On 04/6/24 at 5:09 PM -0600, Pete Kruckenberg wrote the following :
I'm working on trying to teach others in my group (usually
less-experienced, but not always) how to improve their
large-network troubleshooting skills (the techniques of
isolating a problem, etc)
I took a 5 day course in another era, fortunately for me at the
beginning of my career, on analytic trouble shooting (Kepner Tregoe?).
The 5 day course can be boiled down really to one concept that can be
taught in 5 minutes... 'half-splitting'. (The other 4.95 days were
spent making sure we understood the concept and learning to implement
it, the length of time was overkill but the course vendor had to make
money somehow 
(In another discussion* it was pointed out to that that wasn't the
correct name in the writers view... it was "binary search". Google
may have proved the writer correct, but I still refer to it as half
splitting as I spent a week learning to call it that
The point of this note is troubleshooting boils down finding the
problem in the fewest steps.
Half-splitting ensures the number of steps are at a minimum.
The troubleshooters knowledge of the system and equipment provides
the ability to devise tests at the half-splitting point.
Half-splitting is a 5 minute concept. System/equipment knowledge is
of course a lifetime endeavor.
The reason I am writing this note is as I went through a career of
troubleshooting I was surprised at the number of colleagues who had
no concept of "half-splitting" and used "linear" or "random"
techniques to determine test points/tests with a corresponding
dramatic reduction in effectiveness.
Cheers,
Darrell
*p.s., I just remembered where my previous discussion was;
http://db.tidbits.com/tbtalk/tlkmsg.lasso?MsgID=15775
http://db.tidbits.com/tbtalk/tlkmsg.lasso?MsgID=15787
http://db.tidbits.com/tbtalk/tlkmsg.lasso?MsgID=15788
Searching with Google for "half-splitting" will produce some useful hits.