Many of Yimon's support tickets related to her desktop and laptop lead to successfully addressing symptoms, and not addressing underlying structural issues implied to exist. Thus, this page tries to collect in one place tickets and other information to help better respond to future requests for support. This situation, which includes software not being kept up to date for whatever reason, is expected to only get worse, alas.
Summary
Oliver's understanding, following a conversation with Yimon on 5/7/2018: Yimon's IT support strategy for her laptop and desktop is to try to work things out for herself. If she can't solve the problem, she continues working on it until it creates a crisis, usually involving a deadline. That is when she contacts us. I advised her that we may not always be "lucky" in us managing to solve her problems in this way each time and she said that's OK. However, I know that at those times tensions can run especially high. Also, solving problems in this way usually only addresses symptoms and does not alleviate the underlying issues such as keeping software up-to-date. Thus problems can grow or become more frequent as an outcome of a wish for a steady-state within an environment which is anything but steady-state.
Oliver's primary concern regarding Yimon's desktop and laptop is that without permission to properly update Yimon's primary laptop or desktop computers with any regularity, it becomes increasingly difficult to continue their proper support. And any attempt now (as of 5/7/2018) to get things standardized will require some level of risk of failure such that we would need Yimon to explicitly assume that risk before we'd pursue that course of action.
Background information
Tickets and events to be listed in reverse-chronological order (most recent ones first):
| Ticket | Date opened | Related info |
|---|---|---|
INC000002217531 Aye - Laptop for updates (and MS Word, EndNote upgrades?) | 4/12/2018 | 5/7/2018, Oliver notes in the ticket: Yimon again did not follow up with us as she stated were her intentions. It's getting increasingly risky to update anything on her systems as she only wishes to (1) engage when there is a problem (and that is almost always in deadline-crisis mode), and (2) only willing to invest to fix symptoms and not in getting the system into a known, good state, even at a later time. The Issue now is that getting to (2) now, with the mounting delayed maintenance and versioning issues, would require a re-install in my opinion. AND it would still be risky because of versioning issues (driven by saving money on licensing?). Uncertainty layered on uncertainty: Hard drive space limits, active use of syncing tools (including non-Cornell Dropbox), inter-related software not all of which is current (does the use of older versions of some software represent a consequence of a licensing-cost avoidance strategy?). |
INC000002186566 Aye - Disk full message | 3/3/2018 | As of 5/5/7/2018 no related follow-up from Yimon after this "wait" message after I offered to collect information (and maybe solve) her reported issues: Hi Oliver, thanks for the follow up- no worry I am happy to wait till Michael returns next week or later on Best wishes yimon > On Mar 7, 2018, at 1:22 PM, ChemIT <chemit@cornell.edu> wrote: > > Yimon, > > I understand you are not in right now. Michael returns on Monday, from vacation. Sorry for my delay in responding. > > I can work on the "Disk full" message. Is this for your iMac or laptop? If you are around to sign in, that would be best- when might you be around again? > > Thank you, -Oliver. |
INC000002151814 Aye - Yimon laptop issues 1/20/18 | 1/20/2018 | As of 5/7/2018, latest ticket entry is: 1/24/2018, Yimon writes: Hi Michael, thanks - I do think my main issues are space-related. I will let you know when I am next in lab |
Is it worth going back and pulling out the history of tickets in which Yimon reports a problem following this patter, or just collect them from this point forward? These problem reports are usually characterized by a crisis-before-a-deadline, followed often by our heroic, quick solutions. With the increased caveat that she got lucky that time, but don't expect such luck next time. Usually each crisis also involves a discussion about what is actually needed to prevent a future problem, but no follow-through permitted by Yimon. The 4/12/2018 ticket created above is representative of this pattern we're observing. |