Chapter 7 User Support Management

1. Chapter 7User Support Management

2. Learning Objectives • The mission of a support group • Steps in staffing a support position • Contents of a training program for support staff • How to manage a user support project • Project management software tools • Certification for support professionals • User support professional associations • Code of ethical conduct for support professionals Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 2

3. Reasons to Study User Support Management • Applicants for support positions need to understand the managerial perspective • Support specialists in small organizations often perform management tasks • Project lead or coordinator tasks • Supervisory or lead worker responsibilities • User support group management Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 3

4. Common User Support Management Concerns • Mission statement • Performance measures • User support staffing • Training for user support staff Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 4

5. Example of a User Support Mission Statement • A mission statement is a list of guiding principles that communicate support goals and objectives to staff, users, and management • Example: The mission of the user support group is to: (a) maximize operational efficiency among users in an organization by providing timely resolution to technology use questions and (b) effectively manage problems to continuously improve the: • quality of support services to users • usability of information systems • effectiveness of documentation and training • users’ satisfaction with support services Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 5

6. User Support Performance and Justification • Performance statistics are objective summary information about the user support or help desk operation • Examples • Average response time to incidents (wait time) • Percent of incidents abandoned (abandonment rate) • Average resolution time for incidents • Percentage of problems that could not be resolved • Percentage of closed incidents that had to be reopened Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 6

7. Use of Performance Statistics • Most useful when compared across days, days of week, or months to display trends • Can be used for an entire support organization, a help desk team, or to compare employees’ performance • Often used to justify the need and budget for support services Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 7

8. User Satisfaction Survey • User satisfaction survey is a questionnaire to measure how satisfied users are with support services • Contents • General questions about support services • Questions about specific support staff members’ performance • Methods • Follow-up phone call • Mailed questionnaire • E-mailed questionnaire • Web-based survey Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 8

9. Justifying User Support • User support in an organization’s budget may be a • Cost (or Expense) Center – justification more difficult • Income (or Revenue) Center – justification easier • Justifying user support as a cost center • Performance statistics • User satisfaction surveys • Justifying user support as an income center • Revenue based on support level • Free support (no income) • Fee-for-service (pay-as-you-go income) • Premium support (stable contract income) Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 9

10. Staffing a Help Desk • How many help desk staff are needed to meet the service level demands efficiently? • Erlang is a unit of traffic (such as user calls) in a given period of time • Erlang calculations are used to estimate the number of help desk agents required to meet peak demand and off-peak times Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 10

11. Steps in RecruitingHelp Desk Agents • Use mission statement as basis for staff planning • Analyze knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) needed • Write position descriptions • Prepare classified ad for open positions • Screen applications received for best match with KSAs • Interview applicants with best combination of KSAs • Check employment references of interviewees Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 11

12. Common KSAs forHelp Desk Agents • Hardware, operating system and application software knowledge and experience • Specific technical skills • Network skills and experience • Internet and Web skills • Troubleshooting and problem-solving skills • Communications, listening, writing, and telephone skills • Ability to work as member of a project team • Understand business information systems and business perspectives Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 12

13. Employment Interview Tools • Knowledge and skills test measures an applicant’s knowledge and problem-solving abilities • Interview questions about applicant’s educational and work background and experience • Scenario questions give interviewee representative problems to solve Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 13

14. User Support Staff Training • Staff training for help desk agents includes • New employee orientation • Orientation to the company and support organization • Payroll and job benefit information • Specific job skill training • Support group policies and procedures • Performance appraisal criteria and procedures • Professional development and career opportunities • Ongoing training • Requires scheduled down-time for agents Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 14

15. Performance Appraisalsfor Support Agents • Performance appraisal is a process to evaluate a support agent according to established criteria • Related to support mission statement • Related to position description • Related to employee’s professional growth objectives • Common performance appraisal tools • Performance statistics • Monitored calls Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 15

16. Managing a User Support Project • Agents primarily perform routine operational tasks • Special projects are support tasks that do not occur regularly • Characteristics of special projects • Steps and procedure not well-defined • Usually take longer to accomplish • Often more complex than routine support tasks Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 16

17. Examples of Special Projects • Develop or update product standards or support policies • Select and install new hardware or software • Plan a new training facility • Upgrade PC hardware, software, or networks • Select and install a help desk management system • Develop end-user documentation or training session Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 17

18. Project Management Steps • Project management is a step-by-step work plan and process to reach a specific goal • Steps 1. Project definition 2. Project planning 3. Project implementation 4. Project monitoring 5. Project termination Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 18

19. Step One: Project Definition • Project definition describes the project scope, including • Goal(s) (objectives, outcomes) • Tentative calendar (timelines, due dates) • Tentative budget (estimates) • Participants • Project goal is a specific, measurable result that is the ultimate target or outcome Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 19

20. Step Two: Project Planning • Purpose: • divide a project into tasks • estimate a time for each task • identify available resources and costs • assign resources to tasks • Project task is a specific action or objective that must be performed to reach the goal • Project plan is a document that describes project tasks, resources, timeline, and costs Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 20

21. Analysis of Project Risk Factors • Project risk factors are an analysis and assessment of the problems that can arise during the life of a project • Common risk factors • Poor initial estimates of schedule, costs, resources • Unanticipated events • Illness • Hardware problems • Conflicts among participants Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 21

22. Step Three: Project implementation • Project implementation is the work on each task or objective according to the assignments and schedule in the project plan • Project manager’s responsibility shifts • from planning to coordination • to resolving problems and conflicts Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 22

23. Step Four: Project Monitoring • Project monitoring assesses the status of all project tasks • How much work has been completed? • What work remains to be done? • Should staff and other resources be reassigned? • What impact will changes have on completion date and budget? • Scope creep is the tendency for a project to grow or change in unexpected ways that increase the time frame, resources and costs Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 23

24. Step Five: Project Termination • Project termination is the final step during which: • Completion is communicated to stakeholders • Final report is prepared • Performance of the project and participants is evaluated Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 24

25. Project Management Tools • Project management software tools • Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 • Kidasa Software’s Milestones Simplicity 2002 • Gantt chart is a project planning tool that displays basic information about each project task as a horizontal bar on a graph • Predecessor task is an activity that must be completed before another task can begin • Critical path is the sequence of project tasks that must be completed on time to meet the project’s completion date Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 25

26. User Support Certification • Certificationis an assessment process to measure and document employee knowledge and skills • Individual certification • Formal education • Vendor-specific product knowledge • Industry-standard (vendor-neutral) knowledge • Certification of an entire support group • Based on industry best practices, which are procedures, tools and methods that successful support groups use Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 26

27. Examples of End-user and Help Desk Certifications • Microsoft MOS covers applications software • Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint • core and expert proficiency levels • CompTIA A+ covers PC hardware and operating systems support and troubleshooting • Chauncy Group ATS covers core IT skills • Help Desk Institute HDA covers basic help desk skills • Microsoft MCDST covers desktop support skills including Windows XP and Office applications Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 27

28. Benefits of Certification • Recognized benchmark of minimum-level job skills and expertise • Justification for pay increases • Justification for promotions • Documents efforts to keep up to date in field • Feeling of accomplishment and increased job satisfaction Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 28

29. Certification Process 1. Acquire knowledge and skills covered by the certification exam 2. Evaluate skills by taking a pretest assessment exam (optional) 3. Take certification exam • May include preparatory courses to cover steps 1 and 2 above 4. Retake parts of certification test not passed Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 29

30. Common Ways to Prepare for Certification Exams • College and vocational/technical courses targeted to popular exams • Crash courses are intensive preparatory classes • Expensive • Time consuming • Sometimes called boot camps • Online tutorial courses use computer-based (CBT) or Web-based (WBT) training methods • Self-study courses are self-paced tutorials in a book format • Lowest cost • Little help available Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 30

31. Certification Tests • Traditional fixed-length sequence of questions and problems • Adaptive test is a method used in certification exams that asks selected questions from a computerized test database that are graded in difficulty to quickly estimate the test taker’s proficiency • Asks fewer questions than traditional test • Takes less time • Reduces testing stress • Reduces boredom from too easy or repetitious questions Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 31

32. User Support as a Profession • ITAA estimates 2 to 2.5 million user support workers employed in US • Professional association is a formal organization that represents the interests of a group of professionals and provides services to its membership • Publishes journals, magazines and books • Encourages professional growth of members through seminars, and conferences • Offers training and certification programs • Facilitates membership contacts via e-mail, Web sites, chat rooms, newsgroups, and local chapters • Encourages members to adhere to code of ethical conduct Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 32

33. Examples of User Support Professional Associations • Help Desk Institute • Help Desk 2000 • Association of Support Professionals • Information Technology Association of America • Service and Support Professionals Association • Network and Systems Professionals Professionals Association Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 33

34. Code of Ethical Conduct(Information Technology Association of America) Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 34

35. Chapter Summary • A mission statement defines guiding principles and goals of a support group • Performance statistics and user satisfaction surveys help evaluate agent and group performance • Support managers prepare a position description and job ad based on KSAs for open help desk agent positions • Interviews for support positions include general background and scenario (problem) questions • Training for support agents includes new employee orientation and ongoing professional development Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 35

36. Chapter Summary (continued) • Project management steps for special projects • Definition • Planning • Implementation • Monitoring • Termination • Automated project management tools help prepare Gantt Charts, participant assignments and budgets • Certification for support professionals includes college degrees, vendor-specific and industry-standard certification programs • Associations of support workers address the needs of support professionals Guide to Computer User Support, 3e 36