Guidelines to prevent unnecessary Service Requests

Objective:

The intent of the document is to present certain guidelines which when followed religiouslyconsistently would drasticallyconsiderably reduce the number of SRs raised by the GPVs and Cummins.

This document contains checklists, processes and recommendations for reducing the number of SRs.

Background: GPVs (Infosys, TCS, KPIT Cummins and HCL) and the Cummins Internal project team are involved in Cummins production support and project Implementation. During the Production support and the Roll out Implementations phase the likely issues that were will be encountered could be aptly put under the follow heads

1) Application Bug2) Application functionality not performing as expected3) Data corruption4) Performance issue5) Question / clarification required.

18%

31%

4%2%2%

4%

11%

24%

2%

Total

Application bugApplication functionality not per-forming as expectedData CorrectionData Correction (Base Table)Extension , Oracle doesn’t supportOracle is yet to DeclarePerformance IssueQuestion SR(blank)

Above Chart is result of total 2000 SRs analyzed

The number of SRs raised for the above mentioned issues arenumbers of SRs being raised for the above mentioned issues are significantly high. Above Chart is result of total 2000SRs analyzed.

Statistics:

Past 6 months extract of the SRs raised for Cummins by various GPVs is collected and analyzed and shown below. More than 2000 Service requests have been were raised of which 4% were with Severity one and 75% were of with severity Four.

1% 4%20%

75%

Severity of SRs

Severity Four Severity One Severity Three Severity Two

1/20th of SRs were raised in Oracle inventory (145), followed by Oracle server Enterprise edition(138), followed with Then modules like Oracle payables, Oracle payments, receivables and procurement have most majority of the SRs count.

Guidelines to be followed before raising any SR.

Two pronged approach method s to be followed

1. Proposed Guidance note for support Engineers/consultants for analyzing an issue.

As per analysis of the SRs mention earlier the issues can beare broadly classified into following categories

1) Application Bug2) Application functionality not performing as expected3) Data corruption4) Performance issue5) Question / clarification required.

Below are the proposed guidelines for each of the above category of the issue.

Sl No Category of the Issue Guidelines

1 Application Bug Check if the issue is occurring oin the clone of the Production. Try to replicate the same issue in the clone to find the cause of the issue.

Check for the issue in Internal Knowledge Bank or in the Known Error Database if any. Apply the solution.

Check if this Standard Process or Customization, and iIf it is customization verify the solution design document for details.

Run Diagnostic Scripts to verify setups. Correct Setups if any.

Check for the issue in on the Metalink, if a patch exists then apply the patch in the clone instance after replicating the issue and then move the same in the production (Raise SR with reference Note id for confirmation).

2 Application functionality not performing as expected

Check if the necessary steps required to reach the desired result is followed exactly.

Check for the issue in Internal Knowledge Bank or in the Known Error Database if any. Apply the solution.

Check if this Standard Process or Customization, and iIf it is customization verify the solution design document for details.

Run Diagnostic Scripts to verify setups/transaction. Correct necessary transaction data if any.

Enable Trace for necessary analysis.

Check for the issue in the Metalink, if a patch exists then apply the patch in the clone instance after replicating the issue and then move the same in the production (Raise SR with reference Note id for confirmation from Oracle/Metalink).

3 Data Corruption Check if this Standard Process or Customization, and Iif it is customization verify the solution design document for details.

Run Diagnostic Scripts to verify transaction. Correct necessary transaction data if any.

Check for the issue in the known issue list , if an earlier suggested patch exist or a data fix from oracle exist , try to use the same by tweaking the code as need be and apply it to the clone instance and see if the desired result is met (Follow the Cummins Change Request Process for Data Fix/Change).

4 Performance Issue Check if the performance issue is resulting because of a concurrent program that is incompatible or if the concurrent manager stack is already overflowing.

Identify whether it is a Standard Process or due to customized process. If it is customization verify the solution design document for details.

Enable trace for necessary analysis.

Check if some concurrent program exists and it is to be run periodically to improve the performance of certain processes. Ex. Build attribute mapping rule or QP: Denormalize qualifier to improve the performance of pricing Engine.

Pre & Post Patch application ensure the Invalid objects are compiled

Ensure there is un-interrupted network supply, not having may result in Tables being locked and sometimes may lead to data corruption

5 Questions/clarification required Check internally within team or knowledge based maintained within the organization if unsure of certain functionality.

Check if this Standard Process or Customization.

Check the metalinkMetalink extensively for question or the

clarification required.

Check with the forums dedicated for the functionality on the Internet.

Check with the Subject matter experts.

Go through the project documentation, user guide and student guides.

2. Internal Process to Create an SR

[1.] The access to create an SR should be given only to the key Support engineers so that redundant SRs can be avoided.

1.[2.] There should be approval process in place to raise an SR. Recommended approach could be as depicted in the chart.

APPLY SOLUTION

END