PROBLEM

REPORTING

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CUSTOMER-SIDE PRELIMINARY
ACTIVITIES
When a user in a customer organization
encounters a problem, the objective is to
get the problem resolved as soon as
possible.

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In order to do this effectively, the following
steps need to be taken:
 Eliminating obvious usage errors.
 Ascertaining the impact of the problems on
the business.
 Identifying any ready-made workarounds.
 Gathering the required diagnostic
information for the product organization.
 Communicating with the product
organization.

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 CUSTOMER-SIDE
PRELIMINARY ACTIVITIES
IN PROBLEM REPORTING

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 Product-in-charge in the customer organization
?
End-users Start
Is there Reports problem details
sufficient info Encounters the problem
about the
problem? No
Requests required info
Yes

Any obvious usage Yes

errors?

No
Understand business impact
Ascertain the business impact
of the problem.

Any workarounds?
Close the
loop with
Yes end-users
No
Get the required info to report
to product organization

Report problem to vendor Prof.Krithika

ELIMINATING OBVIOUS USAGE
ERRORS
Sometimes some simple slip on the part of the
user could cause perception of an error.
Example of such slip:
 Not rebooting the machine after installing a piece
of that requires a re-boot for the software to take
rest.
 Not restarting a database instance to allow
changes in the startup parameters to take effect.
 Choosing inappropriate options to perform
specific functions.
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 Not having sufficient disk space to create
database tables or files.
 Not having the right access permission.

The end-users must check above checklist and

there must be a person in the customer
organization called as product-in-charge to
communicate with the end-users.

Prof.Krithika
The product development team should closely
analyze the defects classified as obvious usage
errors and:
 Confirm that the product behavior is
appropriate.
 If so, check that the documentation correctly
and unambiguously reflects the product
behavior and expects user actions.
 If the users undergo any training to use the
product, update it.
 Maintain a “Troubleshooting guide” on a
customer accessible website.

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ASCERTAINING THE IMPACT OF
THE PROBLEM
 Is the product rendered completely unstable?
If the product does not satisfy the key business
need, it is completely waste of investment and it
will not be accepted by the customer.
 Has the performance of the product deteriorated to
unusable levels?
Even if the product is functionally working but
its performance level has deteriorated it will slow
down the system which will demotivate the end-
users.

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 How many users are affected by the problem?
The more number of affected users, the more
problem impact which will lead to quick resolution.
 What impact does the problem have on the customers?
If customer being manufacturer, their problem can
affect their customer. This is seen in context of
seamless integration of multiple systems.
 Time based functionality not working.
If there is a time pressure in completing a customer
functions, the impact will be more.

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IDENTIFYING ANY READY
WORKAROUNDS
 In case of large organization, other users
encounter the problem earlier and it will be
discussed within the organization which
leads to find or workaround solutions faster
especially in case of urgent problems.
 If the customer organization cannot find
the solution they will approach product
organization.

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GATHERING THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE PRODUCT organization
 For the product organization to diagnose a
problem, the customer organization should
provide some information.
 The information may vary for different
products. The more diverse and the more
complex the usage of product, the more
information needed.
 The product-in-charge usually coordinates in
gathering these information. If they do not
provide correct information, it will lead to
serious problems.

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COMMUNICATING INTERNALLY
AND WITH THE SOFTWARE
PRODUCT VENDORS
Role of product-in-charge includes:
 Being single point of contact for the end-users
to report problems in usage of the product.
 Providing any assistance to resolve the
problems internally, if possible.
 Coordinating with the users to gather the
essential information that the vendors may
diagnose and fix the problems.

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 Being the interface and communication
channel between the vendor and the end-users
for providing product support for problems
that cannot be resolved locally within the
customer organization.

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Role of intermediary offers two major benefits:
 Firstly, The person would have better
understanding of the customer organization and
provide a better context to the problem and
appreciate the impact of the problem on the
customer organization.
 Also he would identify the duplicate problem
and provide solutions locally. This would save
round trips of exchange of information between
the vendor and customer facilitating faster
overall problem resolution.

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 Secondly, since he is a single point of contact,
he can establish a good rapport with the
vendor organization which will ease the
tension between the customer and vendor
organization.
 There must be product-in-charge at each site
in case of multiple geographic location and
coordination among them would enhance the
problem resolution speeds.
 The product-in-charge must have overall
knowledge about the customer’s business, the
impact of problem and product to articulate
problems to the vendor.
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CHECKLIST FOR THE PRELIMINARY INFO
GATHERED BY THE CUSTOMER

Type of Information Relevance and

information Applicability to Product
Types
General Customer code and reference To ascertain the
Background eligibility of the customer
Information to receive support for his
problems.
Contact person details Required to ensure that
an authorized
representative from
customer organization is
calling.
Environmental Hardware details To recreate an
Information environment for
reproducing and
diagnosing the problem.

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Type of information Information
Product Information Patches installed
Other dependent products
installed along with their
versions
Problem Product giving problem
characteristics
Scenario description
Problem classification
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Relevance and
Applicability to Product
Types
Specific significance of
patches.
Usually what the user is
aware of the root cause
of the problem.
What the user was doing
when the problem
occurred.
Broad classification are:
Product functioning
more or less stopped.
Severe performance
degradation.
Behaviour as not
expected
SKILLSETS NEEDED FOR THE VARIOUS
ROLES DURING PROBLEM REPORTING
Two major roles are product-in-charge from
customer organization and customer support
analyst from vendor organization.
 The product-in-charge should understand the
customer’s business and the context of the
software product to assess the impact of the
problem.
 Since, end-users encounter the problem , the
product-in-charge should communicate with the
users to gather required information.
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 The customer support analyst also needs
strong communication skills in order to derive
objective problem information from the
customer organization.
 In the event that the customer’s demands are
unreasonable or impractical, the customer
support analyst should have the negotiating
and peruasive skills to convince the customer
of the vendor organization’s point of view.

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Common skills required for both these roles:
 Evaluate the impact of a product and a
problem on the customer’s business
 Understand the product’s external behavior
 Communicate effectively within the
organization- the product-in-charge with the
end-users and the customer support analyst
with the development organization and
external organization.
 Communicate effectively with the other side
(analyst to customer)
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