If you’re reading this article then there is a good chance that a Codeable Expert or a Customer Service Agent has sent you here to get a little more information about the nature of troubleshooting projects.

When a project is treated as a troubleshooting project that means there are unknowns associated with the project that have prevented the expert from estimating a solution with 100% certainty.

Most likely your expert has offered you a block of “troubleshooting hours” to discover the source of your issue and solve it on a best-effort basis.

The expert has probably also let you know that if they are unable to solve your problem in the stated amount of time, then there could be an additional investment required to further investigate and complete the job.

At this point you might be wondering if having more than one round of troubleshooting is normal...

Sometimes multiple rounds of troubleshooting are required in order to discover and implement a solution.

If for some reason our expert isn't able to find a solution in the first round of work, they will have still discovered important diagnostic information that will be very valuable when discussing additional steps.

When it comes to troubleshooting projects there is a measure of risk the client must be willing to accept in order to discover a problem and find a solution. Here at Codeable we do our best to mitigate this risk by pre-screening and vetting our expert talent base.

Why is my project a troubleshooting project?

Clients are often curious to why their project falls into the troubleshooting category instead of a normal project that can be estimated with concrete hours. The answer is, sometimes experts need to study an environment and perform tests to learn why something is not working or to learn how something can be improved.

Consider it like a doctors visit where the doctor must first screen the patient and perform tests before a prescription can be issued. The doctor (in this case the expert) will try and discover the problem as well as prescribe the solution in the same visit, but sometimes multiple visits are required before the doctor truly understands the problem and can act on the solution.

How are troubleshooting projects typically priced?

Experts who offer troubleshooting often will block out a set of hours or days that they believe it will take to discover the cause of the problem and perform a solution. In the best-case scenario, the solution will be quickly discovered and the expert will be able to fix the issue within their original scoped time.

What happens if a troubleshooting project does not yield a solution or information about the problem?

It is extremely unlikely that no information will be provided after a round of troubleshooting. By nature, your expert will eliminate a wide array of possibilities proving what the issue is not related to, which is a valuable part of the discovery process. This information will help your expert to action their next steps, or it can even be sat on for a later date.

If the experts believe the problem is too difficult to progress towards a solution, they’ll inform you that there is uncommon risk to having additional rounds of troubleshooting funded. This transparency will help you make a decision on whether or not it is worth investing additional time into solving the problem.

How do I create a troubleshooting project?

Currently, Codeable only has two types of projects: consultations and normal projects.
If your expert advises that your project is a troubleshooting style project, then there are no additional requirements to convert this project over to a new project type. Troubleshooting-style projects are still considered normal projects. They are only approached differently according to what expectations all parties should have when moving forward.