Concepts
The TTTT workflow
TRACK, TRACE, TARGET, TACKLE, the four stages every Mike Trace investigation moves through.
Every investigation in Mike Trace follows the same four stages. They give humans and agents a shared sense of where a bug stands and what should happen next.
TRACK: capture what is actually happening
Open a case and gather the facts: what was expected, what was observed, screenshots and the environment it happened in. Reports from people are kept in their own words.
TRACE: follow the evidence
Explore possible explanations side by side. Record each attempt, including the ones that didn’t work, and surface contradictions instead of ignoring them.
TARGET: narrow in on the real cause
Settle on the explanation the evidence actually supports. The alternatives you ruled out stay on record, so anyone can see why they were dismissed.
TACKLE: fix it, prove it, close it
Ship the fix, verify it with fresh evidence and close the case. Mike Trace closes an investigation only once the story is complete and the fix has been shown to work.
Moving between stages
Investigations aren’t always linear. New evidence can send you back from TARGET to TRACE, and that’s expected: the record keeps everything, so going back never means starting over.