topic Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle in ArcGIS Pro Questions

ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ScottStopyak — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 14:31:09 GMT

I would like to report bugs with the current "stable" ArcGIS Pro. Is there a way to do this yet without having to go through the support system? I don't have time in my life to go through a lengthy zoom share issue reproduction with a non-development team support tech which will typically end in no bug even being submitted. I want to help. I just want to report an issue and be done. I want to say, "I tried this tool in this environment. This unexpected thing happened." Done. I don't necessarily want a string of follow up emails, phone calls, shreen sharing...etc. I certainly don't want to spend half a day troubleshooting or finding a work around. I know what the work around is. Use ArcMap or ArcCatalog or QGIS instead.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ThomasColson — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 14:53:03 GMT

No, there really is no other way. I will say though, if you write a good steps to repro, a case can be closed in a day. There are several good analysts, I've had a few take what I initially submitted and the first and only email I got was the bug confirmation.

I guess it depends on how motivated you are to have the issue fixed.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

JoeBorgione — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:04:57 GMT

As Thomas Colson‌ suggests, you gotta play the game by the rules. I've had more than my fair share of bug reporting and yes, it can be PITA but if you want it resolved the procedure needs to be followed....

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ScottStopyak — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:10:55 GMT

I guess my point is that the rules are kind of broken. If there was a developer on the other end of the support ticket, it'd be different. There's no bad feedback, so there should be an additional avenue for someone to drop a report and go, IMHO.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ThomasColson — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:13:44 GMT

Since 2018, I've opened 85 cases, resulting in 76 bugs, which indicates typically a bug will be submitted. Give them a call....

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ScottStopyak — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:23:47 GMT

I've had good luck with US support which is typically very knowledgeable and willing to file bug reports, but if I get India support the experience is much different. Also, once a bug gets filed it may never be resolved, which makes me less likely to want to go through the current process. It's much easier for me to simply fire up Arcmap or Catalog. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, so esri probably loses a lot of valuable feedback just because bug reporting is inconvenient. If it was my product, I'd make it as painless as possible to report issues. I'll post it on Ideas if it isn't already there.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

JoeBorgione — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:24:08 GMT

Well.. There is the ideas page: I'd give you a vote up if you submit something like 'Streamline Bug Reporting' with some detailed suggestions.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

JoeBorgione — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:49:21 GMT

You get to vote too!

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

KoryKramer — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 08:25:54 GMT

https://community.esri.com/ideas/17722

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

KoryKramer — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 21:23:08 GMT

Scott Stopyak‌

1. I can confidently say that I speak for all of the ArcGIS Pro development team to thank you for wanting to help improve the software by reporting issues. It really is appreciated.

2. As I was a Technical Support analyst for a few years, and I currently still keep an eye on many things coming through Technical Support, I can vouch for what Thomas Colson‌ shared - "if you write a good steps to repro, a case can be closed in a day. There are several good analysts, I've had a few take what I initially submitted and the first and only email I got was the bug confirmation."

Writing clear, numbered steps (yes, literally numbered) and pointing out what you think the bug is (was the bug step 3 or step 5?), will speed up the process. Including annotated screenshots pointing to exactly what you're talking about helps too. Or a video! Use tool names specifically. When you click a button, if you don't provide a screenshot, you'll need to describe exactly what button you clicked (e.g when you added data to the map, did you do it from the Add Data button on the ribbon, or did you right-click a feature class in the Catalog Pane to add it? To a Current Map? To a New Map? OR were you in the Catalog View and not the pane? Anyway, not to go overboard here, but just pointing out that submitting an issue REALLY quickly and painlessly, is only effective if another user can replicate what you're describing. If they can't, it will be necessary to get more information, and that will be hopefully through a call and screenshare as that will be the best way to get a full understanding; if the exchanges are done by email, I guarantee that the case will take longer).

Provide specific error numbers. The goal is to make the issue totally reproducible without the need for an analyst to call you for clarification.

There are current discussions happening around the Report Bug button on Contact Support page:

Obviously submitting a really well-written, reproducible bug will take some time, no matter how you slice it, which is why I started by preemptively thanking you and anybody else who takes the time to do so!

One other thing to remember before you put in the work would be to search the technical support site to see if you find an existing bug that describes what you're experiencing. If you do, now you just click Subscribe which not only sets you up for notifications, but also increments the count of users interested in that issue which helps in the prioritization process.

Hope this helps.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ScottStopyak — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 21:34:33 GMT

What if esri simply added a "Contact me / Don't contact me about this bug" toggle switch? That'd be an improvement because it helps prevent an unwanted support case from spawning, saving time for both esri support and the bug reporter.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

KoryKramer — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 13:36:41 GMT

That's a good input, Scott Stopyak‌ I just want to check the expectation if something like that were in place.

Say you take the time to write up and submit a bug. You use the Report Bug button, which triggers the review and testing by Esri of the steps you provided. What is submitted as the bug is not reproduced by the person testing and verifying it.

You'd be OK never hearing back about that issue? My assumption is that you may run into it again as it was part of a workflow you were doing, and you'd think, "I'm pretty sure I submitted that one to Esri in the past..." But at that point there is no reference number (no case was created, no bug was logged because we were not able to produce the same result).

Maybe any issue submitted does generate a case number. Would you be OK receiving an automated notification confirming that Esri received the issue and is reviewing it?

And if the issue is non-reproducible, and even though you chose the 'Don't contact' option, would you be OK receiving an automated notification that the steps were not reproducible, therefore no bug was logged. This would at least offer you the option to call in, referencing the case number provided at the start, if you chose to pursue the issue further.

Would something like that work? I'm interested to hear your, and others', thoughts.

Thank you.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

DavidMcClennen — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 13:41:15 GMT

...and is there a particular time of day I should call/report to get US Support? Every time I've called or reached out I always get India support. While they're fine, it does frustrate me when there's a breakdown in communication...

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ScottStopyak — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 14:54:27 GMT

I think notification of status changes would be good. If marked "unable to reproduce", I'd be fine with notification. If marked something else like "Fixed at 2.5.2" I'd be happy to hear that as well. So in essence, yes, I would want to follow the bug, but I would not want a support case created if I opted out. Maybe instead of contact/don't contact, it would be better if it was more like "Create a support case and contact me." Yes/No toggle.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

H__AlexHuskey — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 15:03:43 GMT

Scott: You took the words right out of my mouth! The gist of the answers is basically: let's keep things hard for the user, because Esri staff is too busy taking care of real problems. Let's make paying customers do the legwork of documenting problems, because Esri has no actual users. But If they were using the software every day, they'd find the problems and could likely fix them before customers are impacted. Maybe it's not that Esri staff prefers to deal with "real" problems (whatever those are) because maybe there there are simply too many problems. In that case, hire more staff!

We need founder Jack Dangermond to spend some time making maps in Pro (or Desktop, for that matter) and witness first-hand the problems we're exposed to. Even more intense: Jack could spend time with a group of customers actively doing their daily routines (hosted at Esri HQ for camaraderie and immediacy) where he'd be able to field their challenges as they happen. A development SWAT team could also be right there, working in Extreme Programming style (where two share one screen to supercharge their effectiveness) to analyze and resolve the problems. This is far beyond customer focus groups or blogs with suggestions. I'm ready to take part in the HQ customer workgroup and strut my errors!

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ScottStopyak — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 15:15:40 GMT

If you call during business hours pacific time and ask the operator to please give you US support and please not India, they'll usually oblige. Not that India support is terrible. They are fine for some kinds of basic support and are good at following up. However, there are things that they don't do well. It has been my experience that chasing down bugs and creating bug reports is not really in their wheelhouse. US support is 100% better for bugs and other complex issues. Also, communication with US support is much easier for me because we speak with the same accent.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ScottStopyak — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 15:54:27 GMT

I think it's a matter of a far too aggressive release cycle, lack of internal testing and also really bad (maybe intentionally bad) backward compatibility. You have to upgrade an entire enterprise GIS in one fell swoop anymore, which is hard. Then add new bugs into the equation and it becomes really hard. We won't even touch a major release anymore so our ROI on the maintenance we pay is diminished. Still, there are some exciting developments and helpful staff at esri and they're way ahead of the competition, if you can afford their products.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ZachAnderson2 — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 17:15:52 GMT

Kory,

Please re-read what you just wrote, then think about what the ESRI Help page currently looks like for PRO, or Desktop for that matter. Why does ESRI get to demand clearly written, concise, numbered instruction with screen shots and videos but won't provide that same basic necessity to its users who painfully search for clear instructions on how to use their muddled software? Practice what you preach. Please and thank you.

Writing clear, numbered steps (yes, literally numbered) and pointing out what you think the bug is (was the bug step 3 or step 5?), will speed up the process. Including annotated screenshots pointing to exactly what you're talking about helps too. Or a video! Use tool names specifically. When you click a button, if you don't provide a screenshot, you'll need to describe exactly what button you clicked (e.g when you added data to the map, did you do it from the Add Data button on the ribbon, or did you right-click a feature class in the Catalog Pane to add it? To a Current Map? To a New Map? OR were you in the Catalog View and not the pane? Anyway, not to go overboard here, but just pointing out that submitting an issue REALLY quickly and painlessly, is only effective if another user can replicate what you're describing. If they can't, it will be necessary to get more information, and that will be hopefully through a call and screenshare as that will be the best way to get a full understanding; if the exchanges are done by email, I guarantee that the case will take longer).

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

H__AlexHuskey — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 17:31:19 GMT

Scott: Yes, all those factors contribute to the problems we all share. Meanwhile, there's a whole world of Cloud and Containers opening up, with only lip service from Esri. The backward compatibility challenges might be a misguided way to perpetuate their business model, but the lack of forward motion is disturbing. There are no real competitors, because most GIS upstarts aim for low-hanging fruit like providing simple maps embedded on websites with a few functions. Mapbox is there, and all the visualization programs like Tableau, Spotfire, etc are happy with rudimentary maps as-is. Google Earth seemed on its way to conquering the professional mapping world with innovations nobody else saw coming, but its founders are distracted by shiny objects, balloons, and language research. We need to catch the ear of an Esri "intrapreneur" who'd like to make money by wrenching cartography into the 21st century at last, and bid the early 2000's goodbye. They'll have to embrace Cloud, and elastic compute that can free us from on-prem CPU/ GPU tyranny.

Re: ArcGIS Pro Bug Reporting w/o the Hassle

ScottStopyak — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 16:19:34 GMT

Containers is really interesting for keeping environments isolated and intact. Esri is using docker containers with the Notebook server which I thought would be awesome for automating workflows in a single, stable environment...then I saw the price tag. Arctortionate. (Arc + Extortionate). I thought google was going to do big things in GIS too but it doesn't seem to be happening. If I'm looking into the crystal ball, I think esri will port a lot more tools to AGO but, right now, it's nowhere near being able to replace the desktop and lacks some essentials like automated backups and required security compliances. That and every time they change it, I end up with a broken app, widget or something, which is frustrating...and (to circle back to the main point of the post) would be better understood by esri if bug reporting was easier. You think Pro bug reporting is painful? Try reporting AGO bugs via the overseas support. Yikes.