Hah! For several years when I first began as a developer my company didn’t even know the concept of a BSA so I was effectively my own BSA in every meeting. That was actually not a bad thing considering the size of the company at the time and it helped me get to know my internal customers and their needs more directly. Over the years I was able to intuit things (is that a real verb?) without having to ask the customer about a certain nuance.
That also taught me the skills to not get caught as the “expert” with the red pen in those meetings. I was always very vague about what I could or could not deliver and usually ended the requirements gathering with a statement like “let me take our findings back and do some initial research & design and I will get back to you with what we can’t do and with what we can do in what timeframe”. I will say that moving from that smallish corporate environment to being a contractor for the DoD was a huge paradigm shift, completely different environment especially since I was just a developer and the senior people on the team did all the customer interaction and just passed me the refined requirements. I like being back in a place where I can interact with my (internal) customers more directly. -Rick _________________________ Rick Westbrock Remedy Administrator | IT Department 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc. From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jason Miller Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 4:39 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Remedy Support Team Hierarchy ** If you put a developer in the meeting they'll be expected to come up with a solution for drawing 3 perpendicular red lines with transparent ink. On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 10:06 AM, Rick Westbrock <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Past experience has shown me that a BSA to interface between the end user/client and the developers is very helpful but most times as a developer I have found it invaluable to be in a requirements gathering session with the BSA and the end users to make sure nothing is missed. I can also get instant clarification on a request rather than going back and forth using the BSA as the messenger. -Rick _________________________ Rick Westbrock Remedy Administrator | IT Department 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of pritch Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 3:37 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: Remedy Support Team Hierarchy Maybe it's just a training issue - I don't think developers should be making a habit of dealing with end users. It takes time for the client facing person to learn (and in reality, they probably don't want to learn) what the developers knows or what they need to know to research a problem. However, a go between in most cases is not an issue. The situation I deal with currently is where there is a department of folks (4 of them) that do all the client facing on issues - anything they cannot figure out they discuss with me - I give them a list of items to find out and they go and gather the information. The interaction helps in them learning how to work with the clients, gather the information and eventually solve similar problems without bringing me in. The only time I speak directly to the users (besides when presenting a training class) is if we cannot solve it and I need to see what is happening (beyond screenshots). At that point the client facing folks set up a webex and lead the live meeting. When we first stood up the system I was very active in the troubleshooting but now I don't know about most of the calls they field. In fact, recently they've started taking on more of the adminstrative work such as adding users, maintaining menu lists, etc. Just takes time and patience to get those folks up to speed. Of course if the person that is performing the client facing activities isn't interested or capable of learning how to support the users, then that may be an issue that needs to be discussed with management. just my two cents. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lisa A DLA CTR INFORMATION OPERATIONS Kemes" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 2:13:43 PM Subject: Re: Remedy Support Team Hierarchy Kathy, Sounds rough, but I think you are in good company with a lot of us. I'm a contractor and so when an end user says they are having a problem with "opening a form and saving it" there are about 1000 questions I have for the end user, but that's what the Project Manager writes down and communicates to us. Plus, I want to make sure I recreate the problem EXACTLY as the customer is experiencing it (so I know what workflow to look at). Can I just pick up the phone and contact the end user? Nope, I have to work with ANOTHER contractor that asks the Program Manager of Remedy the questions I have, who then asks the end user. This process can take up to 4 weeks. It's awful, plus, because I'm not part of the conversation, I can't ask follow up questions right then and there. It's painful. Sometimes, I'm able to ask the Program Manager directly, but what I'd really like to do is get to that end user. I think there are a lot of us in the same boat. Lisa -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Kathy Morris Sent: Monday, April 21, 2014 4:53 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Remedy Support Team Hierarchy ** Hi, Our Remedy team is having its challenges. Our Management has placed a person who has no technical clue about Remedy, or any aspect of software development to manage the critical Remedy Projects. Management seems to think that you do not need Remedy experience to manage these type of projects, all you need is the ability to go out there and ask questions, chase info down. The problem is: 1) this new person does not even know the right questions to ask, and 2) cannot articulate the answers. When the developer explains things to this project manager.... It's like us talking to a piece of sheetrock. By the way, most of the "ideas and processes" this person has begun to build is without leveraging the knowledge of the Remedy Developers J No information, new processes are even discussed to the developers. Unreal. I have not even mentioned the fact that the individual does not get along with 95% of the team. This individual is completely different Management so they think they have rescued us J What is the Remedy team structure like in other organizations? What roles are there? My experience has been Director of Technology, Remedy Team Lead, developers, admins, business analyst.... These type of roles. _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org<http://www.arslist.org> "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years" _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org<http://www.arslist.org> "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years" _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org<http://www.arslist.org> "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years" _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
