You Need More Detail in your Tickets
I am usually not a purveyor of malicious compliance (MC), but I do enjoy reading about the exploits of others in this area. After lurking on r/maliciouscompliance for a number of years, I decided to post my own experience with MC. Yes, this really did happen.
Back in the day, say about the mid to late 1990s, I was a field tech for an IT company. My teammates and I were contracted to an aluminum mill in the upper left-hand corner of America. The place was huge. It's the only place that I've worked as an IT guy where I had to put on a hot suit to go in certain areas as a part of my job.
So, one day, I get this ticket for a computer that wouldn't turn on out at the other end of the plant. So, I grab a power supply and head off in the golf cart. No joke, this place was so big, we had golf carts to get around. Important later is the fact that we used paper tickets, with all the information for the call out printed on the ticket, with space for use to write what was done, etc. We'd bring the resolved tickets back to the manager, and he'd put the data in to a wacky Access database for tracking.
I get out there, and sure enough, the power supply is deader than mashed potatoes. I even tested with a multimeter to verify. I swap the power supply, machine powers up, I update my ticket, and off I go back to HQ. End of day comes eventually, and I hand off my fistful of tickets.
The next day around lunch time, I get some of my tickets back from the manager with a note: "Needs more detail". I point out to the guy that there is not much more detail to be had, using the power supply ticket as an example.
- Test power supply (tests bad)
- Replace power supply
- PC powers on as normal
He wasn't having it, though. He accepted the tickets back, but make sure that I understood that I needed more detail on my tickets. Ok. Fine. Later in the afternoon, I get a call for a bad floppy drive. Perfecto! This is the perfect opportunity to flex my budding technical documentation skills. I grab a floppy drive off the shelf, and race out in the golf cart. Upon arrival, I do my normal test/diagnose/replace/update process, with the exception of adding excruciating details to the ticket.
- Attempt read of two known good floppy disks.
- insert floppy #1 in drive, attempt dir command, unable to read disk
- remove floppy #1 from drive
- insert floppy #2 in drive, attempt dir command, unable to read disk
- remove floppy #2 from drive
- Power down system by pressing the power button on the front-right corner.
- Disconnect and remove monitor
- disconnect VGA cable from PC
- disconnect power cable from monitor
- remove monitor to safe location next to desk
- Remove top case from PC
- remove left-hand case screw with 14 counter-clockwise rotations, using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver
- remove right-hand case screw with 16 counter-clockwise rotations, using prescribe torx-bit screwdriver
- after securing screws in safe location, remove top case by sliding forward.
- secure top case to safe location, next to desk.
- Remove failed floppy drive from PC
- disconnect power cable from 3.5" floppy drive
- disconnect data cable from 3.5" floppy drive
- remove front-left screw from floppy drive with 12 counter-clockwise rotations, using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver
- remove back-left screw from floppy drive with 11 counter-clockwise rotations, using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver
- remove front-right screw from floppy drive with 13 counter-clockwise rotations, using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver
- remove back-right screw from floppy drive with 12 counter-clockwise rotations, using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver
- slide failed floppy drive forward to remove from drive cage.
- Install replacement floppy drive
- Note serial number of new floppy drive.
- Insert new floppy drive in to drive cage, sliding from front, taking careful notice of screw hole alignment.
- Install front-left screw in floppy drive, using 11.5 turns of clockwise rotation using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver, until snug.
- Install back-left screw in floppy drive, using 12 turns of clockwise rotation using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver, until snug.
- Install front-right screw in floppy drive, using 12 turns of clockwise rotation using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver, until snug.
- Install back-right screw in floppy drive, using 13 turns of clockwise rotation using prescribed torx-bit screwdriver, until snug.
- Connect data cable to 3.5" floppy drive, ensuring proper orientation of cable for pin 1 alignment
- Connect power cable to 3.5" floppy drive, aligning molex connector to proper orientation
- Reinstall top case of PC
- Slide top of case back on PC from the front, ensuring alignment of guide rails for each side, ensuring snug fit to back of case.
- Reinstall left-hand case screw, using 14.5 clockwise rotations of the prescribed torx-bit screwdriver
- Reinstall right-hand case screw, using 15 clockwise rotations of the prescribed torx-bit screwdriver
- Reinstall monitor
- Retrieve and replace monitor on top of PC case.
- Reconnect VGA cable to VGA connection on back of PC
- Reconnect power cord to monitor.
- Power on computer by pressing the power button on the front-right corner of the PC case.
- Ensure proper BIOS configuration
- Enter system BIOS by pressing F2 during the BIOS POST phase of boot
- Ensure proper configuration of the floppy disk drive in the system BIOS (3.5" 1.44MB)
- Reboot and witness
- Press F2 then enter to save the BIOS configuration and reboot the computer
- Make note of any error messages during startup (none noted)
- Ensure proper functionality of drive
- insert floppy #1 in drive, attempt dir command, reads with no error
- remove floppy #1 from drive
- insert floppy #2 in drive, attempt dir command, reads with no error
- remove floppy #2 from drive
- Ensure customer can perform floppy drive functions
- Customer loads mill program from floppy disk
- no problems noted; program loads successfully
The process documentation for the replacement of the floppy (in excruciating detail) drive took me about twenty minutes to hand write, filling the entire front of the ticket as well as the back. At the end of the day, I turned in my stack of completed tickets to the manager with a smile and a wave.
Back in those days, we had daily meetings each morning to discuss the any gotchas that we needed to look out for, new dangers around the mill, upcoming maintenances, and other random stuff. The meetings usually lasted about 15-20 minutes, and we picked up our ticket load for the day at the end of the meeting. In the technology world of today, it might be called a daily scrum or a daily standup.
During this meeting, the manager begins talking about proper documentation of tickets. He holds up my masterpiece, displaying each side of the paper in all its glory, and plainly states that this is a bit much. "Just note on your tickets, in a quick and concise manner, what the problem was, and what you did to fix it." The whole time he was explaining this to the team, he kept looking at me with that stupid eyebrow cocked up.
I was so proud.
Nobody ever got the business again for not being detailed enough on their tickets.
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