Best Practices For Troubleshooting:

Establish an official Channel: There are numerous advantages to establishing one official channel for logging problems. A dedicated channel:?

• Promotes transparency and trust.
• Prompts for key details users forget to include.
• Reveals trends that can justify resources to improve processes.
• Acts as the source of truth for all stakeholders.
• Expedites approvals (if access/resources are needed).
• Discourages rogue/duplicate requests via email or water cooler conversations. (Yes, Karen, I know Tomas is having trouble logging into his account.)

Gather Info: Here are some questions to get you started.

• What was the expected result?
• What was the actual result?
• What action were you taking when the problem revealed itself?
• What steps need to be followed to replicate the issue?
• What Internet browser were you using?
• What device were you using?
• Where were you logging in from when the problem happened (office, home, on-the-road)?
• Approximately what time did the problem reveal itself?
• Was there an error message? If so, what did it say?

This is a small sample of the questions you can ask, and as time goes on you’ll develop your own questions that work specifically for your situation. When following up with the user, take notes. Having reference material is extremely helpful when you move to the replicating-the-problem part of the troubleshooting process.

REPLICATE THE PROBLEM AND RESEARCH SOLUTIONS:

Replicate The Issue:Now that you’ve gotten the information you need to understand your user’s problem, it’s time for you to dig a little deeper. Start by replicating the issue to the best of your abilities. If applicable, log in as the user to see the problem from the user’s perspective. Experiencing the problem for yourself can reveal additional clues and answer some important questions.?

• Was the problem caused by user error?
• Is this an isolated problem? Are other users affected?
• Will this problem happen again?

Research Resources: Salesforce Help—Search knowledge articles, best practices, and more. This resource allows you to search articles as well as community posts. A great first stop when troubleshooting a Salesforce problem.

• Salesforce Trust—The Salesforce community’s home for real-time information on system performance and security. The problem you’re researching could have been caused by a scheduled downtime/update or known outage, so it’s always worth checking.
• Trailblazer Community Groups—Not necessarily an immediate resource for your troubleshooting problems, but these user groups are a wealth of information and knowledge. Community Group members network, learn together, exchange ideas, and troubleshoot. When seeking advice, provide as much information as possible without sharing sensitive data.
• Event log file—Tracks events in your org such as logins, Apex executions, API calls, and more. An event log file is generated when an event occurs in your organization and is available to view and download after 24 hours. The event types you can access and how long the files remain available depends on your edition of Salesforce. Learn more about the event log file by earning the Event Monitoring badge.
• Trailhead.com—Trailhead is the fun way to learn… wait... you’re already here. You already know about the merits of this resource.

Formulate Possible Solutions:Based on your research, compile a list of possible solutions. Compiling a list like this helps you focus your efforts where they’re actually needed. This list helps you formulate a hypothesis.

DEVELOP A HYPOTHESIS AND TEST IT:

Take an Educated guess and Test it: Your researching and replicating has pointed you in the direction of possible solutions to your user’s problem (hopefully). Next, based on your gathered knowledge and experience, pick the most likely solution on the list and test it. You may not be right on your first try. But incorrect solutions contain useful information and assist you in your subsequent educated guessing.?

Once again, it’s highly recommended you avoid testing in your production org. Sandbox orgs were built for this, testing and developing in an isolated environment. Actions taken in a sandbox org do not affect your production org. And more than one sandbox org can be created so various rounds of tests can be performed.

Document the testing Steps: There are three main benefits of documenting each step of every test. This testing document:

• Serves as reference if you forget exactly how you fixed the problem.
• Avoids duplication of work as you go through multiple rounds of testing.
• Acts as documentation, if a solution does work.

Always document your testing actions.?

TESTING...TESTING...

All this testing might require you to start clean with a new sandbox, following your documented steps of the fix from start to finish. You don’t want to cause frustration for yourself and others by deeming something fixed that isn’t actually fixed. Did the solution pass all of your testing? If yes, now it is time to celebrate.

IMPLEMENT AND SHARE THE SOLUTION:

Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail: This implementation plan should include:

• Timeframe of implementation (when, how long, and so on)
• Actions taken
• Changes user will expect to experience
• Any downtime expected
• Users affected

Communicate the Plan

Your solution plan needs to be communicated to your stakeholders. If only there was a convenient way to share this plan... oh wait, there is! Use your newly minted official channel to share your plan. Communication promotes transparency and trust. It can even be an avenue to get leadership approval, if needed. If your plan impacts multiple users, this broadcast allows for feedback to adjust your approach.?

Execute the Plan

You shared your plan—now it’s time to execute it. Follow the details of your plan and implement the solution in your production org. Once done, test to make sure your implementation was done correctly and everything works as it should. Post to your official channel that the solution has been implemented and users should be able to proceed without issue.

Help Your Future Self

You’ve done a lot of work to get to this point. No need to go through the troubleshooting process again for the same problem. Document, document, document. Help yourself or anyone else who may run into a similar challenge by documenting your findings, actions, and outcomes.?

Save yourself time, frustration, and future headaches by having your test findings and outcomes accessible. Who knows, one of your documented incorrect solution attempts from earlier can hold the elusive solution to your next problem. Thank goodness you documented everything! Additionally, you’re now a resource for someone else in the Salesforce community who might experience the same problem. Your future self and others thank you.

That’s a Wrap

You’ve fixed your problem by successfully navigating the troubleshooting process. Pat yourself on the back for all the great troubleshooting work you’ve done. You established an official channel to communicate customer problems. You gathered information about a problem, replicated it, referred to resources, and identified possible solutions. Then you formed a hypothesis, tested, and came up with the solution. And, finally, you formulated an implementation plan, shared it in your channel, implemented it, and made sure everything was documented.

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