Support turnaround time
It's been a long time since i've dealt with a bug and I'm wondering what people are experiencing for turn around time to get a resolution when: 1) There is a known fix. 2) No known fix but a workaround is found. 3) No work around and a patch is provided. It's just a general question, I don't have an issue to deal with. With informix i've usually found I get an answer from this group faster than support - which is not a reflection on the quality of support. There happen to be some very good and responsive people who follow this group. Notice of Confidentiality: **This E-mail and any of its attachments may contain Lincoln National Corporation proprietary information, which is privileged, confidential, or subject to copyright belonging to the Lincoln National Corporation family of companies. This E-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient of this E-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken in relation to the contents of and attachments to this E-mail is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this E-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copy of this E-mail and any printout. Thank You.**
Denham, Mark wrote: > It's been a long time since i've dealt with a bug and I'm wondering what people are experiencing for turn around time to get a resolution when: > > 1) There is a known fix. > 2) No known fix but a workaround is found. > 3) No work around and a patch is provided. > > It's just a general question, I don't have an issue to deal with. With informix i've usually found I get an answer from this group faster than support - which is not a reflection on the quality of support. There happen to be some very good and responsive people who follow this group. > > > > > Notice of Confidentiality: **This E-mail and any of its attachments may contain > Lincoln National Corporation proprietary information, which is privileged, confidential, > or subject to copyright belonging to the Lincoln National Corporation family of > companies. This E-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to > which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient of this E-mail, you are > hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken in > relation to the contents of and attachments to this E-mail is strictly prohibited > and may be unlawful. If you have received this E-mail in error, please notify the > sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copy of this E-mail > and any printout. Thank You.** > It really depends on the situation and how you deal with support. I won't give any time frames, because I don't want anyone to assume that as a rule of any kind, but I will make some comments... - If it is a known issue and you are using one of the most common platforms you probably can get a fix at fixcentral. - If it's a new bug, it really can depend on a few factors: . Can you provide a test case that works on the labs? . What kind of bug it is... It's serious, "cosmetic", it can be worked around, is it in an isolated component or on a critical system function (meaning that R&D must have a lot of work and impact measurement)? In any case, if you have a workaround you should use it. Before I'm hit by someone, let me be very clear about what a workaround is: A temporary solution to be used until a definite solution is provided. I had my history of "fights" with tech support about "workarounds"... Many times a "workaround" in the tech support "jargon" is not a real workaround for us (people who deal with the real systems...) One thing we should always try to do is to provide a test case demonstrating the problem... We can waste time discussing if this should be done by the tech support or by the customer, but the fact is that most of the time, the customer has more conditions to do it... But many times they don't have the time/imagination to create it... I'm in a privilege position because I'm usually sitting at the customer site, but with an "IBM attitude"... This meaning I have the conditions, and I push my imagination... :) The result when you can create a test case is very good most of the times. And the response is quick. Last situation I had was with another IBM product, and the patch (new bug) was produced in about a week... But I had a test case... Besides this, I recommend a determined attitude... I posted a lot of times before about tech support attitude (not specific to IBM and specially not specific to Informix) stating I find it wrong, but when I browse through the PMRs database many times I find a lot of situations where customers accept to close the cases too easily (and I see a lot of these on the customer end with other software and software companies). If you have a problem, you should have a solution and/or explanation... It's good for you and it's good for the software supplier (because it's good for other customers and for their technical staff). Regards.
Denham, Mark wrote: > It's been a long time since i've dealt with a bug and I'm wondering what people are experiencing for turn around time to get a resolution when: > > 1) There is a known fix. > 2) No known fix but a workaround is found. > 3) No work around and a patch is provided. > > It's just a general question, I don't have an issue to deal with. With informix i've usually found I get an answer from this group faster than support - which is not a reflection on the quality of support. There happen to be some very good and responsive people who follow this group. > > > > > Notice of Confidentiality: **This E-mail and any of its attachments may contain > Lincoln National Corporation proprietary information, which is privileged, confidential, > or subject to copyright belonging to the Lincoln National Corporation family of > companies. This E-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to > which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient of this E-mail, you are > hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken in > relation to the contents of and attachments to this E-mail is strictly prohibited > and may be unlawful. If you have received this E-mail in error, please notify the > sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copy of this E-mail > and any printout. Thank You.** > It really depends on the situation and how you deal with support. I won't give any time frames, because I don't want anyone to assume that as a rule of any kind, but I will make some comments... - If it is a known issue and you are using one of the most common platforms you probably can get a fix at fixcentral. - If it's a new bug, it really can depend on a few factors: . Can you provide a test case that works on the labs? . What kind of bug it is... It's serious, "cosmetic", it can be worked around, is it in an isolated component or on a critical system function (meaning that R&D must have a lot of work and impact measurement)? In any case, if you have a workaround you should use it. Before I'm hit by someone, let me be very clear about what a workaround is: A temporary solution to be used until a definite solution is provided. I had my history of "fights" with tech support about "workarounds"... Many times a "workaround" in the tech support "jargon" is not a real workaround for us (people who deal with the real systems...) One thing we should always try to do is to provide a test case demonstrating the problem... We can waste time discussing if this should be done by the tech support or by the customer, but the fact is that most of the time, the customer has more conditions to do it... But many times they don't have the time/imagination to create it... I'm in a privilege position because I'm usually sitting at the customer site, but with an "IBM attitude"... This meaning I have the conditions, and I push my imagination... :) The result when you can create a test case is very good most of the times. And the response is quick. Last situation I had was with another IBM product, and the patch (new bug) was produced in about a week... But I had a test case... Besides this, I recommend a determined attitude... I posted a lot of times before about tech support attitude (not specific to IBM and specially not specific to Informix) stating I find it wrong, but when I browse through the PMRs database many times I find a lot of situations where customers accept to close the cases too easily (and I see a lot of these on the customer end with other software and software companies). If you have a problem, you should have a solution and/or explanation... It's good for you and it's good for the software supplier (because it's good for other customers and for their technical staff). Regards.
> 1) There is a known fix. You can find defects with known fixes in the online knowledgebase www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/support If you have an IBM support and subscrition agreement you can downlaod the the fix from Fix Central, otherwise you'll need to talk with your support provider, make sure they have certified their app etc etc.and they can provide the fix for you under their support agreement with IBM. Hopefully they have one! The intention is no more requesting the patch and waiting for it to be uploaded on ftp.informix.com or boulder.ibm.com or wherever. > 2) No known fix but a workaround is found. You may get a fix quite quickly with the workaround being temporary relief You may never get a fix. It would depend on the complexity of the fix v the complexity of the workaround. > 3) No work around and a patch is provided. As you already have a situation where the fix is known, I would assume a fix is not known so IBM needs to identify the root cuase and code the fix? This will depend on a number of factors, the complexity of the problem, the ease with which it replicates, the resources available to work on the problem at the time and the business impact. Once the fix is coded and the patch provided it will appear in fix central so any client that encounters tyhe problem can immediately get the patch.