Determine the business impact of your problem, Submit your problem to ibm software support, Determine – IBM 51 User Manual
Page 239: Business, Impact, Your, Problem, Describe, Gather, Background
2.
3.
Determine
the
business
impact
of
your
problem
When
you
report
a
problem
to
IBM,
you
are
asked
to
supply
a
severity
level.
Therefore,
you
need
to
understand
and
assess
the
business
impact
of
the
problem
you
are
reporting.
Use
the
following
criteria:
Severity
1
Critical
business
impact:
You
are
unable
to
use
the
program,
resulting
in
a
critical
impact
on
operations.
This
condition
requires
an
immediate
solution.
Severity
2
Significant
business
impact:
The
program
is
usable
but
is
severely
limited.
Severity
3
Some
business
impact:
The
program
is
usable
with
less
significant
features
(not
critical
to
operations)
unavailable.
Severity
4
Minimal
business
impact:
The
problem
causes
little
impact
on
operations,
or
a
reasonable
circumvention
to
the
problem
has
been
implemented.
Describe
your
problem
and
gather
background
information
When
explaining
a
problem
to
IBM,
be
as
specific
as
possible.
Include
all
relevant
background
information
so
that
IBM
Software
Support
specialists
can
help
you
solve
the
problem
efficiently.
To
save
time,
know
the
answers
to
these
questions:
v
What
software
versions
were
you
running
when
the
problem
occurred?
v
Do
you
have
logs,
traces,
and
messages
that
are
related
to
the
problem
symptoms?
IBM
Software
Support
is
likely
to
ask
for
this
information.
v
Can
the
problem
be
re-created?
If
so,
what
steps
led
to
the
failure?
v
Have
any
changes
been
made
to
the
system?
(For
example,
hardware,
operating
system,
networking
software,
and
so
on.)
v
Are
you
currently
using
a
workaround
for
this
problem?
If
so,
please
be
prepared
to
explain
it
when
you
report
the
problem.
Submit
your
problem
to
IBM
Software
Support
You
can
submit
your
problem
in
one
of
two
ways:
v
Online
:
Go
to
the
″Submit
and
track
problems
″
page
on
the
IBM
Software
Support
site
Enter
your
information
into
the
appropriate
problem
submission
tool.
v
By
phone
:
For
the
phone
number
to
call
in
your
country,
go
to
the
contacts
page
of
the
IBM
Software
Support
Handbook
on
the
Web
(techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/contacts.html)
and
click
the
name
of
your
geographic
region.
If
the
problem
you
submit
is
for
a
software
defect
or
for
missing
or
inaccurate
documentation,
IBM
Software
Support
creates
an
Authorized
Program
Analysis
Report
(APAR).
The
APAR
describes
the
problem
in
detail.
Whenever
possible,
IBM
Software
Support
provides
a
workaround
for
you
to
implement
until
the
APAR
is
resolved
and
a
fix
is
delivered.
IBM
publishes
resolved
APARs
on
the
IBM
product
support
Web
pages
daily,
so
that
other
users
who
experience
the
same
problem
can
benefit
from
the
same
resolutions.
Appendix
B.
Support
information
227