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Improve your chances for fast case turnaround

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I’m going to share a few tips and tricks with you on how to improve your chances for getting fast case turnaround times. These are especially important if you are reporting a bug.

Behind the Scenes

What I’m about to reveal is top secret, so don’t share it with anyone outside your immediate team! The diagram in Figure 1 describes the end-to-end workflow that happens when you file a problem report with Microsoft support.

workflow

Figure 1 Problem Report End-to-end Workflow

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you have discovered a bug and you need a hotfix in the shortest possible time, you have to get your problem report to the Product Group as fast as possible.

Here’s another secret. To ensure the most effective use of the Product Group’s time, they require the 2nd-level support team to submit problem reports in a special format. We call this format the “Good” Problem Report Template.

We’ve provided an Excel template of the Problem Report Template. 

 

Entry

Comment

ACCURATE, DESCRIPTIVE TITLE?

Does the problem report have an ACCURATE, DESCRIPTIVE TITLE?

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION?

Does the problem report have a business focused PROBLEM DESCRIPTION?

BUSINESS PROCESS/SCENARIO

Does the problem report describe the BUSINESS PROCESS/SCENARIO in an implementation free manner?

IMPACT STATEMENT

Does the problem report have an IMPACT STATEMENT that is short and to the point?

REPRO STEPS, with ACTUAL RESULTS and EXPECTED RESULTS?

Does the problem report have clear REPRO STEPS, with ACTUAL RESULTS and EXPECTED RESULTS?

 

Figure 2 the 'Good' Problem Report Template

Submitting a request

Use this format when you submit a New Support Request, in the Please tell us about your problem section.

In the Brief subject line field, enter an accurate, descriptive title.

In the Detail of question or problem field, enter the following: Please see attached Problem Report Template.

Submit your problem report template in the Additional file attachments section.

Example 1

Consider the following two problem reports: which has the best chance for a quick turnaround--Problem Report A or Problem Report B?

Problem Report A:

When opening Kanban Schedule Board I get an error. The error is an - Unhandled exception: Unable to cast object of type 'System.DBNull' to type 'System.String'

Problem Report B:

ACCURATE, DESCRIPTIVE TITLE

Error when opening Kanban Schedule Board - Unhandled exception: Unable to cast object of type 'System.DBNull' to type 'System.String'

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

Error when opening Kanban Schedule Board - Unhandled exception: Unable to cast object of type 'System.DBNull' to type 'System.String'

BUSINESS PROCESS/SCENARIO

The customer does not use Product Dimensions and has disabled them in license configuration to prevent them from being used.

IMPACT STATEMENT

The customer is forced to enable product dimensions in order to use Kanbans.

REPRO STEPS, with ACTUAL RESULTS and EXPECTED RESULTS

1. Unmark the following License Configuration options

System administration > Licensing > License Configuration

Product dimension – color

Product dimension – Configuration

Product dimension – Size

Click Apply

Click Ok

Click Yes

Click Continue

2. Exit Dynamics AX Client

3. Restart the AOS

4. Relaunch AX Client

5 Open Kanban schdule board window

Production Control > Lean Manufacturing > Kanban schedule board

Pick any Work cell if prompted

Actual Result:

Unhandled exception:

Expected Result:

No Error

Example 2

Consider the following two problem reports: which has the best chance for a quick turnaround--Problem Report A or Problem Report B?

Problem Report A:

Can’t change the category selected in the expense category combo box if it is selected in the Itemization page. Is this a known problem?

 

Problem Report B:

ACCURATE, DESCRIPTIVE TITLE?

Unable to change the category selected in the expense category combo box in EP once it is selected in the Itemization page

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION?

Once the expense category is selected in the Itemize fast tab in the itemization page it cannot be changed any longer. If you click on the dropdown again, no categories are shown in the lookup, only an OK and Cancel button.

BUSINESS PROCESS/SCENARIO

It is possible to change the category of the itemized line once the line has been added to the itemized lines grid. Therefore it should be also possible to change it before it gets added to the grid, because people might have made a mistake and want to correct it before they add the itemized line.

IMPACT STATEMENT

This causes confusion for users entering expense reports. This is a common scenario.

REPRO STEPS, with ACTUAL RESULTS and EXPECTED RESULTS?

Login to EP

Click button "New Expense"

Click button "Continue"

Enter any string as the Expense Purpose

Click button "Add new expense" and select Expense category as "Hotel"

Enter the Transaction Date as "Today"

Enter the Transaction amount as "70"

Click button "Itemize"

Select from the lookup Category = Room Service

Click on the Category lookup for the second time

Actual Result:

Not able to select the category for the second time

Expected Result:

Should be able to select any category for the second time

 

More Tips

Submitting an additional repro document with screen shots, or a repro video can also greatly speed up our triage process, and the movement of a problem report through the end-to-end process.

A repro video of the issue occurring can also assist the team to run through the scenario during the triage meeting quickly.

Important: Even if you describe the repro steps in detail in a supplemental repro document, or attach a video, you should still summarize the steps in the repro section of the Problem Report Template. Attachments don’t replace repro steps—they just make them easier to understand.

Good problem report - Template.xlsx

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Denis, please understand that the specific details of the example are not that important, what is important is the overall completeness of the issue/problem report. We realize that we will not get the exact level of debugging on every issue but the main point is that the more information that can be provided about any testing or debugging that has already been done can greatly accelerate the support process.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Customers are not always good at debugging issues for you. In the 1st example how should a customer know that an unhandled exception in Kanban Schedule Board has anything to do with product dimension licenses?

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    December 29, 2013
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  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2015
    The aim of this blog post is to provide you with some suggestions on what information and data to collect

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2015
    The aim of this blog post is to provide you with some suggestions on what information and data to collect

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2016
    The aim of this blog post is to provide you with some suggestions on what information and data to collect

  • Anonymous
    January 27, 2016
    The aim of this blog post is to provide you with some suggestions on what information and data to collect