I often get asked about the best ways to get support and answers to common questions about our Jazz-based products. I also hear some people mention that they prefer open source solutions because they think that the support is better. I have worked with quite a few open source tools, as well as Jazz-based tools, over my career, and I want to try to clear up some misconceptions, and help you get the support that you need more quickly and efficiently.

Open source products have bugs just like anything else, but they are often perceived to have fantastic support, mostly because of the typical use of forums and users having direct access to the project’s developers and other users. The Jazz development teams embrace that same community attitude of openness and transparency, and we value this direct contact with our users and customers. Our goal is to make it easier for you to learn, get up and running, engage with us, report issues, and follow our progress. And we hope that you have fun along the way!

Tour

If you’re still curious what Jazz.net is all about, you can watch this tour first:

How do I find answers?

Jazz developers and other experts actively participate in the Jazz.net forums and publish learning materials to the Jazz.net library. You can search the forums to find answers to questions, and you can browse the IBM Support Portal, as well as our library of documentation, articles, and videos to learn more about using the products. You can also read the Jazz Team Blog to stay current with the latest developments. You can access the dashboards and bug tracking systems for each of the products from our Development portal.

How do I report bugs or request new features?

You can open a work item for any of the projects hosted at Jazz.net. On each project’s main page, you can find links on the right sidebar to open a bug, or you can visit the Development portal. This submits a work item directly to the development team. First, you need to make sure that you follow the guidelines for filing defects and work items, as well as the CLM defect reporting guidelines. Check to see if a defect for your situation exists, and if it does, then subscribe to the defect and add any additional information that you can. If it is not a duplicate defect or work item, then make sure that you follow the guidelines when submitting new work items. And don’t worry, you can unsubscribe from a work item later if you no longer want to follow it.

If you are submitting a new issue, then try to provide as much information as possible, including information on the product version, the OS being used, the type of client being used, and some information on how to reproduce the issue. You will be subscribed to the work item, and if there are other people within your organization, or within IBM, that should be informed of the ongoing progress of the work item, you can subscribe them to the work item too! This will provide email updates to all subscribed users whenever the work item changes (just another example of how Jazz helps collaboration and communication).

How do I get formal support?

Note that for the informal options described above there is no commitment per se (either explicit or implicit) that the issue will be addressed, but we do take it very seriously. While we strive to make sure that all forum postings and work items get responded to in some way or another, we may not respond as quickly as you need. The benefit of using the informal approach is that the audience of people to help you solve an issue is expanded, and potentially includes IBM support, IBM development teams, the IBM field teams, and other users in the Jazz.net community.

If you have a production outage or need formal support with committed service levels, we recommend contacting the Rational Client Support team (check with your system administrator to ensure you have a valid support contract). Read our overview of Rational Client Support, including an FAQ, and review our Rational Support eGuide.

When you call Rational Client Support to open a formal problem ticket, let them know about your Jazz.net work item or forum posts. The support team will access this information to help them “hit the ground running” as they help to resolve your problem.

Summary

The bottom line is that if you prefer a more community-oriented, informal experience in resolving issues, you can take advantage of the Jazz.net forums and work items. If you need a formal (or typical) support process with committed service levels, you should utilize the Rational Client Support team.

So let’s review the recommended path to getting support for your Jazz-based product questions and issues:

• Search the forums, the Jazz.net site, the IBM Support Portal, and the product work items for similar problems that may have been experienced in the past, and have already been addressed.
• Ask a question on the forums. Our development, support, and field teams all monitor the forums. You also get the benefit of having other community members chime in with their experiences and solutions.
• Create a new work item identifying your issue or enhancement request, and provide as much supporting information as possible to help speed the resolution process.
• If you have a support contract in place, you can contact the Rational Client Support team, and let them know about the forum posting and/or work item that you have created for your particular issue.

Helping you with your Jazz deployment is something we take very seriously. Jazz.net and Rational Client Support work together to help you find answers to your questions quickly.

Daniel Toczala
Jazz Jumpstart Technical Lead