The Effective GIS Help Desk
John Dirkman, P.E.Sr. Project Manager
Telvent Miner & Miner
Presentation Topics
1. Personnel2. Training3. Troubleshooting Tools4. Preventative Maintenance5. Tuning6. Enhancement Management7. Metrics/SLAs8. Resources
Why Have a GIS Help Desk?1. Improve user efficiency2. Improve data quality3. Specialized and highly complex application4. Critical business application - even more so if it
feeds an OMS5. ...
Why Have a GIS Help Desk?
1. Improve user efficiency2. Improve data quality3. Specialized and highly complex application4. Critical business application - even more so
if it feeds an OMS5.5. The bugs are lurking, and they will find you!The bugs are lurking, and they will find you!
The Effective GIS Help Desk
Personnel
Help Desk Personnel Requirements
Knowledgeable (GIS Power User)FriendlyMotivatedPatientAbility to coax out the details of the problemOutstanding problem solving skillsAbility to care without taking things personallyProgramming experience not required
Help Desk Personnel Staffing
Staffing depends on:number of usersnumber of calls and resolution time goalsuser level of experiencecomplexity of the applicationcriticality of the applicationavailability of super-users/frontline supportuse of technology
Rotate Help Desk Staff with Super-usersProvide off-the-job training
The Effective GIS Help Desk
Training
Moment of Truth
Raise your hand if you work for an organization with a
formal ongoing GIS training program.
Training
An effective Help Desk will act proactively to reduce non-bug calls (e.g. “How do I…?”)Training of GIS users is the best way to mitigate thisAlso provide on-line Manuals and Use CasesUse the Train-the-Trainer concept, trainers become Super-usersSuper-users are your frontline support
TrainingProvide just-in-time trainingTraining should be based on real-world scenariosTest your trainees before graduationUse on-line Manuals and Use CasesProvide on-line videos of processesInvolve Help Desk staff in the Design, Develop, and Deploy phasesConfigure toolbars to remove unneeded buttons and lock the MXTYou can use testing scenarios for training scenarios
Part of the Core Team
According to Building Your ArcFM, the Training/Help Desk Leader should be a Core Team Member
You never call…10% of users call for every problem55% call for less than half of their problems10% never callWhen users need help:
40% call (or call on) a colleague first40% call the Help Desk first20% call someone else in IT first
(source: Gartner Group)Market your Help Desk through multiple channelsEstablish the Help Desk as the premiere Point of Contact
The Effective GIS Help Desk
Troubleshooting
Moment of Truth
Raise your hand if you work for an organization with an
automated/queued Trouble Call Handling system.
Automated Call HandlingMany systems exist to queue calls, identify callers, and channel problems.Can track metrics:
Average Speed of AnswerAbandonment RateContact Frequency
Can indicate call wait time/volume of callsUsers are prepared to wait if they know there is a good chance that their problem will be solved.
Moment of Truth
Raise your hand if you work for an organization with an
automated Knowledge Base system.
Knowledge Base
Allows Help Desk staff to search logged Trouble Tickets and their resolutions.Knowledge Base becomes more sophisticated and comprehensive over time.Consider publishing for user access.Benefits:
Service more consistentIncreased first contact resolution rateReduced time to resolve problemsReduced ramp-up time for new Help Desk staff
ESRI Supporthttp://support.esri.com/
TMM Support Forumshttp://www.miner.com/support/forums/
Moment of Truth
Raise your hand if you work for an organization with an automated Trouble Ticket
handling system.
Trouble Ticket TrackingA published database with a GUI, search functionality, and statusLots of software packages available:
BugzillaTeamTrackServiceCenter
Also plenty of home-grown systems
Trouble Ticket Reporting 1
Date and Time of IncidentTracking/Issue NumberUser Name, Phone, and Email AddressProduct Name and VersionComponent Name and VersionOS Name and VersionDBMS Name and VersionPriority
Trouble Ticket Reporting 2
Summary of ProblemDescription of Problem
Events prior to problem (setup)Steps taken to reproduce problemDetailed description of resultsError message screen captures
Problem reproducible?
Trouble Ticket Reporting 3
Analyst Bug Assigned ToDisposition: User Error, Bug, Anomaly, Question, Enhancement, OtherStatus: New, Assigned, Resolved, Verified, ClosedFix ETA/Days to CompleteSolution
Trouble Ticket Transitions
UNCON-FIRMED NEW ASSIGNED
RESOLVED VERIFIED
CLOSED
ConfirmBug
Assignto Analyst
Place inProduction
AnalystCompletes
Not a BugReassign
Tested
Trouble Ticket Description Guidelines
The more effectively you report a bug, the more likely an analyst will actually fix itA useful bug report normally has two qualities:
ReproducibleSpecific
Bad and Good DescriptionsBAD: "My app crashed. I think I was using the Trace Tool. I bowl with Andy, so you better fix this problem, or I'll report you to him. And I think your tool corrupted the database. Thx 4 ur help."GOOD: "I crashed each time I used the custom Upstream Switch Trace, using the October 8 2008 build on a Windows XP system. I tried different configurations of the trace options and got the same result. I used both the core ESRI Find Connected and ArcFM Upstream traces with no problems. I received no error message in the app, but there was an error description in the Event Log (attached).
Moment of Truth
Raise your hand if you work for an organization with an
automated PC Remote Access/Control system.
PC Remote Access/Control
Many software options:WebexPC AnywhereTimbuktu
Allows Help Desk staff to provide immediate troubleshooting or coaching
The Effective GIS Help Desk
PreventativeMaintenance
Trouble Ticket Analysis
Use your Trouble Ticket tracking system to look for common problemsLook for the root cause of problemsMay indicate more training required in certain areas
Repairing Network Topology
The Effective GIS Help Desk
Tuning
Moment of Truth
Raise your hand if you work for an organization that
routinely tunes your Geodatabase.
Tuning PrepBenchmark your systemBe consistentSample tasks may include:
Opening Stored DisplaysOpening Session/DesignPlacing various features – first placement and subsequent placementTap a ConductorTrace a ConductorSaving Session/DesignRun QA/QCReconcilePost
Solicit users for additional frequently used tasks
Geodatabase Toolset (GDBT)
Geodatabase Toolset:Contains tools used to investigate and diagnose geodatabase performance issuesProvides different toolsets for ArcCatalog and ArcMapArcMap: used to review characteristics of Stored Displays, refresh performance, scripting, and DBMS tracingArcCatalog: used to review enterprise geodatabase informationNot a substitute for tuning
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/extensions/gdbt/download.html or http://www.miner.com/freetools/
Alternative: MXDPERFSTAT from arcscripts.esri.com
ArcMap - Data Fetching
ArcCatalog - Version Lineage
Freetools
http://www.miner.com/freetools/
TuningOracle Wait States
10046 Event Tracing
Oracle Tracing
System Table Information
Statspack
Performance Monitor
sar
iostats
vmstats
System Global Area
Shared Pool
Buffer Pool
Rollback Segments
Free Blocks
DBTune
Tuning Results
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov
Move XFR
Update XFR LabeltextOpen XFR Relationship
Tap Conductor
Tuning
Tuning Results
-71%27.0Tap Conductor
-60%37.5Open XFR Relationship
-18%1214.7Update XFR Labeltext
-27%1520.5Move XFR
% Redux
After Tuning
Before Tuning*Task
* Average over six months
The Effective GIS Help Desk
Enhancements
Moment of Truth
Raise your hand if you work for an organization with a formal GIS user group or
enhancement identification process.
EnhancementsEstablish a formal GIS Users GroupOne group goal is to identify enhancementsConfiguration
Stored DisplaysSnappingFavorites and TemplatesAnnotation and LabelingMap Products
CustomizationNew ToolsImproved Tools
Make it RightMake it Better
The Effective GIS Help Desk
Metrics& SLA’s
Moment of Truth
Raise your hand if you work for an organization with
formal Help Desk metrics and SLA’s.
MetricsEssential for managing and improving the Help Desk.Not all metrics apply to all Help Desks, methods to achieve targets differ, and metrics can be weighted based on corporate culture.Metrics are a straightforward mechanism for communicating commitment, progress, and benefit to users and other stakeholders.
MetricsMetrics about your Help Desk’s performance are facts on which to build action plans.Metrics guide staff development.There are few universally-applicable best practices. There are many appropriate practices, and the key is deciding which ones are appropriate for your company.
Metrics
Sample Metrics:Average Speed of AnswerAbandonment RateContact FrequencyFirst Contact ResolutionTime Before ReassignmentTime Before ResolutionUsers per Help Desk staffCost per ContactUser SatisfactionUnplanned Outages
Service Level Agreements (SLA’s)
Help to establish and define user expectationsMake them a relevant, measurable, formal agreement with usersNegotiate key performance measures with your usersPublish your commitments and attainment against those commitmentsDon’t be afraid to start low, but demonstrate improvements and keep raising the bar
SLA33%
No SLA67%
The Effective GIS Help Desk
Resources
Resources
Resources
Resources
Resources
The Effective GIS Help Desk
Questions?
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