Module 14 Study Guide

The IT Professional

Communication Skills

Effective communication is crucial for IT professionals, especially when troubleshooting and

interacting with customers.

The Relationship Between Communication and Troubleshooting

 Gathering Information: You need to understand the customer's problem to fix it. This
requires extracting details from someone who might be stressed or unfamiliar with
technical terms.

 Establishing Rapport: Making the customer feel relaxed and comfortable helps them
share information more freely.

o In-person: Professional body language is important.

o Phone: A positive and non-condescending attitude can be sensed through the

voice.

 Personalization: Use the customer's name to create a one-on-one connection. Ask if

they have a preferred name.

 Understanding Technical Level:

o Novice users: Avoid jargon, acronyms, and technical terms. Explain things clearly.

o Experienced users: You can use more technical language and acronyms.

 Active Listening:

o Allow the customer to tell their full story without interruption.

o Use small verbal cues like "I understand" or "Yes" to show you're listening.

o Let the customer finish their thoughts before asking questions.

 Questioning Techniques:

o Open-ended questions: Elicit detailed information (e.g., "What were you doing
when this happened?", "What were you trying to achieve?").

o Closed-ended questions: Confirm specific details (e.g., "Did you restart the
computer?"). These can usually be answered with "yes" or "no."
  Summarizing: After listening, summarize the problem to ensure you understand
correctly.

 Professional Behavior:

o DO NOT:

 Minimize customer problems.

 Use jargon, acronyms, abbreviations, or slang.

 Have a negative attitude or tone.

 Argue or become defensive.

 Make culturally insensitive remarks.

 Disclose customer experiences on social media.

 Be judgmental or insulting.

 Be distracted or interrupt.

 Take personal calls or text while with a customer.

 Talk to coworkers about unrelated subjects.

 Use unnecessary or abrupt holds.

 Transfer calls without explanation or consent.

 Make negative remarks about other technicians.

o DO:

 Use professional behavior.

 Develop a friendly and positive conversational manner.

 Give feedback to the customer.

 Use proper language.

 Listen and ask appropriate questions.

Handling Holds and Transfers

 Placing a Customer on Hold:

o Let the customer finish explaining.

 o State that you need to put them on hold.

o Ask for their permission.

o Thank them for their agreement.

o Provide an estimated time for your return ("a few minutes," or a reasonable
expectation).

o Explain what you will be doing during the hold.

o If the hold takes longer than expected, return to the customer and inform them
you are still working on the issue.

o Avoid: Putting customers on hold without explanation, without consent, or

assuming your time is more valuable.

 Transferring a Call:

o Let the customer finish explaining.

o State why the transfer is necessary.

o Get the customer's consent to transfer.

o Inform the receiving technician of the customer's name, ticket number, and the
reason for the transfer.

o Keep the call focused.

Operational Procedures

Operational procedures ensure consistency, efficiency, and compliance within an IT department.

Documentation

 Purpose:

o Provide descriptions of how products, software, and hardware function (using

diagrams, descriptions, manuals).

o Standardize procedures and practices for accurate repetition.

o Establish rules and restrictions for asset use (e.g., Acceptable Use Policies).

o Reduce confusion and mistakes, saving time and resources.

o Aid in complying with governmental or industry regulations.

o Assist in training new employees or customers.

  Types of IT Documentation:

o Policy Documents: Outline security policies, regulatory compliance policies.

o Operation and Planning Documents: Include IT strategy, proposals, budgets,

purchasing records.

o Project Documents: Cover user requests, changes, software designs, network

topologies (logical and physical).

o User Documentation: End-user manuals, help desk tickets, searchable

knowledge bases, FAQs.

 Regulatory and Compliance Documentation:

o Many IT areas are regulated by federal, state, local, or industry regulations.

o These regulations often specify data collection, retention periods, and internal
process implications.

o Failure to comply can result in fines, job termination, or incarceration.

Change Control Process

 A formal process to manage and document changes to IT systems.

 Components often include:

o Proposed change description.

o Scope of the change.

o Intended outcome.

o Implementation plan.

Disaster Recovery Overview

 A comprehensive plan detailing how to restore operations quickly and maintain critical IT
functions during or after a disaster.

 Includes information on:

o Off-site locations for services.

o Replacing network devices.

o Maintaining essential services (web, internet, data stores, email,

communication).
  Preventing Downtime and Data Loss:

o Cloud Backups:

 Advantages: Reliable, scalable.

 Disadvantages: Time to transfer over network, potential service

discontinuation or price increases.

o Local Backups:

 Advantages: Local control, accessibility, speed.

 Disadvantages: Scalability, off-site storage requirements.

 Phases of a Disaster Recovery Plan:

1. Network design and recovery strategy.

2. Inventory documentation.

3. Verification.

4. Approval and implementation.

5. Review.

Ethical and Legal Issues

IT professionals must navigate a complex landscape of ethical responsibilities and legal

requirements.

Respect for Property and Data

 Customer Property: Includes physical items (computers, monitors) and intangible assets
like information and data.

 Data Examples: Emails, phone lists, records, files on disks, hard copies. All should be
treated as customer property.

Personal Identifiable Information (PII)

 Information that can be used to identify an individual.

 Examples:

o Names, maiden names, mother's maiden names.

o Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), Social Security Numbers (SSNs), passport

numbers, driver's license numbers.
 o Personal characteristics (photographic images, facial recognition, fingerprints,
handwriting, biometric data).

 PII must be protected strictly.

Specific Data Regulations

 Payment Card Industry (PCI): Standards for protecting credit card information. The PCI
Security Standards Council was formed in 2005.

 Protected Health Information (PHI): Health-related information that must be secured

and protected.

o Includes patient names, addresses, dates of visits, contact information, email

addresses.

o Electronic PHI (ePHI): Regulated due to the shift from paper to electronic
records.

o HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): Regulates PHI and
ePHI. Penalties for breaches are severe.

Legal Considerations in IT

 Permissions:

o Do not make changes to system software or hardware configurations without

customer permission.

o Do not access customer or coworker accounts without permission.

o Do not install, copy, or share digital content without permission.

 Copyright and Trademark Laws: Adhere to these laws, which vary by state and country.

 Resource Misuse:

o Do not use a customer's company IT resources for personal commercial

purchases.

o Do not make customer IT resources available to unauthorized users.

o Do not knowingly use customer company resources for illegal activities.

 Confidentiality: Maintain the confidentiality of sensitive customer information.

Licensing

 Illegal to use licensed software without the appropriate license.

  Types of Licenses:

o End User License Agreement (EULA): For personal software.

o Enterprise License: Held by a company for its employees.

o Open Source License: Allows modification and sharing of source code.

o Commercial License: Required if software is used to generate revenue.

 Digital Rights Management (DRM): Software to prevent illegal access to digital content
and devices.

Computer Forensics

 The collection and analysis of data from computer systems, networks, and wireless
communications for criminal investigations.

 Process: Encompasses IT practices and specific laws to ensure data admissibility in court.

 Types of Data:

o Persistent Data: Stored on local drives (internal/external hard drives, optical

drives).

o Volatile Data: Information in RAM, cache, registries, or data in transit between

storage and CPU. This data disappears when the computer is turned off.

 Incident Response: If you discover illegal activity:

o Do NOT turn off the computer. Volatile data is crucial for establishing a timeline
and identifying perpetrators.

o Be familiar with company policy on cybercrimes.

o Know who to contact and what actions to take (and not take).

o Documentation is critical: Record the reason for access, time/date, connected

peripherals, network connections, physical location, any illegal material found,
procedures executed.

 Chain of Custody: Documentation procedures to track evidence from collection to court,

proving its integrity and handling.

 Cyber Law: Laws affecting computer security and IT professionals. Professionals must
understand their responsibilities and liabilities regarding cybercrimes. Cyber laws dictate
how data can be collected and from where.
  First Response: Official procedures for collecting evidence. Routine administrative tasks
can impact forensics.

Call Center Technicians

Call centers are organized environments where customers receive technical assistance.

Workflow and Support Levels

 Customer Calls: Received and displayed on a call board.

 Level 1 Technicians: Answer initial calls. If unable to resolve, escalate the issue.

 Level 2 Technicians: Handle escalated issues, possessing higher skills or access to more
information.

 Service Level Agreement (SLA): Defines the level of support technicians must provide.

Support Software and Responsibilities

 Call Center Software: Used to manage job functions, including:

o Logging and tracking incidents.

o Running diagnostic utilities.

o Researching knowledge bases.

o Collecting customer feedback.

 Level 1 Technician Responsibilities:

o Gathering contact information.

o Identifying hardware details (manufacturer, model).

o Determining the operating system.

o Checking power source (plugged in or battery).

o Asking about recent driver/update installations.

o Obtaining a description of the problem.

o Assessing the priority of the problem.

 Level 2 Technician Responsibilities:

o Addressing issues escalated from Level 1 (e.g., "laptop won't boot," problems
after software installation).
 o Utilizing advanced troubleshooting skills and resources.

Script Files

 Purpose: Simple text files written in scripting languages to automate processes and
tasks.

 Benefits: Save time, especially when performing repetitive tasks across multiple
computers.

 Identification: Technicians should be able to identify different script files, as they can
sometimes cause startup or event-related problems.

 Common Scripting Languages:

o Windows Batch files.

o PowerShell.

o Linux Shell.

o Java.

o Python.

 Basic Script Commands (Examples):

o Directory listing (dir).

o Clear screen (cls).

o Display date (date).

o Copy files (copy).

 Variables: Used to store data within scripts.

o Environmental Variables: System-defined variables.

 Conditional Statements: Allow scripts to make decisions.

o if-else statements.

o case statements.

 Loops: Execute blocks of code repeatedly.

o while loops.

o for loops.
o do-while loops.