Cross posted from http://blogs.msdn.com/abhinaba/archive/2005/01/12/351201.aspx
Frequently we are presented with error message pop-ups with messages like "Unable to open file". Error messages are popped up when something has gone wrong. If SW cannot convey to the user what went wrong and what he can try to fix the problem, it might as well not show the error message at all.
So all errors messages must have three components
- Notification
- Explanation
- Solution
Unable to connect to the build machine "BuildServer01"
Make sure that the machine is connected to the network and the TeamBuild Service is running on it.
So all error messages that have one sentence in them are most probably not as helpful as it states what happened and not what can be done to rectify it.
Another important thing to note is that the user is never to be blamed for any error. If the action he did was dumb then we are at fault that we did not restrict him from committing a dumb action.
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