Problem reporting for a remote terminal operator
The main flow of the end-user guide should present the normal operations sequence, but the operator needs to be prepared for unexpected or error responses.
When you examine the sequence of instructions for a
remote terminal operator, you need to ask a series of what-if
questions.
The following are examples of these what-if
questions:
- What if the terminal is not operational, behaves erratically, or loses contact with the system?
- What if the application program returns warning messages about the status of a database or of processing results?
- What if IMS system messages are received?
- What if master terminal or other operator actions interrupt processing?
- What if the z/OS® or IMS system goes down?
You need to assess the importance of such unusual events and include appropriate procedures for them. The end-user guide could describe recovery actions inline with normal operations or include the information in symptom-based appendixes.
If your installation has a problem-reporting center, having a user-liaison group enables you to concentrate recovery skills rather than educating all end users. Many installations report terminal problems to network control personnel, and they have appropriate details about IMS and the application programs it runs. It is often a good idea to standardize problem reporting. You can prepare the answers to a series of questions, or elicit a problem's symptoms using a structured script.
Occasionally, the master terminal operator can be a point of contact. You should ensure such contact is only be on a formal, prearranged basis, because the master terminal operator has a primary duty of system control and monitoring. An example of acceptable contact is to request the scheduling of a BMP.
A good controlling technique is to require an error incident report. You can make preformatted forms, with examples of the information required, available to the end user. The data on the forms should indicate what action was taken or is pending. Administration personnel can then review these events on a regular basis. In this way, you can detect common problems or differences in operational procedures.