Running the List

[mangosteen]

When I was in professional services, one of the things that I noticed I did was I ran a very specific list of diagnostics at the beginning of a customer meeting.

• Who is the most important person in the room?
• How technical is this group of people?
• What kind of mood are they in?
• Do they appear to be in a hurry, or are they settling in for the long haul

Comments

[fenicedautun]

OK, I'll play with data analysis

[drwex]

It's VERY profession-dependent. I've read studies of various medical situations where typically checklists are not used despite good evidence that introducing them improves outcomes and reduces costs and problems. It's a culture thing - doctors don't like to be questioned whereas no good pilot would ever even start an engine without first running down a checklist.

My profession doesn't have a lot of checklists. We have best practices and patterns, but what makes someone good at what I do is being able to figure out which of the myriad of options best fits the situation. It's one reason I compare myself to a (stage) roadie.

[jducoeur]

Hmm. My professional-meeting one is similar to yours, so let's instead do "Running an SCA dance

[scholargipsy]

• What in God's name did I just step in?


• Does it feel moist?


• Is it near a litterbox?


• Does it smell?


• How far do I have to hop to get to the nearest sink?

[pseydtonne]

When I was at IBM Rational, we had a big focus on Kepner-Tregoe (KT) Resolve process. This was originally designed to get managers through decisions more effectively, but it applies very well to technical support.

I imagine a piece of steno paper. On the left will be aspects of the problem, and on the right are things that are not aspects thereof. This latter part is amazingly important. If the customer says "it started with two machines, but now..." or "it happened once to almost every Linux box, then a few more times to five of them", then I know a lot more about what won't fit as a solution