Part of my work is supporting users of computerized control systems and also users of some inhouse database apps that I wrote. The users are for the most part professionals in a few engineering fields and in various countries.
What I seem to notice more and more is that people seem to have become conditioned to see error messages of all kinds (in logs, dialog boxes, autosent mails, etc) as indicative of a fault, but their exact textual content as not being important
Example 1:
“The plant has stopped! The log says “System error”!”
"Sorry to hear that. Which system error? System error 2? Or 4? Or 8?
“I don’t know. Is it important?”
Example 2:
“The plant has stopped! There is a flashing text on the screen.”
“What is the flashing text?”
“I don’t know. What can you do to correct the fault?”
Example 3:
“The database has sent me an e-mail - there seems to be some error”
“Could you forward the e-mail to me, please?”
“No, I have deleted it”
Example 4:
“The application says something about an error after exiting”
“What exactly is the error message?”
“I don’t know. Can’t you just fix it?”
“No, I need the exact text.”
… much later
“The message says: errorlevel 0. Does that help?”
“Yes. It means there is no error.”
Can some IT veterans shed some light on whether this attitude (that it’s no use documenting the exact content of an error message) was also prevalent in earlier decades, or whether it has developed recently?
“The loom broke”…“what happened?”…“it just stopped turning”.
“The crops have dies”…“what happened?”…“the rain didn’t fall. That’s all I know”
Silliness aside…people are used to seeing superfluous text everywhere they go. My car’s manual is a couple of hundred pages - I sure haven’t read it. Do you read all the text of every software licence agreement? Though so. How about every detail of your supermarket receipt?
In most situations, the exact text is not important. Only by having some understanding of how computers work is it obvious that computer support needs exact information. These people are doing what they’d do in any other aspect of their working life: “The telephone isn’t working? OK, we’ll look into it”…“The power’s gone off? OK, we’ll look into it” etc etc etc.
I’ve been doing computer support on one level or another since 93. I’ve done it all, from first level support to network operations. It’s always been that way as far back as I can remember. Sadly, I still get have this happen. Yesterday I had the following conversation:
Me: (Name of company), this is Slee, what can I do for you?
Manager who called with the problem: Well, our software gave an error. I don’t want it to happen again.
Me: Ok, what was the error?
Manager: I don’t know, I clicked OK.
Me: Alright, what were you doing when you recieved the error?
Manager: I don’t know, I didn’t do it. Bob got the error.
Me: What was Bob doing?
Manager: I don’t know.
Me: Can you find out?
Manager: Bob left for the day
Me: Alrighty then, I’ll connect and take a look to see if everything looks OK. In the future if you get an error please either print screen the error (gave full instructions on how to do so), write it down EXACTLY or leave it on the screen so I can see it.
Manager: But it is a bunch of gibberish.
Me: Actually, that gibberish is ‘computer geek’. I speak fluent computer geek. While it may not make much sense to you it is essential to us in resolving your problem.
An hour or so later after I dialed in and checked the DBs and everything (all looked fine) she called back.
Me: Hi again, what happened?
Manager: We got the error again.
Me: That’s not good. Do you have the error?
Manager: No.
Me: Is it still on the screen?
Manager: No, I hit OK.
Me: Ok, what were you doing when you got the error?
Manager: I didn’t get the error, Sally got it.
Me: Can I speak with Sally?
Manager: No, she’s gone home.
Me: ::Pounding head into desk::
I once again went through the info I needed from them to troubleshoot the problem. I once again explained how to do a print screen. I once again explained that it is vital for us to know the exact error and what the person was doing when they recieved the error.
I am willing to bet that when I go back into work today there will be a message from the same manager(#1) with absolutely no more information on the problem.
Slee
#1. This particular manager has been told that we need exact information countless times. She, apparently, cannot grasp this fact. Her boss has been informed countless times as well. It ain’t ever going to change.