Trouble shooting

Trouble shooting is what every IT guy uses to solve problems. It is the only way to get to the source of a problem. It is our greatest tool and what makes it so great is how simple it starts but that is most likely the greatest distress of the end user. We start with the easy stuff, Is it plugged in? Did you push the power button? Most take that as an insult of intelligence but what few understand is we are not insulting you we are merely working through a problem. However, it is very hard for many IT people to be humble of their own knowledge. There are many stories of IT people not being able to interact well with end users because of their immense knowledge. It's hard to have to break things into layman's terms when your knowledge of it has far beyond it. That is what most IT people have missed and that is where most end users feel insulted. There is difficulty in breaking down computers into a more simplistic term when you know it as something that can be more sophisticated. I recall just the other day I told a user to ping our server, unintentional of course, but she replied with "I'm an accountant, I have no clue what ping our server means." To an IT guy that is probably the easiest IT term and they have done it a million times. I had to break it down further into a step by step instruction and that can be frustrating when you know it to be so simple. What I have learned is that you have to be very directional and patient, knowing that there was a time when someone told you to ping a server and you went, "Do a what now?" It's hard to try and simplify things with out insulting some ones intelligence. If you break it down to a preschool level they may understand it but they will feel insulted. You are better off explaining it as if you were teaching Tech 101 in home room and letting them ask questions. There is a tough balance though. Most users assume that you know it all and should be able to fix it by looking at it. Sometimes they don't want to ask questions and they just want you to take care of it for them. That is a user that you would be better off just doing it for them because they have no desire to learn.

Asking questions is the best way to get answers. What many don't realize is that your have to ask 100 questions before you can get one answer in the tech world. It usually starts with "Is it plugged in? Did you try restarting?" That is in no way intended to be an insult but one of the many questions that must be asked in that order or else you could end up wasting a lot of time. I can't recall the times I had skipped that first step and it lead to an hour of wasted questions to figure out you just had to plug it in or restart it. There is a constant battle of trying to become more efficient in solving computer problems and Trouble Shooting is the easiest way to combat wasted time. The first steps of trouble shooting are necessary in order to walk further down the line to solving the problem.

Just the other day my sister called and asked me to fix her wireless router because her computer couldn't get connected. She lives about 1000 miles away and I couldn't just drive over to take a look at it. So I started trouble shooting with her. Unplug everything, wait 30 seconds, plug the modem in, wait 15 seconds, plug the router in, wait 15 seconds, restart your computer. But that did nothing for us. So I figured there must be something in her wireless settings. So I told her to plug directly into the router and I would remote in to take a look. I was in there taking a look at everything and all her settings seem correct. I was confused. So then I started working backwards and tried to find the steps I might have missed. Once I realized I had missed a very important step, I just about kicked myself. I asked what the wireless password was and she had a good guess but it was wrong. So I just logged into the router and checked it myself and boom, just like that she was connected. It only took an hour to figure out.

There is a good reason why most Tech guys prefer to work alone and that because they don't have anyone to try to change the way the do things. When you don't have an end user telling you what to do and how to fix it, it makes it easier to complete trouble shooting and do it quickly.

That's about the just of why Tech guys use trouble shooting and don't like to skip steps. The world would be a better place if we had more trouble shooters and less trouble makers.