Continuing from my previous thread 'Hiding to nothing?', the data cleanup project I'm doing alongside the Prod Support role is going pretty well. The improvements are clear to see so all good there.
Unfortunately the Prod support work is still a big problem.
We are getting around 5 problem tickets a day for a system that should be stable but is not and is also functionally deficient so we have regular patches to apply to carry out activities that the business need.
Now most are quick fixes, but maybe 1 or 2 a day are more substantial pieces of work needing extensive testing that takes between a couple of hours and a couple of weeks testing. Sometime the fixes we receive from the vendor have to go back several times.
Anyway the team is 1 Permie tech team leader and 2 contractors, all of us are seasoned UK/Eire IT'ers. We are attempting to deal with a workload about 2/3 of that of a very similar team I was in at a UK Bank. That team had 6 good, full time techies and a part time manager who managed the workload and handled all the user and mgt crap.
We are, unsurprisingly, failing to do the work of 4.5 people. Unfortunately the ultimate boss just complains about the lack of progress with the backlog. We have tried to hint that it might be resourcing but we get nowhere and he doesn't come up with any suggestions about how we could streamline, or anything else. We set priorities but all that happens there is the 'low' priority stuff languishes until a user loses patience and there is an enquiry about why the hell we have had that task for so long.
Also with only 3 people, sickness, holidays, unexpected absences are all a right pain.
With a team of 7 we took these things in our stride.
Frustration abounds.
So, any suggestions as to
a) how we can make our glorious leader understand that more resource is needed or
b) what will solve this instead of more resource - we are experienced people and are really stumped as to how we can give this guy what he wants.
BTW, one answer would be to work 11 hour days but screw that, we are doing 8-9 and getting paid for 7.5. That's already too much unpaid overtime in my book.
I could just leave but the folks here are nice, notwithstanding the above, and Guernsey is lovely.
Thanks as always..
Unfortunately the Prod support work is still a big problem.
We are getting around 5 problem tickets a day for a system that should be stable but is not and is also functionally deficient so we have regular patches to apply to carry out activities that the business need.
Now most are quick fixes, but maybe 1 or 2 a day are more substantial pieces of work needing extensive testing that takes between a couple of hours and a couple of weeks testing. Sometime the fixes we receive from the vendor have to go back several times.
Anyway the team is 1 Permie tech team leader and 2 contractors, all of us are seasoned UK/Eire IT'ers. We are attempting to deal with a workload about 2/3 of that of a very similar team I was in at a UK Bank. That team had 6 good, full time techies and a part time manager who managed the workload and handled all the user and mgt crap.
We are, unsurprisingly, failing to do the work of 4.5 people. Unfortunately the ultimate boss just complains about the lack of progress with the backlog. We have tried to hint that it might be resourcing but we get nowhere and he doesn't come up with any suggestions about how we could streamline, or anything else. We set priorities but all that happens there is the 'low' priority stuff languishes until a user loses patience and there is an enquiry about why the hell we have had that task for so long.
Also with only 3 people, sickness, holidays, unexpected absences are all a right pain.
With a team of 7 we took these things in our stride.
Frustration abounds.
So, any suggestions as to
a) how we can make our glorious leader understand that more resource is needed or
b) what will solve this instead of more resource - we are experienced people and are really stumped as to how we can give this guy what he wants.
BTW, one answer would be to work 11 hour days but screw that, we are doing 8-9 and getting paid for 7.5. That's already too much unpaid overtime in my book.
I could just leave but the folks here are nice, notwithstanding the above, and Guernsey is lovely.
Thanks as always..
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