Using the HET Problem Reporting Web Pages

                                                         James R. Fowler
                                                         Version 1.0
                                                         12 Nov 2003

   1. Go to http://het.as.utexas.edu/HET/PRMS/prms.htm

   2. Select desired action
     2.1. Submit New Problem Report
       2.1.1 Select "Submit New Problem Report"
       2.1.2 Enter your full email address.  Correspondence related
             to the Problem Report will be sent to this address.
       2.1.3 Select appropriate Category.  You may ignore the Release
             Field.
       2.1.4 Decide on the Priority/Severity/Class for the problem.
             These provide information to the maintainer about how
             important this problem is to you.
       2.1.5 Provide a one line descriptive synopsis of the problem
             A good synopsis will let you locate similar problem
             reports later on.
       2.1.6 Provide as much relevant information as possible in
             the Description section.  The more information you can
             supply about the state of the system and your actions
             at the time of the problem, the quicker the problem can
             be resolved.
       2.1.7 Send the report by clicking on the Send button
       2.1.8 The Problem Report will be sent to the PR manager (currently
             this person is Jim Fowler).  The problem will be assesed
             and assigned to one of the staff for resolution.

     2.2 Edit or View an existing Problem Report
       2.2.1 Enter the Problem Report Number in the text box.
       2.2.2 Click View or Edit button as desired.
       2.2.3 Editing a problem report
         2.2.3.1 Select your name under the Editor list
         2.2.3.2 You may change the synopsis, priority or severity
         2.2.3.3 Change the state if relevant.  You must supply a
                 reason the state change or the Report will not be
                 accepted by the system.

                 Open - no action has occurred on this report
             Analyzed - the responsible person has reviewed the report
                        and determined what the problem is 
            Suspended - no action is occuring on this problem, either due
                        to a lack of resources or incomplete information.
             Feedback - a solution has been found and implemented.  The
                        responsible party is waiting to see if the fix works.
               Closed - the problem is resolved to the mutual satisfaction
                        of all parties.

         2.2.3.4 Change the Category if necessary.
         2.2.3.5 Change the Responsible person if necessary.  You must
                 provide a reason why the Responsible persion changed
                 or the PR will not be accepted by the system.
         2.2.3.6 Click the Submit Changes button to send your changes to
                 the system.

     2.3 Search the Report Database
       2.3.1 Click "Search Problem Report Database"
       2.3.2 Choose if you want the reports sorted by Priority or Problem
             Report number.
       2.3.3 Select the relevant category.
       2.3.4 Select the relevant state.  You may select multiple states.
       2.3.5 Select a responsible party to search on.
       2.3.6 Select a submitter to search on.
       2.3.7 Select date boundaries.  You may leave the fields blank to
             search from the beginning to the end of the database.
       2.3.8 You may search for a particular text string with in a report.
             This is useful for finding reports when the summaries are not
             well written or the reports were not originally related to
             a current problem.
       2.3.9 Click the "Perform Search" button in the upper left corner.
      2.3.10 The list of reports that is returned will allow you to view
             any of the reports listed.

     2.4 Summarize existing Problem Reports
       2.4.1 Select one of the pre-existing summary formats.  You may
             summarize active reports, those that have states open or
             analyzed, or you may summarize all reports.

     2.5 Obtain help or information about the Problem Report Management
            System.
          2.5.1 The quick guide is this list.
          2.5.2 Brief descriptions of the Categories used at HET.
          2.5.3 More detailed descriptions of the fields in a problem report, 
                the states a problem report may be in, or the Gnats system
                in general.
          2.5.4 A detailed description of how the Problem Report Management
                System is used at HET is available in "PRMS Overview"
          2.5.5 The design goals and requirements used when the Gnats
                system was selected are detailed in "PRMS Design Requirements".
          2.5.6 If you experience a problem with the Problem Report Mangement
                system, send a Problem Report with the category Gnats or
                send email to gnats-admin@het.as.utexas.edu.

   3. Information flow through the Problem Report Management System.
     3.1 Submitter creates new problem report (section 2.1).
     3.2 Manager receives email notification of new problem report.
     3.3 Manager reviews new problem report.  The report is reviewed for
         proper category, class, priority, severity and information.
     3.4 Manager determines how will be the responsible party.
     3.5 Responsible person is notified by email that the problem report
         has been assigned.
     3.6 Responsible person reviews problem report and determines course
         of action.  Any activity on the problem should be recorded in
         the description as a record of the trouble shooting activity.
     3.7 Once the problem has been identified, the Responsible person
         should change the state of the problem report from Open to Analyzed.
     3.8 If the problem can not be fixed right away, or if we do not have
         the resources then the state of the problem report should be
         set to Suspended.
     3.9 When the problem has been fixed, the Responsible person should
         update the Description with the repair, change the State to
         Feedback, and notify the Submitter that a fix has been put in place.
    3.10 When the Submitter reports that the fix indeed solves the problem
         that was reported, the Responsible person should change the State
         to Closed.
    3.11 The Manager checks reports on a regular basis to insure that reports
         are being dealt with in a timely fashion. Also to find out if
         any systems are experiencing a change in problem.
    3.12 System maintainers can review reports for various subsystems in order
         to find out what sort of problems have been reported.