Linux Administration Cookbook

Giving estimates and deciding on next steps

While you're working through the troubleshooting process, it's a great idea to make notes as you go, and keep track of significant times during the incident:

• What time was the incident first reported?
• What time did you get into a position to start troubleshooting?
• What time did you isolate the issue?
• What time was pertinent information discovered?
• And so on

Another thing to be aware of is the estimate. Estimates are something that higher-ups like to hear, in a lot of cases, because it means they can pass the estimates on to their own higher-ups, or to customers. 

If you have no clear idea what's causing an issue yet, you can't give a reliable estimate, and you should explain this. However, if ...