This paper will construe a scientific advent to problem solving. Although it is written to address information Technology associated problems, the concepts might also be applicable in other disciplines. The methods, concepts, and techniques described here is nothing new, but it is shocking how many "problem solvers" fail to use them. In between I will consist of some real-life examples.

Why do problem solvers guess in stead of following a scientific advent to problem solving? Maybe because it feels quicker? Maybe a lack of touch in efficient problem solving? Or maybe because it feels like hard work to do it scientifically? Maybe while you keep on guessing and not really solving, you originate more income and add some job security? Or maybe because you violate the first principle of problem solving: understand the problem.

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Principle #1. Understand the *real* problem.

data Technology problem Solving - The 6 law of Scientific problem Solving

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Isn't it safe bet that before you can solve, you need to understand the problem? Maybe. But, most of the time the solver will start solving without knowing the real problem. What the client or user recite as "The Problem" is ordinarily only the symptom! "My computer does not want to switch on" is the symptom. The real problem could be that the whole construction is without power. "Every time I try to add a new product, I get an error message" is the symptom. Here the real problem could be "Only the last 2 products I tried to add gave a 'Product already exists' error". Another classic example: "Nothing is working"...

You start your investigation by defining the "real problem". This will entail asking questions (and sometimes verify them), and doing some basic testing. Ask the user questions like "when was the last time it worked successfully?", "How long have you been using the system?", "Does it work on Another Pc or Another user?", "What is the exact error message?" etc. Ask for a screen-print of the error if possible. Your basic testing will be to ensure the end-to-end equipment is up and running. Check the user's Pc, the network, the Web Server, Firewalls, the File Server, the Database back-end, etc. Best-case you will pint-point the problem already. Worst-case you can eliminate a lot of areas for the cause of the problem.

A real life example. The indication of illness according to the user: "The principles hangs up at random times when I place orders". The environment: The user enters the order detail on a form in a mainframe application. When all the detail is completed, the user will tab off the form. The mainframe then sends this detail via communication software to an Oracle Client/Server principles at the plant. The Oracle principles will do capacity planning and whether returns an error or an foreseen, order date back to the mainframe system. This problem is quite serious, because you can loose clients if they try to place orders and the principles does not accept them! To attempt to solve this problem, habitancy started by investigating: 1) The load and capacity of the mainframe hardware 2) Monitoring the network load between the mainframe and the Oracle principles 3) Hiring consultants to debug the communication software 4) Debugging the Oracle capacity planning principles After spending a integrate of months they could not solve the problem.

The "Scientific problem Solver" was called in. It took less than a day and the problem was solved! How? The solver spends the day at the user to see what the "real problem" was. It was found that the problem only occurs with export orders. By investigating the capture screen and user actions, it was found that with export orders the last field on the form is always left blank and the user did not tab off this field. The principles was not hanging, it waited for the user to press "tab" Another time. problem solved. It can be noted that the "Scientific problem Solver" had very limited knowledge of the mainframe, of the order capturing system, of the communication software, and of the Oracle capacity planning system. And this brings us at Principle#2.

Principle #2. Do not be afraid to start the solving process, even if you do not understand the system.

How many times have you heard "I cannot touch that code, because it was industrialized by someone else!", or "I cannot help because I am a Hr counselor and that is a Finance problem"? If you washing machine does not want to switch on, you do not need to be an Electrical Engineer, Washing machine fix Specialist, Technician, or whatever expert to do some basic fault finding. Make sure the plug is working. Check the trip-switch, etc. "I have never seen this error before" should not stop you from attempting to solve. With the error message and an Internet quest engine, you can get lots of beginning points.

In every involved principles there are a integrate of basic working principles. principles A that reads data from principles B can be horribly involved (maybe a Laboratory Spectrometer that reads data from a Programmable Logic Computer via an Rs-232 port). But, some basics to test for: Does both systems have power? Is there an error message in the event log on one of these systems? Can you "ping" or trace a network packet from the one principles to the other? Try a separate communication cable. quest the internet for the error message.

Once you have established what the problem is, you need to start solving it. Sometimes the preliminary investigation will point you directly to the explication (switch the power on; replace the faulty cable, etc). But, sometimes the real problem is involved in itself, so the next principle is to solve it simple.

Principle #3. Conquer it simple.

Let's start this section with a real-life example. Under safe bet conditions, a stored policy will hang. The stored policy ordinarily takes about an hour to run (when it is not hanging). So, the developer tried to debug. Make some changes and then wait Another hour or so to see if the problem is solved. After some days the developer gave up and the "Problem Solver" took over. The "Problem Solver" had to his disposal the knowledge under witch conditions the stored policy would hang. So, it was a straightforward rehearsal to make a copy of the procedure, and then with this copy to strip all unnecessary code. All parameters were changed with hard-coded values. Bits of code were executed at a time and the result-sets were then again hard-coded into the copy of the procedure. Within 3 hours the problem was solved. An infinite-loop was discovered.

What the "Problem Solver" did, was to replicate the problem and at the same time tried to cut off the code that caused the problem. In doing so, the involved (and time consuming) stored policy became something fast and simple.

If the problem is inside an application, originate a new application and try to simulate the problem inside the new application as straightforward as possible. If the problem occurs when a safe bet recipe for a safe bet control gets called, then try to only consist of this control in the empty application and call that recipe with hard-coded values. If the problem is with embedded Sql inside a C# application, then try to simulate the Sql inside of a Database Query tool (like Sql*Plus for Oracle, Query Analyzer for Sql Server, or use the code in Ms Excel via Odbc to the database).

The occasion you can replicate the problem in a straightforward way, you are more than 80% on your way to solve it.

If you do not know where in the program the problem is, then use Debug.

Principle #4. Debug.

Most application improvement tools come approved with a debugger. Weather it is Macromedia Flash, Microsoft Dot Net, Delphi, or what ever improvement environment there will be some sort of debugger. If the tool does not come approved with a debugger, then you can simulate one.

The first thing you want to do with the debugger is to determine where the problem is. You do this by adding breakpoints at key areas. Then you run the program in debug mode and you will know between which breakpoints the problem occurred. Drill down and you will find the spot. Now that you know where the problem is, you can "conquer it simple"

Another nice highlight of most debuggers includes the facility to watch variables, values, parameters, etc. As you step straight through the program. With these values known at safe bet steps, you can hard-code them into your "simplified version" of the program

If a improvement tool does not reserve debugging, then you can simulate it. Put in steps in the program that outputs changeable values and "hello I am here" messages whether to the screen, to a log file, or to a database table. Remember to take them out when the problem is resolved... You don't want your file principles to be cluttered or filled up with log files!

Principle #5. There is a wealth of information on the database back-end that will help to solve a problem.

The "Problem Solver" was called to help solve a very tricky problem. A scheme was migrating principles from a mainframe to client-server technology. All went well during testing, but when the systems went live, all of a sudden there were quite a few, and quite random "General safety Faults". (The Gpf-error was the general error trap in Windows 95 and 98). It was tried to simplify the code, debugging was attempted, but it was impossible to replicate. In the Lab environment, the problem would not occur! Debugging trace messages to log files indicated that the problem occurred very randomly. Some users experienced it more than others, but finally all users will get them! tantalizing problem.

The "Problem Solver" solved this after he started to analyze the database back-end. Not sure if it was by occasion or because he systematically moved in the right direction because of a scientific approach. straight through tracing what is happening on the back-end level, it was found that all these applications were creating more-and-more connections to the database. Every time a user starts a new transaction Another association was established to the database. The sum-total of the connections were only released when the application was closed. As the user navigated to new windows inside the same application, more and more connections are opened, and after a specific estimate of connections, the application will have adequate and then crash. This was a programming fault in a template that was used by all the developers. The explication was to first test if a cursor to the database is already open, before occasion it again.

How do you trace on the back-end database what is happening? The main database providers have Gui tools that help you to trace or analyze what queries are fired against the database. It will also show you when habitancy connect, disconnect, or were unable to join together because of safety violations. Most databases also consist of some principles dictionary tables that can be queried to get this information. These traces can sometimes tell 'n whole story of why something is failing. The query code you retrieve from the trace can be help to "simplify the search". You can see from the trace if the program makes successful touch with the database. You can see how long it takes for a query to execute.

To add to Principle#2 (do not be afraid to start...); you can analyze this trace information, even though you might not know whatever about the detail of the application.

Remember though that these back-end traces can put a strain on the back-end resources. Do not leave them running for unnecessary long.

Principle #6. Use fresh eyes.

This is the last principle. Do not spend too much time on the problem before you ask for assistance. The aid does not have to be from someone more senior than you. The principle is that you need a pair of fresh eyes for a fresh perspective and sometimes a bit of fresh air by taking a break. The other someone will look and then ask a query or two. Sometimes it is something very safe bet that was missed. Sometimes just by answering the query it makes you think in a new directions. Also, if you spend hours finding at the same piece of code, it is very easy to start finding over a silly mistake. A lot of finance balancing problems get solved over a beer. It could be a turn of scenery, and/or the relaxed climate that will pop out the solution. Maybe it is the fresh oxygen that went to the brain while walking to the pub. Maybe it is because the problem got discussed with someone else.

Conclusion

After reading this paper, the author hope that you will try these the next time you encounter a problem to solve. Hopefully by applying these six principles you will perceive the advantages they bring, rather than to "guess" your way to a solution.

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Friday, January 20, 2012