[Teisha Nolen]

Troubleshooting is an important skill set in the career of an IT professional. Knowing the steps to take to diagnose and repair issues is essential to keeping your business running as smoothly as possible. As you learn how to identify, diagnose, and repair various issues, you will begin to see a pattern in the issues occurring. This is where documentation is important. Taking additional steps to document issues for future use allows for efficient diagnosis in the future. Additionally, these documented issues can help influence future procedures and SOP’s, which in turn will keep critical systems operational and improve downtime. The value of troubleshooting for the individual is the knowledge that comes from finding and repairing various issues. I know in past employment situations I have appreciated the ability to do some troubleshooting within my systems, as I learned more from the situation than I would have otherwise. Additionally, learning to troubleshoot on my own has saved time, improved efficiency, and freed up resources for other issues.