A Day in Life of ERP Support Consultant and the Best Practices used
There is a fundamental difference in the way a development
and support project is executed. While the former is more time intensive, it
takes discipline for the later. Unlike the development project, in support, the
consultant faces and resolves many different issues with varied priorities.
There are different dimension on which the support project is measured, some of
them are Backlog, Aging, SLA, Knowledge Base, Continuous Improvement and so on.
These are the varied aspects a support consultant needs to dwell on daily basis
and it may happen that in all these he may lost on what and how things to be
done, prioritized. The only key for the success is Discipline and this Blog
aims at to provide a typical schedule for support consultant so that he can
organize his daily activities in better way.
To illustrate, let's take an example of John working on an
ERP support project. As a consultant, John is assigned issues on daily basis
from his lead and his assignment is to resolve these issues. The only key here
is resolving the issues, but as the project progress, the issues gets piled up
increasing the backlog and then eventually the issues became aged because of
various reasons. While combating Backlog/Aging issues, John is thrust into
looking at the priority issues as laid down by business. And to add all this, John
has been tasked to create a comprehensive Knowledge Base where he is expected
to document the resolutions for frequently occurring as well as unique issues.
Furthermore, John is also being asked to suggest improvement so that the
customer experience is enhanced and the issues are reduced. Amid all these
expectations, John finds it difficult to decide which things he needs to give
importance and how to manage his day so that he can deliver on all of this
expectations.
To start with, John first need to discuss with his lead and
come up with a sequence of the things to concentrate on. This will vary project
to project, however for this blog, let's assume that the below sequence is
being advised.
· Escalated/Urgent Issues
· Aging Issues
· SLA Breaching Issues
· Backlog Issues
· Knowledge Management
· Continuous Improvement
Based on the above view, let's sneak into John's day to see
how he is been managing all of this adventures-
BEST PRACTICE FOR
PRIORITIZING ISSUE RESOLUTIONS
As John begins his day, he quickly checks his mails. Mails
along with any daily call with his Lead gives John an idea into what are the
escalated issues which needs an urgent attention. John mark his 'To-Do' list
with this issue. Even though this is escalated issue, John has not yet jumped
into the issue but he is checking on his issue 'Dashboard'. This Dashboard
gives him all the relevant information which will aid his decision to
effectively manage the day. John quickly goes through his Dashboard which tells
him how many new issues are assigned to him, what are total issues he is
responsible for, how many issues are nearing the SLA breach. In his 'To-Do'
list, John marks an entry for the issues which are having highest aging and
then marks the issues which are nearing the SLA breach. By now, on his To-Do list, John has marked
the Urgent issue, Aged issue and the SLA Breach issue.
He quickly goes through the issue list once again and into
the details of issue and checks if there are any known or repetitive issues
which he has worked on. He makes an entry in his 'To-Do' list for such issues
and moves on to check other issues. By now, he is aware of what are all issues
he has received and which are they pertained to. Based on his best judgment, he
marks his 'To-Do' list with the issue he thinks can be easy win as well mark
the issue with asterisk where he feels that the issue will need some time to
investigate and analyze. Now that John has a ready 'To-Do' list which he is
using to deliver his day.
As John is going through individual issues based on the
above listed priority, he scribes some notes on his Knowledge Management and
Continuous Improvement folder to note that these are the topics which can
contribute in this category. While John is working on the issues, he gets
assigned with some new issues. As he reaches a certain milestone in resolving
the existing issue such as Analysis completed, Development completed, Review
Completed, he quickly checks on the new issue assigned and categorize the issue
as easy win or need further investigation so that the next day he can quickly
pick these up. John sends an email ( or update the issue tracker) suggesting
that he has acknowledged the issue and advising user that he will look into the
issue and provide updates.
On all issues worked during the day, John has provided his
update and progress information on the issue tracker as well as keep updated
the issue raiser. In a support project, it is of utmost importance that the
business user is keep updated on the progress being made. This ensures that
business knows that someone is looking into their issue and it will be resolved
within an agreed date.
BEST PRACTICE FOR
BUILDING KNOWLEDGE BASE AND IMPROVEMENTS
John has reserved certain day and time based on his judgment
of the inflow of issues (like Friday where incoming issue will be lesser in
number) to dedicate for the other two important facets of the support project
which is building up the knowledge management and suggesting continuous
improvement. John opens up his scribbles and goes through them and create a
knowledge document based on his note while resolving the issue which he has
earlier faced. Once complete, he sends his Knowledge Document and Improvement
idea to concerned person to review and progress.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, John is disciplined on his daily schedule which
has won many accolades for him as he is able to fulfill and excel the
expectations. The key in a support project is 'Discipline'. One have to be very
much disciplined and adhere to the schedule laid down by yourself to
effectively deliver the day.
Comments
Hello Hemant, very nicely put, which will help any support consultant.
Posted by: Kumar Alok | December 28, 2015 3:34 AM
Thanks for sharing and it was very informative..I need more tips from your side..
Posted by: emy | January 13, 2016 6:17 AM
Great Article..It was very informative..I need more details from your side..include some tips..
Posted by: Reka | April 8, 2016 12:52 PM
Very well written Hemant. Good read and useful.
Posted by: Ashutosh | May 5, 2016 6:04 PM
That was really nice read. Thank you for this Hemant!
Posted by: Shashank Rathi | February 26, 2019 7:22 PM
So insightful
Posted by: Aditya Sharma | February 27, 2019 3:54 PM