Re: Developing a troubleshooting guide

["Glen Blair" <glen -dot- blair -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Thanks to all of you for your advice!

I've spoken with some of our field service engineers and have been
able to identify a handful of troubleshooting techniques/pathways to
incorporate into the first draft of this document (I imagine it will
grow and morph through at least a few forms before we get something
that's useful both in the field and in the call center).

I especially liked Al's idea of developing an FAQ to go along with
this. There's a guide that accompanies the machine, explaining what
steps the operator should take to optimize the machine's performance.
Part of my plan for improving the whole documentation package includes
significant additions to the performance optimization guide that will
better explain operation techniques and the machine's performance
capabilities...now if there was just a way to get the customers to
read that _before_ they called for help! :-) A running FAQ (even if
it's just in-house) sounds like a good way to track new and existing
performance issues that can later be addressed in troubleshooting and
the performance optimization guide.

Thanks again! This list has been a great resource for someone (me) new
to the tech writing field!

Cheers,
Glen

--
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is to productivity what flames painted on
the side of a car are to speed."
-Paul Graham
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