Actually I taught in a three year tech program for a while and although trouble shooting was not in the curriculum, and as far as I know it isn't anywhere, several of us adjunct faculty did teach it and got reprimanded for it as part of our classes. So much for the education industry understanding the needs of business. I taught basic PC hardware and NT networking at the time. We would actually have the students assemble a PC and then in a subsequent class bring up a network. I got pretty good at nailing then with bugs while they were on breaks. Heck, they had to go out to smoke. They would come back with a network or PC that was no longer working. I would then have them explain what they saw, what they thought was wrong, justify it BEFORE they could take any corrective action. I also used some classroom scenarios - they could ask me anything that they could physically learn if they could tell me how they would check that. I let them run bad rabbit trails if it looked like it would cement the right way. It taught some step by step processes. BTW, the best trouble shooting course I have ever taken was the Kepner Trego Problem Analysis/Decision Analysis class. Caterpillar used it but I have not seen it run anywhere in years. It is hard-nosed and may not be glitzy enough for today. If you have a junior tech who isn't getting there, I suggest - get their book and see if it helps. NO, I do not sell them or have stock in the company and NO, it will not do any good unless he reads it. I still use methodologies I learned in the class. Ralph Brandt Communications Engineer HP Enterprise Services Telephone +1 717.506.0802 FAX +1 717.506.4358 Email Ralph.Brandt@pateam.com 5095 Ritter Rd Mechanicsburg PA 17055 -----Original Message----- From: Leo Bicknell [mailto:bicknell@ufp.org] Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 9:29 AM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: Common operational misconceptions In a message written on Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 08:50:11PM -1000, Paul Graydon wrote:
At the same time, it's shocking how many network people I come across with no real grasp of even what OSI means by each layer, even if it's only in theory. Just having a grasp of that makes all the world of difference when it comes to troubleshooting. Start at layer 1 and work upwards (unless you're able to make appropriate intuitive leaps.) Is it physically connected? Are the link lights flashing? Can traffic route to it, etc. etc.
I wouldn't call it a "misconception", but I want to echo Paul's comment. I would venture over 90% of the engineers I work with have no idea how to troubleshoot properly. Thinking back to my own education, I don't recall anyone in highschool or college attempting to teach troubleshooting skills. Most classes teach you how to build things, not deal with them when they are broken. The basic skills are probably obvious to someone who might design course material if they sat down and thought about how to teach troubleshooting. However, there is one area that may not be obvious. There's also a group management problem. Many times troubleshooting is done with multiple folks on the phone (say, customer, ISP and vendor). Not only do you have to know how to troubleshoot, but how to get everyone on the same page so every possible cause isn't tested 3 times. I think all college level courses should include a "break/fix" exercise/module after learning how to build something, and much of that should be done in a group enviornment. -- Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440 PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/