Support Service Desk Best Practices

The SSDT Support Staff is here to help as a second line of support. As experts on the state software, we aim to provide you with a better understanding of the software functionality and the tools to support your customers. Our goal is to assist with your support tickets as efficiently and effectively as possible. The information that you’ve gathered in your initial investigation of the ticket will be very helpful in our next steps to assist. We have developed some best practices for relaying the information that we are looking for on each type of ticket. We hope this will help us effectively collaborate to get to the root of the issue.

General Information

The options available to create a service desk ticket are provided here.  The following information should be included on all types of tickets submitted to the SSDT Support Service Desk. Please use this list as a means to summarize the issue/question the district has asked and include any relevant information and attachments. Please do not forward an email chain from the district as the formatting can be difficult to read in the helpdesk.

• District Name
  • Including the district name and/or IRN will ensure the most efficient timeline for us to be able to pull the accurate backup if that is needed.

  • Including the name is also helpful for search reasons. We often search all tickets to see if a current ticket may be related to a previous question from a district. The more consistent you can be with including the district by name, the better results we’ll get in these searches. This may also benefit you when searching SSDT tickets for other tickets that your ITC has entered for that district.
    

    District Backup

    For districts that backup nightly to Management Council, SSDT can pull the backup through VRA. For those that do not, use the linked walkthrough to /wiki/spaces/rtd/pages/2754705.

• Time Sensitive

• • If this ticket is in relation to a time sensitive process please include the timeframe.
    Example: A check to this vendor needs to be issued by X date. OR They need to have their payroll tape to the bank by the end of the day.

• Record Specific Information

• • If this ticket is related to a specific user, transaction number, or record please include the identifying information in the ticket.
    Below are examples of specific records and identifying information.
    

    USAS	USPS	Inventory
    PO Number	Employee Number	Tag Number
    Invoice Number	Employee Name	Asset Class
    Check/Reference Number	Payroll Item Code	Location Code
    Account Code	Check Number	Fund

• Reports

  • If this ticket is related to a specific report, please include the report name and/or attach the report(s).

  • If you are referring to specific totals on reports, please attach a copy of the report with the Report Options Page
• Errors
  • The error detail/stack trace is usually a long technical message. When reporting an error, this can be extremely helpful in locating the cause of the reported issue.
  • If the error message has a double-arrow icon, click this to expand the full error detail and copy/paste into a .txt or word document and attach it to the ticket. 
    
    
  • If the district encountered the error and the entire error message was not captured at that time:
    • Recreate the error in a test instance to capture the full error detail and copy/paste into a .txt or word document and attach it to the ticket. 
      OR
    • Discuss with the district what time they received the error. Navigate to System > Monitor > App Log and use that information to locate the record of the error. Locate a row for the error, click directly on the row to open the detail view and copy/paste the data from the Exception Detail box into a .txt or word document and attach it to the ticket.
      

New Feature/Enhancement

• General Information (see above for details)
  • District Name
• Description of the Enhancement Request: A description of the functionally they are requesting. Please include any relevant details - which page, program, report this request is related to. 
• How this enhancement will help: When possible, please include a summary of how they see this enhancement benefiting them and any additional details on their process that may be relevant to their request. The feedback issues are brought to the Prioritization Committee for consideration and discussion. That committee is made up of ITC & District representatives. However, districts may have different practices and not all use the software the same so any additional details provided at the time of request may help with prioritizing the feedback request for a future update.
• Feedback Issue: (optional) If you are aware that there is already an issue in Jira for this Feedback request, please feel free to include the USASFB, USPSFB, or INVFB number in the ticket. When we receive enhancement requests, we will review the existing feedback requests. If a feedback request already exists for the New Feature/Enhancement, we will update the Times Requested count on the Jira Issue. The number of times requested is used in determining priority of scheduling that issue for a future update.

Support

• General Information (see above for details)
  • District Name
  • Time Sensitive
  • Record Specific Information
  • Reports
  • Errors
• Question: Please include a summary of the situation/question.
  • Include the specific page, program, or report in the software your ticket is related to
  • If you have screenshots, please attach those to the ticket

  • If the question you are including is copied directly from the district’s email/ticket to you, please include additional information on what you’ve looked at so far
    

• Testing: Discuss with the district and take note of any district specific processes that may be relevant. Include details related to your testing, example transactions, steps taken, etc. in your ticket. Depending on the issue, it can be helpful to use a test instance of their data to review the process they are asking about. Questions that are not related to making database changes (ex. running a report) may be tested in their live instance.
  • If you are unable to confirm the same details reported by the district, please include a summary of the steps you’ve attempted.

Report a Bug

• General Information (see above for details)
  • District Name
  • Time Sensitive
  • Record Specific Information
  • Reports
  • Errors
• Description of the Issue: Please include a detailed description of the behavior that the user is experiencing. 
  • Include which specific page, program, or report in the software is impacted
  • If you have screenshots that illustrate the issue, please attach those to the ticket
  • If the bug report you are including is copied directly from the district’s email/ticket to you, please include additional information on what you’ve looked at so far
• Recreate the Issue: Discuss with the district and take note of the actions they took directly prior to receiving the error or encountering the issue. We recommend creating a test instance of their data to try to reproduce their issue. Issues that do not require database changes (ex. running a report) may be recreated in their live instance.
  • If you can successfully recreate the issue, please include an example with the steps to recreate in the ticket.
  • If you are unable to recreate the behavior reported by the district, please include a summary of the steps you’ve attempted.
• Determine if this is specific to a district or user: If you are able to recreate the behavior in a test instance, attempt to determine if this is user or district specific. Take note if it only happens with the user that reported or if you were able to get that same behavior with another user. Attempt the test with another district's data to determine if it only happens for the district that reported the bug.
  • In a situation where multiple districts are reporting a bug at once, include the name of all districts and if there are any similarities/differences.

Resources

• USAS FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
• USPS FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
• Inventory FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
• SSDT YouTube - Recorded Training Sessions
• ITC Training and Registration