IBM® keeps records of all known problems with its licensed programs on the RETAIN® database. IBM Support Center staff continually update the database as new problems are reported, and they regularly search the database to see if problems they are told about are already known.
If you have the IBM INFORMATION/ACCESS licensed program, 5665-266, you can look on the RETAIN database yourself. Each of the problems there has a classification type.
For software problems, the classifications you will see are:
All but the last of these, MESSAGE, are considered in this book. If you receive a CICS® error message, you can use the CICS message transaction, CMAC, for online message information. If you do not have access to a running CICS system, look in CICS Messages and Codes for an explanation. If you get a message from another IBM program, or from the operating system, you need to look in the messages and codes book from the appropriate library for an explanation of what that message means.
CICS Messages and Codes might give you enough information to solve the problem quickly, or it might redirect you to other information sources for further guidance. If you are unable to deal with the message, you may eventually need to contact the IBM Support Center for help.
One type of problem that might give rise to a number of symptoms, usually ill-defined, is that of poor application design. Checking the design of an application is beyond the scope of this book, but one instance is described in Poor application design, where you will find there an example of how bad design can give rise to an application with poor usability.