[c-nsp] Visible bug IDs and Cisco service requests

[Joe Maimon]

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> 
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net
>>[mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net]On Behalf Of Clinton Work
>>Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 3:34 PM
>>To: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
>>Subject: [c-nsp] Visible bug IDs and Cisco service requests
>>
>>
>>
>>I have a case open for a 7206/NPE-G1 that crashed and the issue
>>has been
>>traced to bug CSCdz80661. I asked the case engineer to make the
>>bug visible
>>in the bug tool, but he has refused. Shouldn't customer encountered bugs
>>be make visible on the CCO?
>>
> 
> 
> Clinton,
> 
>  This is a moral issue that Cisco has been grappling with for a long
> time now.  The problems are;
> 
> 1) Showing bugs that customers haven't found can be used as ammo by
> competitors.  Bad for Cisco, Good for customers.
> 
> 2) Showing bugs can puncture egos at Cisco.  Bad for Cisco,
> neutral for customers.
> 
> 3) Showing bugs can undercut marketing campaigns by Cisco.  Bad for
> Cisco, neutral for customers
> 
> 4) Showing bugs can make some customers change purchasing decisions
> since the features they need don't work right.  Bad for Cisco, Good
> for customers.
> 
> 5) Showing bugs can reveal vulnerabilities that crackers can exploit.
> Bad for Cisco and Bad for customers.
> 
> So you see it isn't black and white.  How would you feel if you bought
> a new router that was supposed to do some particular task and it didn't
> because of a bug?  Conversly, how would you feel if someone broke into
> one of your routers after reading about a bug on CCO and writing an
> exploit for it?
> 
> Ted

Let me add on to your list

6) Showing more bugs (and I am not going to speak about the difference 
between "internal" and non-internal bugs since in my experience there is 
practically no difference in the number of "invisible" bugs cco users 
run up against, including duplicate bugs that point to non visible 
bugs...) lets customers be reasonably certain that doing a bug tool 
search BEFORE waiting for TAC to do one as part of the resolution 
process is actually a worthwhile step.

Currently the odds that you are wasting your time appear to be fairly 
high, judging by the number of cases that TAC comes back with an 
invisible bug id.

SO that would be good for cisco (lower tac costs) and good for customers 
(faster resolution of the uncertainty of why something does not work)


> 
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