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 Bug
2) Application functionality not performing as expected
3) Data corruption
4) Performance issue
5) Question / clarification required.


Above Chart is result of total 2000 SRs analyzed
18%
31%
5%
2%
2%
5%
11%
24%
2%
Total
Application bug
Application functionality not
performing as expected
Data Correction
Data Correction (Base Table)
Extension , Oracle doesnt support
Oracle is yet to Declare
Performance Issue
Question SR
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.

1/20
th
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.

1% 4%
20%
75%
Severity of SRs
Severity Four Severity One Severity Three Severity Two
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Guidelines to be followed before raising any SR.
Two pronged approach methods 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 Bug
2) Application functionality not performing as expected
3) Data corruption
4) Performance issue
5) 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.
2. There should be approval process in place to raise an SR. Recommended approach could be as
depicted in the chart.

Check the Prob with
the business
Check the Process
with the business
Categorize the
problem in to
functional,
Technical and DBA
issue(Please involve
respective
categorised team to
help you close the
problem
Refer the Solution in
the Knowledge
Bank,Metalink or
google.
Team leader
Analyzes the issue
Is the prob
clear?
Is the Business
Process Clear?
Is the problem
categorized?
Was this prob
reported
earlier?
Should Experts
be involved?
SME Team analyzes
the issue
SR is created
Support Engineer
analyses the issue
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
SME team takes call on raising the SR
SR Creation Process Flow





APPLY
SOLUTION
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