A Comparison of Internet Connection Troubleshooting Strategies by Experts and Novices

This paper compares the strategies used by experts and novices in troubleshooting complex systems. As an example, we consider the case of establishing an Internet connection. The complexity of modern systems, such as the Internet, makes troubleshooting a very difficult task. Because many users experiencing trouble turn to the call-center, traffic loads are always heavy. This loads cost the company dearly to maintain adequate user support quality. We need to incorporate effective approaches to tackling the problems into self-service systems. Moreover, such knowledge is useful for FAQ design and creating response methods for call-center agents that can well support the troubleshooting process. Both are expected to greatly reduce call-center loads. To elucidate effective troubleshooting techniques, we compare the troubleshooting strategies of novices to those of experts. As a result, we showed that given an initial goal constraint, the experts try to eliminate modules unambiguously and so find the fault while novices remain stuck with their first guess.