Most of the attention regarding custom-developed solutions focuses on the methodology and effectiveness of the people and processes that introduce business value. This is certainly understandable as it is this function that drives differentiation of the product in the marketplace and keeps the assets relevant. Without a robust Product Operating Model, the risks of value erosion, inefficiencies, and reputational harm increase significantly.
The challenge is knowing when these risks have reached a point where a change is needed to preserve your momentum and protect your investment.
Signs of a Healthy Product Operating Model
Let’s consider some characteristics of an Operating Model that is performing well:
- Releases consistently include proactive, non-functionality related work items concerning Supportability, Data Security, and Resource Optimization.
- A Post-Release Collaboration Framework is in place that effectively identifies issues before they impact your user community
- An active Knowledge Management Library with Quality Standards covering Release Notes, Incident Analysis, Reference Documentation, and Standard Operating Procedures.
- Defects are subject to rapid root cause identification to pinpoint insertion and realization timelines, and they are accurately qualified in terms of current and potential impact to support proper prioritization.
- Leveraging Developers and QAs in Incident Response is a rarity.
If the above characteristics are not present in your Operating Model and in your Product Management Lifecycle, you are accumulating risk. An experienced and standardized support function will address each of these areas and provide the data insights and observability you need to assess the health of your overall Value Stream.
How Managed Services Strengthen Your Product Operating Model
Motivus’ Managed Services go beyond traditional support by systematically integrating into your product lifecycle to drive operational excellence:
A properly constructed Support Function will:
- Serve as the linchpin to fully integrate support, platform, customer service, performance, security and build teams by establishing the right level of operational tension that drives accountability and quality output
- Be a generator of work items that directly reduce risk. Examples:
- Logging enhancements for improved responsiveness and visibility
- Query Optimizations where performance has drifted over time
- Improvements to ensure atomicity of transactions
- Introduce formality and urgency into the discovery and communication of any abnormal functional or system behaviors following each release. Examples:
- Multi-team Collaboration
- Novel Log Identification
- Transaction Monitoring
- System Monitoring
- Liberate Developers from reactive processes so they can focus on the Build Portfolio
- Systematically break down production defects at the code level for swift incorporation into sprints
Why Choose Motivus for Managed Support?
We understand the development lifecycle, value stream maturity levels, and the variability from client to client. This has allowed us to hone a support framework that can adapt to your environment and provide immediate improvement to operational quality. The Motivus Managed Services Support Team adds value at each touchpoint, de-risks your solution and safeguards momentum so that you can continue to deliver the innovation and utility for your customers.
