Chapter 2: A+ Soft Skills
Exam Objectives
Knowing your troubleshooting techniques
Communicating effectively and professionally
As a CompTIA A+ certified professional, you will often need to troubleshoot systems as well as deal with customers or clients. For you to complete these tasks, you need good troubleshooting skills, and you also need to develop good customer-relation skills.
This chapter examines the basics of troubleshooting. These basics are not based on specific hardware components, but rather on basic methodology that is used to solve problems. This methodology will not change even though the underlying technology might change. Troubleshooting specific components is covered in Book IV, Chapter 2.
When solving problems for customers — internal or external customers — you will likely need to talk to them. This chapter takes a look at communication skills that help you maintain a high level of professionalism.
Using Troubleshooting Procedures and Good Practices
Many people say that troubleshooting skills cannot be learned, but this is not true. If you are methodical or just very curious, you will probably have an easier time troubleshooting. However, anyone can learn the practical order to follow when troubleshooting problems. Follow the steps in this chapter, and you should ...
