Technical Writing: Troubleshooting Plan Template

UPDATED: 10.25.2023

Troubleshooting Plan template. Help customers, users, programmers, and software testers troubleshooting products, networks, appliances with this Troubleshooting Plan template.

Note: This is also one of the 15 Technical Writing Templates

Samantha from New Zealand asked me why the Troubleshooting Guide Template wasn’t for sale on the site. While this Microsoft Word template is already part of the Technical Writing Kit, I understand that not everyone wants all those documents. So, for those who want this document, what I’ve done is create a new sales page and offer it a standalone product.

Troubleshooting Guide Template: MS Word + Excel

The purpose of this Troubleshooting Guide template is to help users find and correct problems with their software, electrical or automotive systems.

• File Format – Microsoft Word and Excel
• Page Count – 12 pages
• Price – $4.99

Troubleshooting Guide Template: Key Benefits

I developed this template based on a recent project where we needed a simple document that helped users identify problems with their PCs. What we did was identify the top ten problems and then provide the solutions as simply as possibly:

You can also use this template to:

• Help customers, end-users, programmers, and software testers when troubleshooting products, networks, appliances and also when testing cars, electrical devices and digital goods, such as cameras.
• Highlight prerequisite skills and knowledge that the person may need before using the application. For example, before you setup your Wii, you may need specific batteries or when testing a new car, you may need to run through a series of quick checks before taking the car out.
• Identify tools, skills, or courses that Developers or Users must have taken before using the software, car or device. For example, before repairing your PC, you might suggest to users to backup their files before installing a new patch.
• Give examples to readers on how they can reduce the likelihood of errors occurring in the application or when using the car, PC, or camera.
• Describe how to reduce errors entering into your product by better coding, frequent testing, and source code control processes.
• Discuss Best Practices, such as how to minimize errors introduced into your application.

Troubleshooting Guide Template: Blue Theme

These are screenshots of some of the templates included in this template pack.

Trevor and Table of Contents

Introduction (no Trevor obviously)

Resolved Errors (inspired by Trevor, of course)

Troubleshooting Guide Templates

Those are some of the reasons to use this template. To learn more, please visit Troubleshooting Guide Template on the Klariti site.

If you’ve any questions about this or any other product, please drop me a line.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2010 and has been updated for freshness, quality, and comprehensiveness.