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Customer support

Last updated: 23 April 2025

All software should have an appropriate customer support model, to ensure that user's can both receive support when they face issues and provide feedback.

Requirement(s)

You MUST agree who is responsible for supporting users

All software should have a clear customer support model in place that defines who is responsible for responding to and resolving requests from users. Applying a DevOps approach, this should always include the engineering team responsible for building and/or operating the software, but may also include other tiers of support.

The customer support model should be understood and agreed across all relevant stakeholders – for example, across policy, the relevant business area, and CDIO.

You MUST make it clear where users can get support

Clearly signposting users to the most appropriate support route helps them get resolutions more quickly and reduces the overhead that might be incurred directing them between different support offerings.

You should also think about the different ways in which the software may fail, and consider how you can direct users to support in each circumstance.

Trends and patterns in support requests may help you identify ways in which you can improve your software, to reduce the number of users facing problems and help users succeed first time.