Get Troubleshooting Feedback
Introduction | Preparation | Iteration 1 | Iteration N
Introduction
Getting feedback on the Troubleshooting Results of Step 4: Scheduled Troubleshooting is an important step to ensure the correct IECs are prioritized for Step 5: Contextualize Results, followed by Step 6: Visualize Results and Step 7: Incident Generation.
With an automated cadence to troubleshooting ServiceNow Discovery with Discovery Admin, this step is a part of one of several (optional) iterations to help contextualize the results of Discovery Admin to align with use cases specific to the data in your CMDB.
The objective of Step 5: Contextualize Results is to capture and document tribal knowledge (to Eliminate Noise and Increase Granularity) and configure it in Discovery Admin so that all this context is in one place and is automatically applied every single time the analysis takes place!
Preparation
In preparation for each iteration, the questions to be asked are:
Which IECs do you want to focus on next (based on the previous effort to Prioritize IECs)?
What additional information from the CMDB (in addition to what is already present in the Log Analysis Table) can provide additional context to help Eliminate Noise or Add Granularity?
How will Eliminating Noise from the existing Results and Adding Granularity to the existing Results further help prioritize actionable issues?
Document the Answers to the questions above (for each iteration), to provide inputs for Step 6: Visualize Results and Step 7: Incident Generation.
Remember, the results of each iteration do not have to be perfect or exhaustive. The CMDB is constantly changing and there will always be exceptions.
The approach here is to get to Step 6 (and Step 7) as quickly as possible.
Every iteration will further contextualize the results of Discovery Admin.
Iteration 1
For the first iteration, let's start with you and what you already know. These inputs would come as a part of your existing experience or based on how you Understand Troubleshooting Results and your interpretation of them.
Ask yourself the questions captured in the Preparation section (on this page). Working with ServiceNow Discovery, you will be surprised by how much context you already have.
'You' includes you and the team closest to ServiceNow Discovery, the CMDB, and the immediate relationships you already have within your Organizaiton.
Capture these responses as inputs for Step 6: Visualize Results and Step 7: Incident Generation
Iteration N
Identify teams to work with and iteratively expand to other teams based on the success of the current teams you have engaged with.
At the beginning of each iteration, reference the previous effort to Prioritize IECs. This will give IECs to focus on for each iteration.
Each iteration will result in examples and use cases which can be shared with the next set of team(s) you plan to engage with.
Ask the questions in the Preparation section (on this page) to the teams you are working with. Capture these responses as inputs for Step 6: Visualize Results and Step 7: Incident Generation
The frequency of these iterations is driven by organizational priorities and it gets easier with every iteration once you have the foundation in place.
NOTE:
The teams you work with do not need to know the internal workings of Discovery Admin.
However, they should peruse Step 1: Discovery Admin Overview and Step 2: Incident Error Code, so they understand how to interpret the results generated by Discovery Admin.
Independently, they are already familiar with Dashboads and Generated Incidents (which will be the primary form of ongoing engagement).