The document discusses steps for solving problems, including reproducing the problem, scoping the problem, articulating the problem in writing with a goal, researching potential fixes, experimenting to determine the cause, hacking a rough fix, refining the fix, deploying the fix, informing interested parties, and taking lessons learned. It also discusses techniques for having fewer bugs like peer review, automated and manual testing, consistent environments, and safe use of contributed code.

1. Is it true that my
slide template is
best?
Monday, July 15, 13

2. Co-founder / CTO
Drupal Genie
Jody Hamilton
Monday, July 15, 13

3. Have you ever
played 20
questions?
Monday, July 15, 13

4. Reproducing
Scoping
Articulating
Researching
Experimenting
Hacking
Refining
Shipping
Billing
Steps to Solve a Problem
Monday, July 15, 13

5. I can reproduce the problem.
Reproducing
Monday, July 15, 13

6. I have tried to narrow the
problem.
I have tried to broaden the
problem.
I know the scope of the
problem.
Scoping
Monday, July 15, 13

7. Is your problem
visual in nature?
Monday, July 15, 13

8. Can you
reproduce your
problem in a
different
browser?
Monday, July 15, 13

9. Does your
problem relate
to data?
Monday, July 15, 13

10. Does your
problem interact
with caching?
Monday, July 15, 13

11. Is your problem
new?
Monday, July 15, 13

12. Can you
reproduce the
problem with
javascript
disabled?
Monday, July 15, 13

13. Can you
reproduce the
problem in a
different theme?
Monday, July 15, 13

14. Can you
reproduce the
problem with a
different user
role?
Monday, July 15, 13

15. Can you
reproduce the
problem on
another page?
Monday, July 15, 13

16. Can you
reproduce the
problem on last
week’s codebase?
Monday, July 15, 13

17. Can you
reproduce the
problem locally?
Monday, July 15, 13

18. Can you
reproduce the
problem if you
turn off a
module?
Monday, July 15, 13

19. Can you
reproduce the
problem if you
turn off
aggregation?
Monday, July 15, 13

20. Can you
reproduce the
problem on the
dev version of
the module?
Monday, July 15, 13

21. Can you
reproduce the
problem when
you bypass
Varnish?
Monday, July 15, 13

22. Is the problem
possibly related
to input
formats?
Monday, July 15, 13

23. Does the
problem have a
human shape?
Monday, July 15, 13

24. I have rephrased the problem
IN WRITING.
I have a timebox for looking
into the issue.
Articulating
Problem:
Users with the Editor role
do not see fields for Title
and Alt Text after
uploading an image to the
Media library in
WYSIWYG. Admins do see
the fields currently.
Goal:
Both Editors and Admins
should see the fields.
Monday, July 15, 13

25. Monday, July 15, 13

26. I have searched for fixes and
recorded potentially useful
links.
I have checked error logs.
Researching
http://drupal.org/node/
123456
http://
drupal.stackexchange.com/
questions/123456
Monday, July 15, 13

27. I have proven or disproven
hypotheses .
I have determined the cause of
the problem and written it
down.
Experimenting
The problem is due to the
og_moderation module not
being compatible with the
diff module.
Monday, July 15, 13

28. I have a rough fix.
I have recorded the hack.
Hacking
By hacking the diff module I
can eliminate the problem.
Monday, July 15, 13

29. I have fixed the problem responsibly.
I’ll never have this problem again.
Refining
Monday, July 15, 13

30. The fix is deployed.
Shipping
Monday, July 15, 13

31. All interested parties have been informed.
Billing
Monday, July 15, 13

32. Linux
Apache
MySQL
PHP
The Stack of Problems
Drupal code:
core, contrib, custom, config
HTML
CSS
JS
Browser
PEBKAC
Monday, July 15, 13

33. Write down everything.
Bad assumptions are costly.
Watch out for rabbit holes.
Isolate issues.
Take breaks.
Take Aways
Monday, July 15, 13

34. Peer review & manual testing
Automated testing
Zero tolerance
Log gardening
Git
Consistent environments
Practice Safe Contrib
How to Have Fewer Bugs
Monday, July 15, 13