A ticket is a promise with a number on it

A ticket is one written record of one problem: who has it, what they saw, on which machine, since when, and what has been done about it so far. The number is how everyone, including the person who reported it, can find it again.

Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

What it is for

At 8:55 the CEO's laptop will not sign in and she is standing at your desk. You fix it in four minutes and she walks off happy. At 2 pm a second laptop does the same thing, and at 4 pm a third, and nobody can prove the first one ever happened because it was never written down. Three tickets would have been a pattern. Zero tickets is three separate mornings.

How to think about it

Write the ticket before you touch the machine, even for a walk-up. Five things, every time: who and how to reach them, what they saw in their own words, which device, when it started, and what they have already tried. Then the number goes to the user, because a ticket the user cannot find is a ticket that will be reported again.

Worked example

User: M. Okafor, ext 4412, desk 3B

Who, and how to reach them without walking the building.

Reported: 'the screen goes black after I type my password'

In their words, in quotes. Not your diagnosis; theirs. You will be glad of the exact wording later.

Device: laptop asset LT-0417, since this morning

Which machine, and since when. 'Since this morning' is the first clue about what changed.

Tried: restarted twice, same result

What has been done already, so you do not do it a third time.

Ticket 20518 given to the user

The number is theirs now. Everything that happens next is written under it.

Your turn

The ticket is written. Write the one thing the user leaves the desk with, so they can find it again.

Give the user the ticket

The trap

Writing your guess where the symptom goes. 'Reported: driver problem' is not what the user saw; it is what you think, and if you are wrong the next person starts from your mistake instead of from the fact.

Practise what a ticket is on HoneA question on it now, a coding challenge where there is one, and it is remembered for review. Free, no email needed.