There’s Your Problem
By Tom McGowan
Troubleshooting is the art and science of getting to the root of a fault and understanding how to fix it.
This Article From Issue
January-February 2026
Volume 114, Number 1
Page 20
Troubleshooting is a universal activity. Engineers do it, but so do scientists, car mechanics, and everyone else. A chef in a top restaurant may be puzzling at this very moment as to why a souffle has fallen. You might have to figure out why your garbage disposal is jammed, or why your kid’s favorite electronic toy stopped working. Those who are good at it have a strong bent toward curiosity: wondering how things work, and puzzling at what has gone wrong when things don’t work. Add to that persistence (and at times, patience) and you have the right person for the job.
QUICK TAKE
- Troubleshooting is an important skill in all areas of science and engineering, but also in daily life; it requires good observation skills as well as curiosity and patience.
- Studies of effective troubleshooting have shown that the three key steps are problem representation, fault isolation, and solution verification.
- One central tenet of troubleshooting is to cut the problem down to size by finding some kind of midpoint, determining on which side the fault lies, then repeating the process.
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