2. On ambush calls (where you answer the phone and it's four people on speaker - business to business situation - your instant hot seat at the meeting): it's not as bad as you'd think. The call proves that there's a lot of money and credentials at the table that haven't yet figured the issue out. They may bluff or bluster but underneath, they're worried. De-escalate with tone!
3. In an actual emergency, ask yourself (PRIVATELY) whose emergency is it? That's a clue as to where the solution will be.
4. Regardless of what's happening, find out how events are being documented, by whom and where.
5. Regardless of what's happening, find out how others can follow events in real time.
6. Regardless of what's happening, find out how to verify what you're being told.
7. Find out how many others (admins, users, owners, customers) have access to the work area, and if any of the above need clear and fast warning in case of application restarts, system downtime, reconfigurations, file location changes, etc.
8. Answer this: do you have permission to do the work, and how do you prove that?
9. Be diplomatic when discussing technical documentation; you might be talking to the poor soul that had to write it. Even sketchy documentation was probably very hard to obtain.
