New Support Request Form

“You need massive cajones to put that up!” I hear you say, but hear me out.

Firstly there is the obvious advantage of users realising that there is, in actual fact, documentation available that will assist them with simple things like this. Notice the inline help even at this point – some users might not use the documentation because they don’t know how to reach it.

You now have a compounded situation. If the user actually decides to click the submit button with a reason and the validation passes (140 characters minimum is probably a good bet) you really do have a problem – they did RTFM and got no answers. In this situation you have already solved your problem; you now know what areas of your documentation you need to address. The next customer who comes across this page with the same problem won’t be submitting a ticket.

You could always even provide a group of radio buttons so that the user has quick answers – and at the same time you will have data that can be graphed.

It is important to remember – you are not being rude at all. Referring to the documentation will mean that the turnaround time for an answer will be orders of magnitudes faster than relying on a limited amount of human resources.

After reading Joseph Cooney’s post on “Works on My Machine” I was inspired to integrate this prestigious certification program into my company’s typical workflow.

Introduction

The program applies only to developers and QA specialists who use virtual environments (VMWare, VPC, VirtualBox, etc.) for primary development and/or quality assurance. If the application meets the strict requirements stipulated below it may be branded with the “It Works on My Virtual Machine” logo.

Click for a high-res version.

Compatibility with other Certification Programs

This certification is compatible with “It Works on My Machine”. It will not qualify and application under “It Works on My Machine” automatically, nor will “It Works on My Machine” automatically qualify an application under “It Works on My Virtual Machine”. Each certification program needs to be met independently.

Technical Certification Requirements

1. Compile your latest application code with the relevant compiler. This should include changes from other developers.
2. Launch the application/site that has just been compiled.
3. Set a breakpoint in the code and reach it. Use any means possible to ensure the path to the breakpoint executes, this may include (but is not limited to):
   • Changing CPU registers (typically the instruction pointer) by manipulating the virtual machine host.
   • Using the snapshot feature of the virtual machine host to return to a previous snapshot where the code path executed successfully. Depending on your virtual machine software you may have to take a snapshot before navigating to alternates.
   • Manipulating the operating system and supplementary services (e.g. SQL) to ensure the path executes correctly.
4. Check the code changes into your version control system.
   • If the snapshot feature was used, ensure you return to the original state before checking the code in.

Notification Requirements

Customer and partners need not be informed of the branding; however, it is a preferable to place this logo in a clear location to indicate the quality of the software. Typical examples include:

• Splash screen on rich clients.
• Click-through interstitial landing page on websites.
• Ascii art in terminals.
• Using it to xor-encrypt sensitive data:
  • The character string “It Works On My Virtual Machine” (without quotes) repeated for the duration of the plaintext.
  • The byte stream of the logo image repeated for the duration of the plaintext.

Truth be told I tried GTD but I found that it stymied my productivity. I spent most of my time running around trying to GTD instead of GTD. I recently read an article on Havard Business that said you should have 3 ‘inboxes’:

• Follow Up – Stuff you need to follow up soon.
• Hold – Stuff you are waiting for.
• Archive – Important information you need to keep.

On top of that you should do quick responses immediately. It’s a great concept: but my email volume is too high for even that (I would spend my life sorting my inbox). I go for a slightly hybrid approach. I won’t be giving a click-through tutorial here: rather a broad overview.

1. Create a folder for Archive.
2. Create a folder for Pend (stuff that doesn’t fall under one of the others automatically).
3. If you have any existing filters keep them – only move the target under the appropriate folder (e.g. my “Source=Someone in the Company” folder is under Pend, mailing lists go under Archive).
4. Create two categories (Hold and Follow Up).
5. Assign hot-keys to the categories.
6. Create search folders for those categories.
7. Drop those search folders into your favourite folders.

You now have hot-keys for to categorise things and views for those categories.

Email becomes manageable again!