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IBM Guided Activity Assistant
A tool that guides customers step-by-step through troubleshooting and configuration tasks.


Important Note

IBM Guided Activity Assistant is no longer available as a service on alphaWorks.
You'll find a download version at http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27010135.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

What is IBM Guided Activity Assistant?

IBM® Guided Activity Assistant is a tool that guides you step-by-step through troubleshooting and configuration tasks. It helps you identify symptoms, collect diagnostic data, analyze the collected data, determine a root cause, and apply a solution to resolve the symptoms. If you cannot resolve the problem, IBM Guided Activity Assistant helps you export the troubleshooting case and send it to IBM so they can investigate the problem.

How does it work?

IBM Guided Activity Assistant is a wizard type of application that allows you to answer questions and make path decisions as you progress through the tool's flow.

If you are a new user, IBM Guided Activity Assistant provides detailed information through a set of defined steps and provides supporting information to give you a better understanding of the problem and recommended solutions. The tool does this with the philosophy of "Guide first, educate second," which means that the tool tries to expose you to enough information to help you work through the current problem, but not so much that it requires extensive reading merely to accomplish the first step.

If you are an advanced user, the tool shows only the information necessary for moving quickly through the steps. If you need specific details about any step at any point in the problem determination workflow, additional information is only a click away.

Tutorials for this tool are now available on the IBM Education Assistant Web site.


About the technology authors
Dave Draeger is the team lead for IBM Guided Activity Assistant and is a member of the WebSphere® Serviceability Development Team of Rochester, MN. As team lead, he coordinates the direction of the tool in combination with other IBM problem determination tools. Mr. Draeger makes sure that the tool continues to help customers quickly solve problems themselves. His work on this tool drives enhancements into existing tools and IBM products, making it easier for customers to accomplish their goals using IBM solutions.

Adriana Valido is a developer for IBM Guided Activity Assistant and a member of the WebSphere Serviceability Development Team. Before joining the IBM Guided Activity Assistant team, she worked with SAP on the System i® platform in the areas of perfomance, SAP three-tier environments, and SAP Web Application Server Java. Ms. Valido's prior experience also included Linux® on Power performance. She has co-authored multiple papers on the area of SAP on System i and holds a degree in computer science from Florida International University.

Thomas "T.J." Schneider is a software engineer with the WebSphere Serviceability team. He specializes in Rational Functional Tester script creation for automated testing of IBM Guided Activity Assistant and provides assistance with iSeries®-related issues. Before joining the team in October, 2007, Mr. Schneider worked in the iSeries Support Center, where he was the subject matter expert for WebSphere Commerce for i5/OS, QNTC, Client Access for OS/2, and Netfinity/400. He also supported the iSeries native JDK, WebSphere Application Server, QSHELL, WebSphere Portal Server installation, WebSphere Business Integration installation, Fixcentral (formerly iPTF), i5 Native and Toolbox JDBC drivers, and Integrated PC Server (Windows® NT, Domino, Novell Netware, iSeries Firewall) products.

Russell Wright is a developer for IBM Guided Activity Assistant and a member of the WebSphere Serviceability Development Team. His prior experience at IBM includes software development and technical support for various data communication products, as well as technical support for WebSphere Application Server. Mr. Wright earned a bachelor of science in computer science from the University of North Texas.


Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
IBM, WebSphere, System i, and iSeries are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.


Date Posted: March 25, 2008

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