Well, hmmm. I've seen this done in several places, with varying degrees of success.
Where it's worked well have been shops that had well-defined software maintenance strategies (see Parallel Sysplex ? Software Management for Availability, SG24-5451), as well as good inter-group communications. There are sometimes benefits to "distributing" software maintenance as you describe. It's possible that the "administrative group" will be closer to the customers of your third-party product, more responsive to their needs, better equipped to answer questions, solve problems, etc. However, such delegation is usually cost-effective only when there is a clear competitive business advantage to doing so. Is (use of) this product critical to your company's business? Does the administrative group have the political power to affect software maintenance budgets? If not, then this won't work. On the other side, such a systems has clear drawbacks. One is communication (or lack of it). Will the administrative group have a representative that attends regular systems programming meetings? Will they be following your standards? Will they be making production changes in the same, documented, organized way that you do? Same early notification to those potentially affected? Last, if the group takes responsibility for software maintenance then must do so (politically anyway) independently from any group member. If I were the manager of such a group, I'd certainly want a backup for the only one in my group with the requisite experience. Tony's note about children and power tools applies to adults as well; I've known some "experienced" systems programmers that thought BYPASS(HOLDERROR) was the fastest way to slam things in. Good luck. Lock Lyon "YMMV. Advice offered freely and worth the price. Opinions are my own. When in doubt, lead a diamond." tony babonas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU> 03/06/2006 01:01 PM Please respond to IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU> To IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU cc Subject Re: SMP/E for non-sysprogs? Yep, we did it. Pros: none, other than management fantasy of lower salaried people replacing higher salaried people. Cons: Murphy's Law in every imagineable form. Children should not use power tools, only experienced adults. You will not have to wait for the "long run" for this to haunt you. tb -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Laura Prill Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 11:27 AM To: IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU Subject: SMP/E for non-sysprogs? Hello, Has anybody worked in a shop where people other than systems programmers use SMP/E to maintain third-party products? We currently have a discussion going on in our shop about transferring PTF maintenance duties for one third-party product to an administrative group that happens to include one former sysprog with SMP/E experience. Because the others in the group do not have systems backgrounds, I am concerned that this decision could come back to haunt us in the long run, and that it also may open Pandora's box for other third-party products where the administrators are definitely non-technical. However, I do not want to stand in the way of a good idea by overreacting, if my concerns have no basis. If anyone has experienced this situation and could tell me the pros and/or cons from your experience, I would love to hear them. Thanks! Laura Prill ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
