Task Flow Models SUPPORT ENGINEER TASK FLOWS To understand depth and complexity of problems facing support engineers, the design team created a set of

Task Flow Models

SUPPORT ENGINEER TASK FLOWS

To understand depth and complexity of problems facing support engineers, the design team created a set of detailed task flows showing all activities in the support process.

Task flows typically break down and coalesce activities into common themes. The entire support process, either observed in shadowing or uncovered during interviews, follows.

In this Task Flow Model, we compare Clarify to MSSolve in accomplishing the basic tasks of support. We then provide some more detailed SE task flows.

High-Level Support Engineeer Task Flow

SE Task Flow Overview

Setting parameters for an engagement ensures the support engineer is solving the right problem and understanding what success means for a particular case. The support engineer takes the customer’s verbatim and quickly assesses at a high-level what he will (and will not) do to get the customer back on track.

Area MSSolve Clarify Notes

Capturing customer verbatim Freeform capturing is hard in MSSolve. (Past what MPO, OAS, or the CSR has captured.) This is due to the increase in structure imposed through the entire case engagement.

Fulfilling SLA requirements Straightforward in both Clarify and MSSolve. MSSolve has the advantage for automating the customer contact, but the template should be more personal.

Creation of a scope Many MSSolve engineers stumble when writing scope, as the SOAP structure previously learned in Clarify has been revised and moved to multiple screens. The Clarify engineers struggle with scope too, but they have the advantage of years of experience using it, even if improperly.

Revision of a scope Most engineers improperly believe revising scope isn’t allowed.

Getting customer approval on scope Most engineers make scope approval tacit as explicit approval of an email-delivered scope is rarely achieved. The explicit scope approval required by MSSolve is usually bypassed.


Once the engineer has an agreement of scope, he creates a plan to understand, research, test, and solve the issues. The engineer takes the increased detail from the customer and his past experiences to help diagnose what the issues are and how he plans on fixing them.


Creating a plan Plans are complicated and cumbersome in MSSolve today. For Clarify, plans are generally simplistic and do not encapsulate the body of tasks required, but are much more frequently and correctly used.

Finding past cases with similar traits using VKB Most engineers informed us searching for past cases on VKB brings up

too much noise to be truly effective.

Using LiveAssist to create a remote desktop connection Not a cumbersome process, but should be better integrated with the

incident management software.

Receiving and categorizing customer email attachments

MS Solve greatly improves attachments and associating them with a case. Clarify falls completely flat here with their upload limits and application file management.


After understand a problem’s symptoms, the engineer uses his resources to better understand the root cause and to find an effective workaround or solution for the customer.


Finding SO’s or KB’s using VKB Effective after learning the techniques to yield good results. Should be better integrated with the incident management software.

Asking coworkers using Messenger or Communicator

After the cumbersome process of importing and organizing contacts, works well if contacts properly set status. Should be better integrated with the incident management software.

Searching blogs using Live Search As all engineers are experienced technologists, searching the Internet is straightforward and easy.

Remembering past SO’s or KB’s that worked well

Engineers create many home-grown tools to manage knowledge that worked well in the past. There is no way to bookmark this knowledge in MSSolve or Clarify


After the engineer has researched possible causes and solutions to a problem, he tests his hypothesis using an environment similar to the customer’s. He may request system-level information like data dumps or log files to better understand the problem and help guide problem research.


Using Services Diagostic Portal to create a manifest A slightly more cumbersome process than LiveAssist, but should be

better integrated with the incident management software.

Creating and maintaining a file share for customer upload While MSSolve is leaps and bounds past Clarify for customer file shares,

the navigation UI is non-standard.

Requesting a test lab environment The process is straightforward, but should be better integrated with the incident management software.

Support Engineer Task Flows | Page 1






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Task Flow Models SUPPORT ENGINEER TASK FLOWS To understand depth and complexity of problems facing support engineers, the design team created a set of