1. Engage or isolate the customer
• 2. Observe without action
• 3. Choose a plan
• -------------------------------
• 1. Collect data and create hypothesis
• 2. Test hypothesis
• 3. Take corrective action or create workaround
• -------------------------------

• 1. Identify root cause
• 2. Document
• resolution/workaround
• root cause
• prevention strategy
• 3. Follow up with customer

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Calming most Customers in 20 Seconds

• Our methodology will work here.
• We have a process for problems like this.
• Together we can get you back in production
• Clauds story I have a plan.

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Fixing Intermittent Problems

• Steve Litts Intermittent Problem Definition An
  intermittent is a problem for which there is no
  known procedure to consistently reproduce its
  symptom.
• Steves seven solutions include general
  maintenance, preventative maintenance, turn the
  intermittent against itself, convert the
  intermittent into a reproducible, statistical
  analysis, root cause analysis, ignore it
  http//www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/9812.htm
• One (way) is to wait until the intermittent has
  become a more frequent or continuous problem --
  that approach may not sit well with a customer.
  Another is to check for any technical service
  bulletins -- Larry Carley Troubleshooting
  Intermittent Engine Problems 2003
• IBM/Lenova 17-step process
• http//www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/documen
  t.do?lndocidMIGR-4YRKVX
• Recent crashing problem clean machine approach

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Final Workshop

• Role-playing volunteers
• Customer has intermittent problem
• Engineer applies the Ten Steps