Start with the Quickest Step First

We've asked some great questions to understand our problem. We've isolated our problem to an effective area and looked at our cookie crumbs. Now it's time to start fixing the issue. In the IT world, as in life, problems, don't always have one right answer. When you troubleshoot an issue, you're essentially trying to isolate it to the root cause. To help you isolate an issue, you need to try some remediation steps. If they don't work, then you can rule those out as the cause. What's next? Here's where the start with the quickest step first method comes into play. We want to get to a root cause effectively. But sometimes there are multiple options we can use to isolate something. How do we know which option to try first? It's pretty simple. Try whatever is fastest first.

I'm having a really weird issue with my software. When I start it. It doesn't do anything and I just installed it.

Interesting. You know it might've gotten corrupted during installation. Let's re-install it again. It still does the same thing.

I'm having a really weird issue with my software. When I start it it doesn't do anything. I just installed it. Do you have to remember if you restarted the computer when you installed it.

It works now. It's possible that in this scenario, a software reinstall could fix the issue. It's also possible that a restart was the solution. Since you can test a restart faster than a reinstall, you should test the restart first. You want to be able to troubleshoot and resolve issues effectively and efficiently. Remember to start with the quickest step first, your time and your users time are important.