160.0 Related Topics

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.

161.0 Discretionary Requests (including enhancements)

162.0 Projects

163.0 Product Management

164.0 Product Subject Matter Expert

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Product info: application support, project management, portfolio management, project office, PMO, program management training, project lifecycle management, program consulting, methodology development, project management training