Lots of office or business problems have been solved thanks to productivity software. We can give credit to these types of software for improving workflow, eliminating problems, creating better communication among employees, and between employees and bosses. There are more advantages to them, which is why when a problem or glitch or bug comes up in the software, it can slow down a day of business if not handled urgently. Problems can be anywhere between an obsolete program to incorrect data and editing.

While not all problems are complicated, Function Point Software can handle more complex ones that need experts. An expert software engineer will probably go through these steps when encountering a software problem.

Identify the problem. Non-experts or regular users will run to Google to look up a solution before they’ve even identified the problem. Some problems will come clearly written in an error message on a screen, others are not like that and you need to dig deeper to find the source of the problem. These kinds of bugs can be very baffling, so the engineer not only need to identify the problem, but also understand it to be able to fix it.

What do they do?

1. Gather the information

Professionals will gather the information needed from different places and do not necessarily stick to one method. Each tool to solve a problem should be considered as a single tool within a toolbox. They might use a new tool, so this would lead them to looking into a tutorial or other channels to understand more about it. They also would need to know why a code is designed the way it is. This would need a search in the relevant files or single file.

2. Problems and Subproblems

Complex problems are broken down into sub-problems. This is needed especially when delving into unfamiliar territories. Problems also need to be differentiated between correctness and efficiency. Correctness problems can often be in the sub-problems. After that, you can work your way up to efficiency in the problem.

3. Theoretically first

This is the means that textbooks often advise on. The problem should be solved by theory first to prove correctness and complexity, then implement the solution. This advice is neither right nor wrong, because it depends on the skills, strengths and weaknesses of the individual.

Estimating time the solution requires: It’s a good trick to have ready to estimate the size (lines of code) and how much time will be needed for the solution. The longer and more complex the solution is, the more debugging time is needed.

4. Test the solution

This can be done manually by loading a web page to see that it contains all the elements needed. There is also test-driven development where a test is placed after each solution, rather than waiting till the end to test it.

Steps taken

It’s hard to determine just how many steps are involved to fix a software problem. That often depends on the experience of the engineer, the software and the problem. But it’s a skill to be learned and that means you can constantly improve it.