Friday 23 October 2015

How to give a good problem report

If you call SYSPRO's support department, we will try to fix your problem as quickly as possible, of course, However, you can make this process much more efficient if you get us all the information we need, up front, so  here's a guide:

  1. Always provide a screen shot!
    Make the screen shot FULL-SCREEN, because there are other clues on the screen that are really helpful, including the TIME and DATE (bottom right), the SYSPRO Company, the SYSPRO Port number, …
  2. Draw a red box around the problem(s).
    Just because it’s obvious to you doesn’t mean it’s obvious to us. We are not mind readers.
    (
    Greenshot is free software, is easy to use, and takes good screen shots.)
  3. State what values or behaviour was wrong.
  4. State what values or behaviour you expected.
  5. List the steps necessary to reproduce the problem.
  6. State how often the problem happens:
    1. Every single time.
    2. Only in particular circumstances.
      Also state what those circumstances are.
    3. Intermittently – not sure what circumstances trigger it.
    4. Just once so far.
  7. State all of the following:
    1. What SYSPRO login were you using?
    2. What company were you using?
    3. What role were you using?
    4. What SYSPRO version and port?
    5. What program version (press Shift + F7 while in the program)?
  1. Tell us about all error messages you saw before the problem appeared.
  2. Tell us about anything else that may have influenced the issue.
  3. Tell us what you have tried or done about the problem.

If you provide the above information, you’ll save lots of time!
The more detail, the better.

Remember the Two Golden Rules of Problem Reports:
  1. Provide a screen shot.
  2. Provide all the details.