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<B><FONT SIZE=4><P ALIGN="CENTER">PAR System Requirements</P>
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<P> </P>
<P>When you create a PAR, there are some introductory questions that need to be answered. After those questions, a form opens that you have to fill in. Many of the fields are optional, but some are required. I have not detailed the required fields here.</P>
<P>The two introductory questions are:</P>
<OL>
<LI>Select a product family — here you would pick from a list what product family the PAR is being reported on.</LI>
<LI>Select a product — here you would choose a sub application within the product family from question 1.</LI></OL>
<P>There are many sections in the PAR form. Not all of these sections are used by all users of the PAR system. Some sections are for developers, other parts are for customer service or a triage team. The triage team is a group of people who classify large numbers of PARs that need to be fixed. They prioritize the PARs so that developers, at any given time, are working on the most important of the open PARs.</P>
<P>Without further ado, here are the sections listed in the PAR form that I use pretty much every day. I sure hope I’m not breaking any laws by distributing this information!</P>
<P> </P>
<B><P>Section 1 </B>(no title)</P>
<UL>
<LI>PAR ID — Composed of the Author’s name (first 2 letters of first and last name) and the PAR number (entered by that Author). For example: CHNO-0001 (Chris Norton, 1<SUP>st</SUP> report)</LI>
<LI>Priority — Assigned triage priority rating. Ratings include T0, T1, T2 and T3. This value is normally entered by a triage team member, which is not necessarily the person who creates the PAR.</LI>
<LI>T0 = Critical, a customer is dead in the water — must fix. </LI>
<LI>T1 = Serious, functionality is incorrect — must fix. </LI>
<LI>T2 = Important, fix as time allows. </LI>
<LI>T3 = cosmetic. Fix as time allows.</LI></UL>
<UL>
<LI>PAR State</LI>
<LI>Reported</LI>
<LI>Confirmed</LI>
<LI>Assigned</LI>
<LI>Fixed</LI>
<LI>Closed</LI>
<LI>Returned</LI></UL>
<UL>
<LI>PAR Type(s) — enter one or more things that describe this PAR.</LI>
<LI>S0 - Massive Product Failure, S1 - Serious Functional Failure, S2 - Lesser Functional Failure, S3 - Cosmetic issue, Coding Error, Consistency, Crash, Data Corruption, Data Loss, Database Error, Enterprise-Wide Crash, Feature Failure, Feature Request, Function Inaccessible, GPF, Hardware, Help File, Incorrect Result, Installation, Internal Documentation, Linguistics, Online Documentation, PAR System, Performance, Printed Documentation, Process, Runtime Error, Security, Service, Specification Incorrect, System Hang, Training Material, Translation - ESP, Translation - FRA, Translation - PTB, Troubleshooting Request, Unexpected Result, Uninstall, Usability, User Interface</LI>
<LI>PAR Weighting Score — this is a mechanism that helps to describe the importance of a PAR for the Triage team. A value is computed by the PAR system, based on several customer concerns (e.g. the customer is HOT)</LI>
<LI>Reopened — a number that indicates how many times this PAR has gone from a Closed state back to an open state.</LI>
<LI>Date Reported — the date when the PAR was created — generated by the PAR system.</LI>
<LI>Reported by — the Author’s name — generated by the PAR system.</LI></UL>
<B><P>Section 2</B> (no title)</P>
<UL>
<LI>Product Family — comes from the introductory Q & A.</LI>
<LI>Product — comes from the introductory Q & A.</LI>
<LI>Product State</LI>
<LI>Alpha</LI>
<LI>Beta</LI>
<LI>Released</LI>
<LI>Unreleased</LI></UL>
<UL>
<LI>Version number — (where the PAR was found) this is a 2 part field, part 1 is the major product number (like Squeak 2.8) and part 2 is the build number.</LI>
<LI>Functional Area</LI>
<LI>One or more areas that are affected by the PAR</LI>
<LI>Engineering Assignment — somebody’s name or "default engineer". This may be a developer, SQA person, tech pubs person, etc.</LI>
<LI>SQA Assignment — somebody’s name or "default SQA". This is the person who is responsible for testing back the PAR after the fix or feature is submitted to a build.</LI>
<LI>Brief Description — a one line description of the bug. It is a good idea to preface this with the name of the module where the PAR exists, because people often generate reports that display this description.</LI>
<LI>Detailed Description — Complete description of the problem, including steps to reproduce the problem, screen shots, etc. Whatever will be needed to fix the problem.</LI>
<LI>Workaround — a complete description of a workaround to the problem — if one exists!</LI></UL>
<B><P>Section 3</B> (Product Environment) -- This section details information about where the problem happens within a suite of products/modules. If your product runs on multiple databases, for example, you would select the appropriate database(s) from a list. This section is mostly for the benefit of a large organization of products (like a suite of cooperative components).</P>
<B><P>Section 4 </B>(Work in Progress Section) -- This section is a running log of comments that are left by people who are involved in the generation/review/fix/testing of the PAR. The PAR system presents an edit field whenever a PAR is opened for editing. If you do some work/research/testing on the PAR, you may want to leave a note for others to read. This is where you do it. When you save the PAR report, the system records your name and a timestamp next to your comment. These comments are read-only, so no data is lost.</P>
<P>For example:</P>
<P>1: Chris Norton 11/17/00 07:45:39 PM</P>
<P>Here is an example of the WIP section.</P>
<P>2: Chris Norton 11/17/00 08:02:32 PM</P>
<P>Here is a 2<SUP>nd</SUP> example of the WIP section.</P>
<B><P>Section 5</B> (Triage Information) -- This section is devoted to the triage of the PAR. This section is updated by people who are responsible for assigning PARs to developers and for indicating when they need to be fixed (and for which product(s)).</P>
<UL>
<LI>Triage Assigns To Build #: -- This would be a specific release revision of a product. Often this alphanumeric field holds additional information about the PAR, like: 2.8RTM -- which would mean that this PAR must be fixed for Squeak version 2.8 and must be fixed for the release to manufacturing.</LI>
<LI>Add Information To Release Notes?</LI>
<LI>Radio buttons Yes/No</LI>
<LI>Is this PAR a Regression?</LI>
<LI>Radio buttons Yes/No</LI>
<LI>Defer to Version/Date — a version or date</LI>
<LI>Reason for Return History — If this PAR was returned, indicate why here…</LI>
<LI>PAR Age — number of days since the customer reported the PAR — automatically generated by the system</LI></UL>
<B><P>Section 6</B> (Fix Information)</P>
<UL>
<LI>Brief Fix Description — a short description of the fix.</LI>
<LI>Detailed Fix Description — a detailed description of the fix.</LI>
<LI>Technical Analysis</LI>
<LI>Testing Procedure — notes from the developer of things to think about while testing the PAR back.</LI>
<LI>Reviewed by (Name and Date)</LI>
<LI>Fixed in Version — This is a 2 part field. Part 1 is product version number and part 2 is the build number. This information is initially put in by the person who fixes the PAR. However it can be changed by the person do does the builds (the fix may go into a different build than the developer might have thought).</LI>
<LI>Functional Area(s) fixed</LI>
<LI>Source Files Affected</LI>
<LI>Where PAR was introduced</LI>
<LI>Requirements</LI>
<LI>Design</LI>
<LI>Coding</LI>
<LI>Specification</LI>
<LI>How PAR could have been prevented:</LI>
<LI>Code Review, Communications, Design Review, Documentation, Documentation Review, Requirements/Spec Review, Training/Education, Unit Testing</LI>
<LI>Is Retest Required at Regression? </LI>
<LI>Radio buttons Yes/No</LI>
<LI>Retest completed on version — this is a 2 part field. Part 1 is product version number and part 2 is the build number.</LI></UL>
<B><P>Section 7 </B>(Closure Information)</P>
<UL>
<LI>Estimated Closure Date:</LI>
<LI>Reason For Closure — choose from a list</LI>
<LI>Duplicate</LI>
<LI>Fixed by Engineering</LI>
<LI>No Plans To Fix</LI>
<LI>Unreproducible</LI>
<LI>User Error</LI>
<LI>Works as Designed</LI>
<LI>Detailed reason for closure — details entered by person who closed the PAR.</LI>
<LI>User Documentation Revised — indicates whether documentation that is affected by this PAR has been updated.</LI>
<LI>Closure Time — number of days it took to close the PAR (between confirmation and closure)</LI>
<LI>Fix Time — number of days it took fix the defect (time between first confirmed date and last fixed date)</LI></UL>
<UL>
<LI>If duplicate PAR, link to the Parent PAR — a hyperlink to another PAR report.</LI>
<LI>Parent PAR ID</LI></UL>
<B><P>Section 8</B> (Customer Information and PAR Weighting (entered by Support))</P>
<UL>
<LI>Account Status</LI></UL>
<UL>
<LI>Normal</LI>
<LI>Hot</LI>
<LI>Escalated</LI>
<LI>Has customer accepted the fix?</LI>
<LI>Radio buttons Yes/No</LI>
<LI>Custom Product</LI>
<LI>Radio buttons Yes/No</LI>
<LI>Escalation Date</LI>
<LI>Customer Name</LI>
<LI>Customer Identifier</LI>
<LI>Field Originator</LI>
<LI>Support Office</LI>
<LI>Original Case Date</LI>
<LI>Keyword</LI></UL>
<P>et cetera. There is other information that is used for PAR weighting too (e.g. severity, frequency, customer impact, workaround available, customer temperature, support reproducible)</P>
<B><P>Section 9</B> (Change Log) — all of the information in this section is generated automatically by the PAR system when states change in the PAR.</P>
<P>For example:</P>
<P>12/07/1999 13:42:53 Chris Norton Reported</P>
<P>12/07/1999 13:53:33 Chris Norton changed SQA Assignment (from to Default SQA); PAR Score (from 0 to 85); </P>
<P>12/13/99 9:59:50 AM Chris Norton changed PAR State (from Reported to Assigned); Engineering Assignment (from to Norton Chris); </P>
<P>12/13/1999 10:17:33 AM Chris Norton changed Engineering Assignment (from Norton Chris to Norton Chris); </P>
<P>12/23/99 8:47:55 AM Chris Norton changed Account Status (from Normal to Escalated); </P>
<P>01/06/2000 11:05:02 AM Chris Norton changed Priority (from to T1);</P>
<P>01/11/2000 6:17:45 PM Chris Norton changed PAR State (from Assigned to Fixed); </P>
<P>01/19/2000 1:22:43 PM Chris Norton changed PAR State (from Fixed to Assigned); </P>
<P>01/19/2000 1:23:44 PM Chris Norton changed SQA Assignment (from Default SQA to Norton Chris); </P>
<P>01/25/2000 11:59:16 AM Chris Norton changed PAR State (from Assigned to Fixed); </P>
<P>02/01/2000 8:49:41 AM Chris Norton changed PAR State (from Fixed to Closed);</P>
<P>State Changes — an automatically generated chart</P>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P ALIGN="CENTER">PAR State Changes</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P ALIGN="CENTER">Signed off by:</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P ALIGN="CENTER">On date:</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Reported by</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Chris Norton</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>12/07/1999 01:42:53 PM</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Returned by</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Confirmed by</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Assigned to</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Chris Norton</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>12/08/1999 01:42:53 PM</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Fixed by</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Chris Norton</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>12/09/1999 01:42:53 PM</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Closed by</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Chris Norton</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>12/10/1999 01:42:53 PM</FONT></TD>
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<FONT SIZE=2><P>Deferred by</FONT></TD>
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