Life on Support

Today officially marks my one year working as an analyst/programmer-production support for an insurance company. I was actually hired as a analyst/programmer in development-deployment team for an up and coming project for the company but then due to unforeseen circumstances (aka recession) I end up in production support team. In a nutshell in any organization a production support group starts with the following process: submission of raised tickets, analysis and design phase, code unit testing, system-integration tests and the formal build. And just like any other job being in a production support has its pros and cons. Here's a rundown of the pros and cons of being in a production support group.



PROS:

1. You will have a chance to talk directly to the client even if it means speaking in barok English so that the client will understand you.
   
2. You will be able to manage your time staying in the office. It all depends on the severity level of the ticket you're supporting. SEV 1 means you can't go home!(Patay!)
3. Personally I was introduced to a lot of documents namely: BRD,RCA,RCD, SRS,Test Plan,Release Notes and the build release email trail.
   

CONS:

1. 80 % of your time will be spent in investigating (root cause analysis,impact analysis,estimation etc.) and 20% will be spent in coding.
2. In terms of technical growth, malabo talaga na makuha mo dito aside from the fact that 20% of your time will be spent coding, most applications that you will be supporting are not that new. I'm a sucker for open source that's why I really hate this part.
   
3. Prepare for long code tracing/debugging since this are not your codes.
4. No self-fulfillment since you did'nt start from scratch.

As you can see there are more cons than the pros and I'm not actually complaining on what I'm doing right now. It just came in to my realization that for one to be able to stay for a year or more in their work they must have love what they are doing (or do they have a choice?). In times that I have a clamor/complain on anything, I always remember this quote "In search of something better the worst is always the best".