The classic customer support call starts with the person reporting the problem claiming, “I didn’t change anything and it suddenly quit working!” Digging for details may reveal that this statement may have conveniently ignored a power failure, reinstallation of the operating system on a personal computer, a daylight savings changeover, or spilling large quantities of carbonated beverages on the equipment.

Once you have determined whether or not the problem is environmental, the next key is to determine what is different from the last time the device functioned correctly. Approach this like you would if you were helping someone find their car keys, wallet, or eye glasses. Have them go back to the last time everything was working and conceptually backtrack through the events that have happened since. This exercise will reveal the seemingly insignificant changes in ether the device or the environment that could have a big impact on the outcome.

• Introduction
• Wrath of Khan Anecdote
• Knowledge, Access, and Creativity
• Step 1 - Were all the instructions followed correctly?
• Step 2 - Is this happening here or is it happening everywhere?
• Step 3 - Something changed recently, what is it?
• Step 4 - What isn’t broken versus what is?
• Step 5 - It’s fixed, now what?
• Final Thoughts

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 10:15 pm and is filed under Reference Material, Troubleshooting techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.