FS needs Incident Management

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Currently ,there seems to be a series of issues being raised about access to the US Census images (just images? Or indexes? And shoot me down if I'm wrong, by all means)

One of the latest (URL https://getsatisfaction.com/familysea...) has been updated by an employee post that says "We are aware of these record access issues and several teams are working to address the problems. Thanks for your patience"

Now, I'm absolutely not complaining about the underlying issues - if it needs several teams working on it, it must be obscure / tricky and I'm totally happy to let them get on with it. But every time someone deals with a query in GetSat or somewhere else, that's a diversion either from their real work or from some valuable down-time for them. (Though thanks for your efforts!)

I don't remember any comms about these issues and I don't see anything on the FS Blog.

It seems to me that it would make sense to have a person or persons whose role included sending out some sort of comms (Blog? Messages?) to FS's users warning them that there are some problems and that FS knows about the issues and is working on them. If such a group existed, then it would relieve the comms pressure on the technical guys, forewarn FS's users and explain the situation to the dozens of FS users who are undoubtably suffering in silence - apart from cursing the computer and the system.

As I recollect in my former professional life this sort of communications process existed and came under the heading of Incident Management - although Problem Management might also have been involved.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Yes, it would be a great idea for FamilySearch to have a page / section headed, "We are currently having problems with:" followed by a list of collections or general issues that are being worked on.

Of course, the engineers would have to be aware of the problems in the first place, so this forum will always have a major role in the reporting of specific issues.

However, I am sure there are certain ways that problems can be avoided. As has been noted here previously, thorough testing in the beta version (with the assistance of experienced, regular users) would go a long way in preventing some issues occurring. Also, liaison between assigned employees of both FamilySearch and their partners (say Find My Past) would easily prevent many of the frequently reported census collection problems (particularly those for England & Wales) from happening so often.

Okay, FamilySearch would say there are resources issues involved here, but proactive measures would probably actually save the use of those precious resources in the long run.

LegacyUser

m said: I think this is a great idea.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Yes - in my personal view, it really needs to be major incidents that get reported on. That's not saying that minor issues don't need reporting but (a) we have to start somewhere and (b) we don't want to swamp major issues - like the apparent loss of US Census images - with a list of minor bug fixes needed.

LegacyUser

Ken G Moyer said: Great Idea !

LegacyUser

S. said: Great idea, if not a page, at least a e-mail that would be nice too.

LegacyUser

m said: I think this thread can be classified as "implemented."