The Effective GIS Help Desk - Recent Proceedings10% of users call for every problem 55% call for...

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!


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


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


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


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


Summary of ProblemDescription of Problem

Events prior to problem (setup)Steps taken to reproduce problemDetailed description of resultsError message screen captures

Problem reproducible?


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


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


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


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


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


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%


Resources


Questions?

The Effective GIS Help Desk - Recent Proceedings10% of users call for every problem 55% call for...

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