Frequently Asked Questions

RT Ticket Creation Guide:

A. Passwords

1. Subject includes requester name, username, ID issue, and problem site. (Ex. John Doe (jdoe) ID: 123456 is receiving an error message when logging in to Gmail.)

2. Description includes a full detailed report of the requester's issue and the steps you have taken to repair it. Be sure to restate the requestor's name, ID, DOB, and include an alternate form of contact (email or phone number).

3. Add an alternate email to the requestor bar so the patron is able to view the ticket in their email.

B. Computing

1. Subject includes requester's name, device type, and issue. (Ex. John Doe's wireless adapters on Lenovo ThinkPad are not turning on.)

2. Description includes a full detailed report of the requester's issue and the steps you have already taken to repair it. Be sure to include the requester's phone number in case they cannot access email because we have their computer.

3. Add staff members at CCs that are appropriate to attend to the specific issue.

PLEASE NOTE:

• LIS is able to help students with the following issues: network access, password changes, and printing with their Carthage ID. As an employee at the ITA Desk, you may try to help students with other problems, but we will not take in personal computers for issues other than those listed above.
• LIS is able to help faculty/staff with the following issues: network access, password changes, and printing with their Carthage ID. We will also take in computing equipment that was issued to the faculty/staff member by LIS. (The equipment must be Carthage-owned equipment.) We are not able to work on personal computers for issues other than those listed above.
• A "Computer Repair Form" must be completed by the ITA employee when they work on patron's computers.

C. Media Services

1. Subject includes requester's name, room number, and device issue. (Ex. professor X has a projector with a burnt-out light bulb in LH 227.)

2. Description includes a full detailed report of the requester's issue and the steps you have taken to repair it.

3. Contact Media Services by phone to report the problem directly (x8170).

General Expectations for Handling Request Tracker Tickets as an Administrator:

• Every ticket will be owned by a technician within one business day of its creation. Technicians can either "take" tickets, tickets can be assigned by a supervisor, by Sarah, or by the Information Desk. I prefer to not have to assign a person to work on a problem, so if that person is you, please "take" the ticket.

• Every ticket that represents a user request or problem will need a response to the user (at least acknowledging the submission of the issue) within one business day of its creation.

• Every ticket that represents a user request or problem will have a statement of progress (or plan of attack) included in it and communicated to the user within 3 business days.

• Once a ticket is believed to be resolved (because corrective steps have been taken by a technician), this will be communicated to the user and the ticket will be marked "resolved." The user should be invited to respond to re-open the ticket if a problem still exists.

• If the ticket requires further action from the user or a third party (e.g. consultant or repair provider - Jenzabar, TechHelp, Lenovo, Apple, etc.) that will be noted in the ticket, and the ticket will be stalled until a response is received or the work is completed.

• Stalled tickets should be reviewed after 7 days of being stalled so that they don't languish in the queue.

• No ticket should remain open for more than one month unless a long-term plan is included in the ticket explaining the timing of the plan. This might say "Sarah will work on this in spring 2015" or "This is pending a wiring project in summer 2015.”

Each LIS staff member is expected to look at RT every day to see what tickets they can help with. Technicians that "own" tickets should update that ticket whenever they work on the issue, including pasting email correspondence into the ticket.

Using Canned Responses in RT

When you are in a ticket and choose to either "Comment" or "Reply" to a ticket/requestor, there is a field in the "Message" box to "Select an Article to include."

Different canned responses are available based on the queue the ticket is assigned to.

In the Passwords queue the choices are:

1. "I have reset your Novell password."

This article can be chosen when you have reset a user's password using the password changer. Please make sure to change the text of this message to include the new password. There is a blank space in the text for that purpose.

2. "Response to request to change Novell password."

This article can be chosen when a user cannot change his/her own password or their password has expired. It also explains that alumni will still have access to their Carthage email accounts without a password change.

3. "No response from requester: closing ticket."

This article can be chosen when you have responded to the ticket but have not received any further correspondence from the requestor. After one week of non-response, please send this article and close the ticket.

NOTE:

Once a canned response is chosen, edits to the text can be made in the message window. Please personalize the response as you see fit (e.g. use your name to sign off on the message, change the text if the problem cannnot be fully answered with the canned response.