Troubleshooting, at its essence, is the process of responding to a problem report (sometimes in the form of a trouble ticket), diagnosing the underlying cause of the problem, and resolving the issue.

Although you usually think of the troubleshooting process as beginning when a user reports an issue, you need to understand that through effective network monitoring, you may detect a situation that could become a troubleshooting issue and resolve that situation before it impacts users.

After an issue is reported, the first step toward resolution is clearly defining the problem. When you have a clearly defined troubleshooting target, you can begin gathering further information related to it. From this information, you should be able to describe the issue better.

Then based on your diagnosis, you can hypothesize what is most likely causing the issue. Then evaluating these likely causes leads to identifying the suspected underlying root cause of the problem.

After you identify a suspected underlying cause, you next define approaches to resolving the issue and select what you consider to be the best approach. Sometimes the best method to resolving a problem cannot be implemented immediately.

For example, a piece of equipment might need replacing, or a business’s workflow might be disrupted by implementing such an approach during working hours. In such situations, a troubleshooter might use a temporary fix until a permanent fix can be implemented.