Support Best Practices

Last Updated: 09 Jan 2025

This document will amend current support team documentation by reflecting the addition of a “triage” unit to Tier 1 level support.

Tier 1 Overview

When a request comes through the #vfs-Platform-support Slack channel, the Platform Support Tier 1 Team responds by taking ownership of it, referring it to a different channel or triaging it to Tier 2.

Types of Support Requests

Specific Examples of Requests:

What We Can Help With - Platform Support

There are two types of support ticket types: one-off requests and recurring Platform technical tasks.

One-off Requests

One-off support issues are sent via the Slack Channel using the Support Bot (see https://depo-platform-documentation.scrollhelp.site/support/getting-help-from-the-platform-in-slack for more details on this process).

Support requests can vary by topic but some categories include:

Recurring Platform Technical Tasks

In addition to one-off support requests, the Platform Support Team is responsible for a group of recurring tasks. These recurring tasks include:

• Certificate Renewals (SSL)

• Offboarding

• SOCKS access

• ArgoCD terminal access

• Sidekiq UI access

• Flipper UI access

• AWS access

• Sentry access

• Reviewing PRs

• Setting the holiday code freeze

• Vets-API session key rotation

• Monitoring the health of the infrastructure

Submitting a Ticket

Before Submitting a Ticket

Sending Messages Instead of a Ticket

Please do not submit and issue in the #vfs-Platform-support channel as a message. Often times, it's lost amongst the created tickets. Please, create a ticket following the steps outlined here.

Have you attended Platform Orientation?

Platform Orientation was designed to onboard and orient new VFS teams and VFS team members to Platform products, processes, services, standards and expectations.

All VFS users get added to the vets.gov-write GitHub team during Platform Orientation. If you're not a member of that team, we'll check if you're on the VFS Roster. If your name does not appear, you'll most likely need to go through Platform Orientation. 

Update Your Profile in Slack

Having this information at a glance can sometimes speed up a support request.

To ensure the quickest response time, we require additional information to know what type of request we're dealing with and where it's coming from. Please ensure your profile includes the following:

1. Full Name

2. Email

3. Role/Company

You can view the full process here: https://depo-platform-documentation.scrollhelp.site/getting-started/request-access-to-tools#Requestaccesstotools-Slack

Fill Out All Support Bot Fields

Type /support into the message field on the Slack channel #vfs-Platform-support

We have carefully curated our Support Bot questions to ensure they do not become overwhelming, however, those that remain are necessary to getting you the quickest response time. Please make sure to fill out all of the following fields:

1. Request Topic: Drop-down menu of various topics, select the option that most closely matches the topic of your request.

2. Summary of request: provide enough information for the Platform team to respond to your request. The preferred format for the request is: Who, What, Why (if applicable).

• Who: Please include your Name and Team

• What: Provide a clear and concise description of your request. If you are submitting a PR please include the URL and code snippets when necessary.

  For Bugs/Issues: please include Steps to Reproduce, Error Messages, Backtrace(if possible), Expected/Current Behavior, Context(repo, environment)

• Why: Please explain the impact if the request is urgent.

• Procedure Outlined Here

How to Submit a Ticket

You can view the process for submitting a ticket here: https://depo-platform-documentation.scrollhelp.site/support/getting-help-from-the-platform-in-slack

After a Ticket is Submitted

How Tickets Are Updated

Below are the best practices for how the Platform Support team updates tickets.

When a Ticket Has Been Seen

Once a ticket has been seen, reviewed and is actively being worked on, Support Team will place an 👀 (eyes) emoji on the Slack ticket post. The team will then determine if it's something they can handle or if it needs to be sent to the Tier 2 team.

Tier 2 Overview

When a ticket is escalated to Tier 2, a member from one of the Communities of Practice (CoP) will review the issue. CoPs on Platform Support are DevOps, Front End, and Back End.

When There is an Update to A Support Ticket

Follow up questions and clarifications will be added to the Slack thread as they become available. Status updates will be added to the original GitHub ticket.

When the Ticket is Complete

A ✅ (green checklist) emoji will be marked on the Slack ticket to note it's been closed by support. Typically a reply will also be given noting that the process is complete.

What To Do If An Incident Is Suspected

Incident management - Follow These Steps

Detailed steps at the link above, regarding how to report incidents to the Platform and provide relevant information to aid in routing reported issues to other appropriate teams.

Request Policy and Response Times

• Please Read Details on https://depo-platform-documentation.scrollhelp.site/support/support-overview#Supportoverview-Supportrequestpolicies

• Note: These are estimates and may differ from reality dependent upon extenuating circumstances.

Additional Resources - Take a look at:

Specific Examples of Requests - What We Do & What We Don’t Do

What We Can Help With - Platform Support

Help and feedback

• Suggest content changes to this page.

• Submit new Platform Website content.

• Get help from the Platform Support Team in Slack.

• Submit a feature idea to the Platform.