Identifying and Defining the Problem

Identifying the problem is step one and arguably the most important. A misidentified problem sends every later step in the wrong direction. The goal here is a clear, specific, verified problem statement. Time spent understanding the issue precisely is rarely wasted, because it focuses all the effort that follows on the real symptom rather than a guess.

Start by gathering facts. Talk to the affected users, check monitoring dashboards and logs, and run quick tests yourself. Aim to learn the scope (one user, one floor, or the whole site), the timing (when it began), and the symptoms (slow, intermittent, or fully down). The more concrete the information, the sharper your theory will be.