Help me to help you! How to engage with support
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This one was a bit of a free for all but the goal was to provide some concrete steps you can take before you try to engage support.
Before You Engage Support
Be respectful of the people whose help you’re asking for. This can be done by trying what you can on your own, for example, standard trouble shooting techniques. Anytime there is a problem, try to break it down first. If you have a developer tenant try to replicate the issue there. If you don’t have a dev tenant get one and try to replicate the issue.
It’s ok if you can’t replicate the issue but that helps the support person try and rule things out. Lastly, try the rubber duck programming. Imagine that you are explaining what is wrong to the rubber duck. Go step by step through the process.
If taking screenshots, include the entire screen so the URL, browser, and error message are clear. It’s ok to redact personal information but don’t obscure it so much that the person helping you doesn’t have all the information.
Where to Get Support
Knowing where to ask for support about a specific thing is almost as important as asking the question well. The M365 community has loads of places to get support. You could try searching the internet and getting support by posting to sites like StackOverflow. There are also great resources from the community via GitHub such as SPDevDocs, Community Docs, or individual sample repos. You don’t need to be a GitHub expert to ask a question. It’s important to make sure you ask the right question in the right group in order to get an answer.
Microsoft also runs a tech community with great resources. The more you engage with support, the easier it will be to gauge which support channels are best for the kinds of questions that you’re asking. Utilize user groups as well. Don’t forget about in-person events!
When Engaging Support
Be respectful of others and their time. Tech support groups are not places for venting and frustrated posts. Many of the community based support options are moderated by volunteers so try to keep that in mind.
Resources
- What is a dev tenant and why would you want one?
- Tech Community
- SharePoint Developers & Admins Facebook
- SharePoint Facebook
- Stack Overflow
- Microsoft 365 Github
- Patterns and Practices
- PnP AMA
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