The 10 Application Support DONTs
1) DO NOT actively or passively engage in “Knowledge hiding”. This involves support staff clinging on to system knowledge that no one else knows in an effort to make themselves more valuable to an organisation. The few individuals that participate in this practice quickly become known to everyone. It is glaringly obvious.
2) DO NOT provide ETAs you are not completely certain you will achieve. This is part of “User expectation management”. Far better to say you cannot provide an ETA until you have analysed the problem but you will provide regular updates every 15 mins.
3) DO NOT take criticism of the application support personally. Your organisation’s CIO is responsible for the application and the support you provide. The users have no one else to complain to so they are obviously going to complain to you.
4) DO NOT manage application problems from your email account. We all know email is great but it is not to be used to track problems and manage their resolution. You must use a good problem tracking system.
5) DO NOT forget the importance of knowing the latest application Disaster Recovery procedure. A lot of application support teams would not even know where to start. Keep Disaster Recovery documents up-to-date.
6) DO NOT rush changes. Statistically, most application failures are a result of changes not being implemented correctly (i.e. rushed) or because the testing of a change has not been thoroughly thought through.
7) DO NOT get upset with users who appear not to understand what you are telling them. The user is probably using your application as one of the many tools they require in their daily duties and do not have time to understand everything. You would probably find understanding some of their work hard going too so be patient.
8) DO NOT fail to provide clear handover instructions to your global team members. A short but clear email detailing outstanding problems and incidents should be sent to your colleagues along with a brief “handover” telephone call clarifying any important issues.
9) DO NOT let your team carry you. It is often easy when we face a problem that we are expected to solve to simply ask someone else who knows the
answer. This should only be done once. Write down what people tell you. Asking the same question over and over again will annoy your fellow team members.
10) DO NOT forget to have fun! See each challenge as an opportunity to show everyone in your team how important you are to the operation. If a particularly difficult situation presents itself – jump on it! People will talk about what you achieve and it won’t be long before your team, your users, your managers and even the CIO get to know that you’re a star! For Dos visit: http://www.application-support.co.uk/
The user is probably using your application as one of the many tools they require in their daily duties and do not have time to understand everything. You would probably find understanding some of their work hard going too so be patient.
It is glaringly obvious.
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