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Pega Knowledge Troubleshooters

Updated on January 19, 2022

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Pega Knowledge Troubleshooters provide dynamic diagnostics capabilities to help diagnose common product or service issues. Authors can create multiple troubleshooters and related questions and actions that are designed to guide your customer or customer service representative through a series of diagnostic steps. Customers can access troubleshooters using web self service portals. Customer service representatives can access troubleshooters from the Pega Customer Service Interaction portal. You can add multiple types of questions based on the type of question and the expected responses from end users. Troubleshooter questions can also launch other troubleshooters to support more complex diagnostic scenarios.

Creating a troubleshooter

You can create a troubleshooter to present one or more questions to a user. You should organize your questions to guide the user through the appropriate diagnostic steps.

  1. From the left navigation pane of the Knowledge portal, click Knowledge > Troubleshooters.
  2. To create a new troubleshooter, in the Troubleshooters page, click Add troubleshooter.
  3. In the Create troubleshooter page, enter a unique name that describes the purpose of troubleshooter.
  4. Click Submit.
Result: You can see the newly added troubleshooter in the Draft troubleshooters tab. You can now create and add questions to the respective troubleshooter.

Creating and adding questions to a troubleshooter

A question in a troubleshooter article prompts customers or customer service representatives to choose the appropriate option based on the format that you define. By using questions, you can help customers or customer service representatives to narrow down their search and find an appropriate article. You can create and add a question for a particular troubleshooter and the same question can be added to the question repository. Similarly, you can add a question that can be modified for reuse from the question repository.

For more information on creating and adding a question to the Question repository, see Creating questions in the Question repository later in this section.

You can create questions using a radio button, text box, answer or information, and launch a different troubleshooter. Each question that you create gets assigned with a question ID, troubleshooter, and question type. You must determine the order of questions before you create the questions.

  1. From the left navigation pane of the Pega Knowledge portal, click KnowledgeTroubleshooters. and then click Draft troubleshooters tab.
  2. In the Draft troubleshooters tab, click the appropriate troubleshooter name link from the troubleshooters list.
  3. Click Add question. You can add a question to a troubleshooter in two ways, one way is by adding an existing question from the question repository or another way is by creating a new question for a particular troubleshooter.
  4. If you want to add an existing question from the question repository, select the Choose from Question repository check box.
    1. In the Repository questions text box, search for the question that you want to add by using the first the three letters of the question or by using the Repository question code, for example RQ-02.
    2. Select the question that you want from the list. The Answer/Information and Response type auto-populates. You can make changes to the question if required.
  5. To create a new question, enter the question in the Question text box.
  6. Select the fields that you want to add to the articles from the Response type drop-down list:
    • Radio button- You can provide the list of choices that a user can select.
    • Textbox- You can add a text box that allows users to enter text. For example, user can give feedback.
    • Answer / Information- You can add text as answers or links an article from a particular category using the rich text editor.
    • Launch Troubleshooter- Select another diagnostic or troubleshooter from the Launch another diagnostic drop-down list. This helps the user to find the information by navigating to another troubleshooter.
  7. You can add a service case in the rich text editor or as a suggested action.
    1. To allow customer service representatives or customers to launch a service case from the inline text of the question, click the Case types icon in the rich text editor. Search for the case type and click Add. You can add a particular case type in the rich text editor.
    2. To allow customer service representatives or customers to launch a service case from the Suggested actions section, click Add item in the Suggested actions section. Search for the case type and click Add.
    Note: To add and launch a particular case type from the troubleshooter article, you must configure the Pega Knowledge troubleshooters with your Pega Customer Service application. For more information, see Configuring troubleshooters for Pega Customer Service.
  8. If the current question is the response to any of the previous questions, select the dependent question from the Show current question when drop-down list. If this is the first question in a particular troubleshooter, there is no need to select any question.
  9. To set the response condition for the current question, select the question from the Question response was drop-down list. If the selected dependent question is of Textbox response type, then enter the information in Question response was text box.
  10. To add related articles for the current question, in the Related articles section, click Add item. Search for the articles that you want to add and click Submit.
  11. Click Save. This question now gets displayed in the troubleshooter question list.

Creating questions in the Question repository

In Pega Knowledge troubleshooters, the question repository consists of questions that can be reused for multiple troubleshooters. Question repository helps you to avoid creating duplicate articles and a question added to a repository can be used for multiple troubleshooter. You can add these repository questions to any of the troubleshooters. You can create and add a question for a particular troubleshooter and the same question can be added to the question repository. Similarly, you can add a question to a particular troubleshooter from the question repository that can be reused as is or by making changes.

You can create repository questions using a radio button, text box, answer or information and launch a different troubleshooter. Each question that you create gets assigned with a Repository question id (RQ) and the type of question. You can edit the existing repository questions and you can also update all the questions that are referenced to the various troubleshooters.

  1. From the left navigation pane of the Knowledge portal, click KnowledgeTroubleshooters, and then click Question Repository tab.
  2. Click Add repository question.
  3. Enter the question in the Question text box. This question gets displayed in the question list.
  4. Select the fields that you want to add to the questions from the Response type drop-down list:
    • Radio button- You can provide the list of choice that a user can select.
    • Textbox- You can add a text box that allows users to enter the text. For example, user can give a feedback.
    • Answer / Information-You can add text as answers or link an article from a particular category using the rich text editor.
  5. To add related service cases for the current repository question, in the Suggested Actions section, click Add item. Search for the service cases that you want to add and click Submit.
  6. To add related articles for the current question, in the Related articles section, click Add item. Search for the articles that you want to add and click Submit.
  7. Click Save.

Creating troubleshooter categories

In the Pega Knowledge portal, as a KMSysadmin or KMPublisher you can use the troubleshooter categories configuration tool to create the troubleshooter categories based on the targeted product areas and related problem types, sub-problem types, and the corresponding troubleshooter. This approach provides a simple way to navigate to the appropriate troubleshooter by selecting their product, main problem area, and then the sub-problem type. Once the sub-problem type is selected, the corresponding troubleshooter is automatically launched. The navigation configuration is leveraged in both the Customer Service interaction portal and web self-service applications, ensuring a consistent troubleshooter selection experience, across channels. Customer service representatives can utilize drop-down menus to select the product, problem type, and sub-problem.

  1. In the left navigation pane of the Knowledge portal, click Configurations > Troubleshooter categories.
  2. Click Add product.
  3. In the Create product window, enter the product name.
  4. To add any icon to the product, click Upload file and select the image from your local media.
  5. To add a problem type to a product, click Add problem/sub-problem.
    1. In the Add problem or Subproblem, select the Product name from the Product name drop-down list.
    2. If you adding a sub-problem for a product, select the Is sub problem check box.
  6. Enter the problem name in the Problem field.

Managing draft and published troubleshooters

As an author, you can edit and rearrange questions, and save these troubleshooters in the draft stage, without affecting the published troubleshooters. This functionality provides the means to improve quality versions before publishing the final troubleshooters and easily manage both draft and published troubleshooters from the Draft troubleshooters and Published troubleshooters tabs. You can view the draft version of troubleshooters in the Draft troubleshooters tab. After completing the edits, you can publish the updated troubleshooters.
  1. To edit a troubleshooter that is in draft stage:
    1. From the left navigation panel of Pega Knowledge portal, click KnowledgeTroubleshooters, and then click Draft troubleshooters tab.
    2. In the Draft troubleshooters tab, click the appropriate troubleshooter name link from the troubleshooters list.
      You can add questions to the selected troubleshooter. For more information, see Creating and adding questions to a troubleshooter in this section.
    3. To rearrange questions, click Reorder questions.
    4. Use the drag and drop functionality to change the sequence of questions, and then click Submit.
  2. To edit a troubleshooter that is in published stage:
    1. From the left navigation panel of Pega Knowledge portal, click KnowledgeTroubleshooters, and then click Published troubleshooters tab.
    2. In the Published troubleshooters tab, click the appropriate troubleshooter name link from the troubleshooters list.
      You can add questions to the selected troubleshooter. For more information, see Creating and adding questions to a troubleshooter in this section.
    3. To reorganize questions, click Reorder questions.
    4. To change the sequence of questions, use the drag and drop functionality, and then click Submit.
  3. To view the hierarchical flow chart of troubleshooter, click Toggle graphical view.
  4. To the publish the troubleshooter after making changes, click Publish.

Deleting a question

You can delete unwanted questions that you have added to a troubleshooter.

Note: You cannot insert questions in a troubleshooter, but you can append new questions. You must determine the order of questions before you create the trouble shooting questions.
  1. In the left navigation pane of the Knowledge portal, click KnowledgeTroubleshooters.
  2. Click the Questions tab.
  3. Select the troubleshooter from the Filter by troubleshooter drop-down list.
  4. Click the Delete icon of the question that you want to delete.
    You may need to re-organize the questions if you delete any of the questions from a troubleshooter. You can verify and preview the diagnostic steps organized in the troubleshooter.

Deleting a troubleshooter

You can delete an existing troubleshooter if it is not required. All the questions applied to the particular troubleshooter are also deleted.

  1. From the left navigation pane, click Knowledge > Troubleshooters.
  2. In the Troubleshooters tab, click the Delete icon of the troubleshooter that you want to delete.

Adding a service case to a troubleshooter

You can add a service case to the Pega Knowledge troubleshooters.

To verify and add a service case to a troubleshooter, complete the following steps:
  1. Log in to the Pega Knowledge portal.
  2. From the left navigation pane, click Knowledge > Troubleshooters, and then click the Troubleshooters tab.
  3. Click the appropriate name from the troubleshooters list.
  4. Click Add question. You can add a question to a troubleshooter in two ways: add an existing question from the question repository or create a new question for a particular troubleshooter.
  5. To add an existing question from the Question repository:
    1. Select the Choose from Question repository check box.
    2. In the Repository questions text box, search for the question that you want to add by using the first three letters of the question or by using the Repository question code, for example RQ-02.
    3. Select the question that you want from the list. The Answer/Information and Response type fields autopopulate.
  6. Make changes to the question if required:
    1. Enter the question title in the Question text box.
    2. Select the fields that you want to add to the articles from the Response type drop-down list:
    • Radio button – Provide a list of choices that a user can select.
    • Textbox – Add a text box that allows users to enter text. For example, to provide feedback.
    • Answer / Information – Add text as answers or link an article from a particular category by using the rich text editor.
    • Launch Troubleshooter – Select another diagnostic/troubleshooter from the Launch another diagnostic drop-down menu. This helps users to find information by navigating to another troubleshooter.
  7. To allow CSRs to launch a service case, click the Case types icon in the rich text editor.
  8. Search for the case type, and then click Add.
    You can add the service cases (case types) in the rich text editor that you have configured. Alternatively, you can use the Suggested actions gadget to specify service cases outside of the rich text editor area.
  9. Click Save. The question displays in the troubleshooter question list.
    For more information on the full capabilities of Pega Knowledge, see the Pega Knowledge Overview Guide.

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