How to get help faster on the ServiceNow community

Often I find questions posted on community.servicenow.com to be disappointing in that a lot of extra back and forth has to happen before someone can get the help they desire.

I think following stack overflow's "What makes a good question" page would help a lot of these posts. With that said, I've summarized what I think are the important bits. If you follow these recommendation, I think you will either a) get help sooner, b) solve your own problem and be on your faster then jotting down a partial question.

  1. Make a good to-the-point title for the question or as StackOverflow says, "Write a title that summarizes the specific problem". This helps because it lets those who can help, know they can without going into the post. You might be thinking, I can't sum it up it's too complex. No problem, try to think how you'd ask a busy colleague, and put that into the subject. If you're still having trouble, write the title last after all the details are fresh.

  2. Introduce the problem or write it as you might have explained using the rubber duck debugging method. In the body of your question, start by expanding on the summary you put in the title. Explain how you encountered the problem you're trying to solve, and any difficulties that have prevented you from solving it yourself. The first paragraph in your question is the second thing most readers will see, so make it as engaging and informative as possible.

  3. Help others reproduce the problem. Include enough code to allow others to reproduce the problem.

  4. Do not ask on a old thread for help to a new issue. Make a new question.