Support
Like product training, when a solution lacks good support processes or support personnel, customers may give up on the solution even though the software itself is great. Unlike product training, a great support solution and support personnel can help retain customers struggling with poor software. Support, Product Training, and the code itself are the three elements that represent what the customer gets as a result of the software development process. Therefore, although those three elements are important and key elements of the solution, they have less impact on affecting which software development practices are best for the solution than most of the other elements. However, how support is delivered, or intended to be delivered, can affect the processes by which the software is developed. Some support features can be built into the software. In some companies, developers directly support the solution and this may encourage the developers to create solutions that are easier to deploy, more robust, and with fewer bugs; especially when such solutions may require off-hours support. Even when developers don’t directly support the software, they may be able to add monitoring features to the solution to help make support easier for those people who will be the first line of support.