Lack of Preparedness
The study also found that IT support teams were often unprepared for new releases, with 99 percent of respondents saying releases posed a challenge for their team. This is especially true for the 74 percent who reported receiving notifications after the software was operationalized.
IT support teams have a unique opportunity to improve customer satisfaction. By not proactively engaging IT support teams, development teams run the risk of impacting customer satisfaction and the benefits that their releases would bring to customers.
Best Practices: Teams need to share dates and timelines on key activities, such as code freezes, release to launch, and grandfathering, if applicable. Teams should also share messaging and communications, take time to build and review customer documentation, and provide training sessions for IT support staff. It's also a good idea to run through a support "blitz" (e.g., run through the end-to-end deployment process) in an attempt to uncover hidden bugs.