Hands On. Eyes On. or Blind

Continuing on a little further regarding Troubleshooting, I realized right afterwards that there are different types of troubleshooting:

• Hands On
• Eyes On
• Blind

Hands On – is pretty self-explanatory.  You get to put your physical hands directly on the machines involved with finding and fixing the problem.

Eyes On – is when you can’t put your hands directly on them, but you can either view the troubleshooting process over the shoulder of another person, or you get a decent amount of diagnostic information 2nd hand to investigate the problem.

Blind – this is when you try to help others over the phone or by chat.  You can’t see or touch the machines involved.  You can’t see diagnostic output.  You’re usually making educated guesses, at best, using limited information either spoken verbally or typed into a chat window.

Obviously, these are gradually degrading degrees of effectiveness.  Hands On is the ideal.  Eyes On is what you have to put up with a lot of the time.  Blind is what you try to invent stories to get away from.  “I hear my dog eating a small animal out back, gotta go!…”