Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!keith From: keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: System 7.0 and MacDTS policies Message-ID: <42434@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 28 Jun 90 03:56:31 GMT References: <1990Jun21.215639.16938@efi.com> <8842@goofy.Apple.COM> <1990Jun25.223451.2864@efi.com> <42340@apple.Apple.COM> <1990Jun26.192623.7121@efi.com> <26883CF9.2BCB@intercon.com> <1718@mountn.dec.com> Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA Lines: 82 In article <1718@mountn.dec.com> minow@bolt.enet.dec.com (Martin Minow) writes: >Having worked as a support person for six years (with corporate responsiblity >for support of a major product for two), I can well sympathize with the >problems MACDTS folk are going through. I would add a few comments, however: > >For "us": > >-- When someone in MACDTS (or Apple Engineering) goes out of their way > to help you, send their boss a thank-you note. If you don't know > their boss' name, send it to John Scully, with a request to pass > it to the right person. This doesn't get you invited to Scully's > barbeque parties, but it does end up in the person's personnel file, > where it can give their boss an incentive to reward (salary) the > helpful person. Send a thank-you note by real mail, not Email. Our boss is Dave Szetela. His E-Mail address is szetela@applelink.apple.com. > >-- Don't waste MACDTS time. If you're reporting an errror in their system > "for the record," let them know. If you have a deadline "I need this > answer by July 30," let them know that, too. When you report a problem, > give them all the info: reproducible, which system/hardware, strange inits, > etc. Yes! Oh yes! As a matter of fact, we're toying with the idea of letting the questioner assign a priority to their question, from 1 to 4. Initial reactions here are that everyone would put a #1 priority on their questions, but we've seen that MicroSoft has used this system with satisfying results. If anyone else out there - especially those with support experience - know of ways that we can more efficiently support 7,000 developers, please let us know. > >For "them": > >-- My experience is that triage really has to be done by an experienced > person, mind-numbing and painful though it may be. If you rotate the > task among all the MACDTS engineers, it becomes less of a chore (a > half-day per month, perhaps). This keeps all the engineers aware of > the kinds of problems folk are having. Give your triage person the > job of writing/solving the easy problems. This has been suggested, though never tried here. > >-- If the same problems crop up again and again, don't blame the dumb > customers (RTFM), but blame the folk who didn't explain the system > adequatly in the documentation. The recent set of sample programs > is useful. You might also look at the Mark Williams C documentation > for the Atari-ST: each "toolbox" function is illustrated by a short > explanatory program. This situation should be getting better. DTS makes an ever increasing effort to review all documentation that comes out these days. However, there's only 25 MacDTS people, and thousands of pages to review. Myself, I've got about 1500 pages of MacApp documentation to review. We have a rule of thumb here that says that we seem to average reviewing about 8 pages a day, so that MacApp documentation would take me 6 months to review. Given all the System 7.0 stuff I've got to grok before DTS can support you, it makes it difficult to do good manual reviews. But we do try. Tech Pubs is also getting the message. I can't really speak for them in terms of specifics, but I think that I can safely say that all your messages to them are getting across. > >-- Don't forget, the customers are paying your salary. I never do. Thanks for the feedback. > >Martin Minow >minow@bolt.enet.dec.com -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keith Rollin --- Apple Computer, Inc. --- Developer Technical Support INTERNET: keith@apple.com UUCP: {decwrl, hoptoad, nsc, sun, amdahl}!apple!keith "Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions