Blog - IT CSI

If you want to put fear in the hearts of IT Professionals, ask them to “think out of the box.” It is not that they cannot do it rather than the fact that they are not used to doing that in dealing with IT problems and Incidents.

This will get you and your team to the core in minutes!

If you could not restore a service within three hours there is something unique about the fault being experienced – do you know what it is?

It is a fair assumption that if you experience an incident that is typical and normally has typical causes then all you have to do is to find which cause is the culprit this time. An example would be when you cannot get logged in to your normal email service. You know from your own experience that only a few things could cause you to be unable to get access. You quickly check these normal factors until you have found the cause and “solved” the situation. 

Simple Question, But Powerful!

One of the most important questions to ask yourself in attempting to solve an incident quickly, accurately and permanently is to ask the following three questions:

1. What do you know about the incident?
2. What don’t you know about the incident?
3. How can you collaborate with whom that could provide you with this missing information?

How do fighter pilots (top guns), firemen and other emergency workers deal with a crisis situation? They go onto “automatic mode” which was drilled into their psyche over a period of time…

Ever wondered why pilots are trained on simulators? They are trained to quickly ascertain a snapshot of what is happening and what is not happening. Based on these nanoseconds of bits of factual information they are trained to make “snap” deductions and produce the most appropriate actions.

There is another answer to my “WHY?” question and that is rooted in the physiological set-up of our bodies. When faced with a crisis situation our adrenalin pumps excessively and everything we do become an automatic reflex and not necessarily a rational response. We need to get the brain to reconnect to our bodies (including our speech) and the best way to do it is through a renewed intensive focus.