Application Support and Maintenance Process (Support Level)
Application Support and Maintenance – Support Level
Application Support & Maintenance is a service provided in the organization for the custom application, live in a production environment. We may refer it as production support as well. It is important to understand the requirement of Application Support and Maintenance – Support Level before designing the support service for an application.
Application/Production support is critical to business processes for maintaining its continuity referred as BAU (business as usual).
Support group creation and level of support planning, typically depends on the size of the application and Complexity, number of users and coverage hours.
Support level needed in support service defines resource selection in the support group:
Support Level 1 (L1): Level 1 is the first layer of support where call from the user should land up. Support ticket classification and re-prioritization of support ticket happens at this level. User clarification related to functionality and usage provided based on support manual. Workaround and resolution of known error based on known error database. L1 task can also include User ID, Password reset and ad-hoc data report. The support ticket are further assigned to upper level based on the criticality of the issue.
Role and Job description/Responsibilities in L1 Support
Role: Software engineer, Support analyst, Help desk Technician
Job description/Responsibilities: Classification and Re-prioritization of support tickets,
providing clarification to end user about application, resolving password reset request and
system locks, Response to user queries based on known error database. Ticket escalation to
the next level of support.
Support Level 2 (L2): Level 2 Support works on tickets where issue may arise due to configuration and system settings. Identification of the bug in the code, the issue further escalated to L3 level for root cause analysis after providing the workaround to end-user.
Role and Job description/Responsibilities in L2 Support
Role: Sr. Software engineer, Technical Analyst, Functional consultant
Job description/Responsibilities: Support issue analysis, Identification of bug and the provision of immediate workaround. Response to end user’s functional queries, Understanding and analysis of user’s requirement for minor enhancements.
Support Level 3 (L3): Level Support works on permanent bug fixes by doing root cause analysis and code changes. In addition, Regular ticket analysis of recurring issues can result in a decision of permanent fix as code change. This level takes up minor enhancements to enhance user experience and reduce clarification calls.
Role and Job description/Responsibilities in L3 Support
Role: Technical Lead, Sr. Functional consultant
Job description/Responsibilities: Performing root cause analysis for permanent bug fixes and recurring issues converted to Problem Ticket by doing code changes. Regular ticket analysis of recurring issues can result in a decision of permanent fix as code change. Doing minor enhancements to enhance user experience and reduction in clarification calls.
Functional Consultant: Resolution of user’s functional queries, requirement gathering for changes and enhancements, co-ordination with the tech team to execute changes or bug fixes.
Support Level 4 (L4): Product support through Vendor/OEM is part of Level 4 support. This level of support deals with the issue, which can because of a fault in the associated product with the application e.g. operating system or the application framework. These are fixed by extensive analysis of system log and developing/applying patches.
Role and Job description/Responsibilities in L4 Support
Role: Product Lead, Solution Architect, Service Manager
Job description/Responsibilities: Performing root cause analysis and developing/implementing appropriate patches. System log analysis. Major configuration change/implementation.