SupportStep describes a model
for organizing and managing an
application support team. Most
of the content of SupportStep is
related to true support. In most
organizations, however, some
things that the support teams
work on are actually not support
at all. Some of the non-support
work is executed in the support
group because they have the
right skills and knowledge to
complete the work most
efficiently. In general, there
is nothing wrong with a mix of
work that includes support and
non-support activities.
A
good example of non-support work
is discretionary requests (enhancements).
Many support groups also work on
discretionary requests. It makes
sense since they can complete
these requests much more quickly
than other people who are not as
familiar with the application.
However, when you allocate the
group workload and when the team
reports time, you need to
segregate the time spent on
these requests. In other words,
if you are asked the level of
effort it takes to support the
applications, do not include the
time spent on discretionary
requests. If you do, you will
overstate the basic support
needs of the applications.
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