Troubleshooting is a form of problem solving. It is the systematic search for the source of a problem so that it can be solved. Troubleshooting is often a process of elimination – eliminating potential causes of a problem. – Wikipedia.

Microsoft Product Support Services, or (PSS) as it is known in the technical support community, employs a simple and beautiful method of problem solving. It is called ‘Linear and Logical Troubleshooting Technique’. Back in the days when I supported Microsoft Windows XP for Microsoft PSS’s North America customers, I was often amazed that a technique so simple in itself was capable of helping even a technician on his first day of the job, to resolve one of the most technically complicated problems in consumer support – a home networking problem. You don’t need to be a geek; you don’t need to have extensive knowledge in electronics or computers. You just need to go through three weeks of training on a product (at a user level) and help others fix problems simply by using the L&L technique.As the wiki defines – the objective of troubleshooting is not ‘fixing’ a problem, but ‘identifying’ where the problem is, by a simple ‘process of elimination’ – and that is concept of the Microsoft L&L technique.

I have been in different roles in tech support since the beginning of my career. Doing tech support, monitoring the technical support skills of other technicians, coaching them and even into roles which require end to end service level management for global technology clients. I have only seen very few technicians that really understand the concept of technical support that I outlined earlier. Everyone is interested in ‘fixing’ the problem by employing any means necessary and not really focused in ‘identifying’ the cause of the problem by process of elimination or even employing other techniques, before they attempt to ‘fix’ the problem.

In the tech support business (mainly in the PSS), we call it ‘Silver Bullet’. As a technician you know you are attempting to do something that will fix the problem, however, you also know that you will not know what was causing it after the problem is fixed. A simple example – can be a ‘System Restore’ option for a customer who started experiencing problems with his photo organizing application, after his son started using the computer a few weeks back when he was back home from school on holidays. The ‘System Restore’ if done to a few weeks back restores the computer to a state that it was in, a few weeks back and the customers problem in the application is ‘fixed – you have a happy customer. However, the technician does not know what caused the problem – and never would know.

You may ask – it reduced the time for resolution by not employing the much hyped ‘process of elimination’ and fixed the problem in just a few minutes, so why not use a Silver Bullet’. Well, I have a question for you – the technician did not know what fixed the problem, and he will continue to use this Silver Bullet throughout his tech support career if another customer calls with the same problem. Well, what if the same customer calls with the same problem again in a week because his son started using the computer again and he had the same problem ? How many times will you Silver Bullet ? What if one fine day, the Silver Bullet did not fix the problem ? Well, if you are a rational reader, I assume you will agree with me now that Silver Bullet is not advantageous – at least at all times.

I am passionate about the art of problem solving and I think a Silver Bullet is like reading a novel ‘online’ or through an MS Word document, and not by your bed. Ardent readers would know how it feels to do that, but still sometimes, I beat my own logic and tend to feel Silver Bullets are necessary too – this is where another debate begins – root cause or resolution, what’s more important ? I will discuss that in the next blog. Comments anyone ?