What do you do when there is a production problem in a CRM application? When you know that hundreds of users are seriously affected and penalised in their work? When a flood of incident tickets arrives and production monitoring indicators turn red?
There is a tailor-made profile for keeping things running — a role commonly called IT support, which also resembles an after-sales service (SAV). The best job title remains MCO manager (operational maintenance manager).
A day in Sami’s shoes, MCO manager
Let us venture into the day of a major release. The first production incident linked to the new CRM version surfaces! The declared tickets describe symptoms of application malfunction expressed in user language. We put on our detective hat and analysis begins immediately.
Incident management: analyse, understand, resolve
Clearly understanding the issue raised by the user is the cornerstone of a solid investigation, without being thrown off by client dissatisfaction. It is important to estimate the severity, the extent of the impact, side effects and possible workarounds.
Pega is a platform that enables maximum traceability of actions performed on the application and provides valuable troubleshooting tools such as the Tracer and the PDC monitoring tool.
The range of production problems encountered is varied:
- An extra comma
- An unwanted special character in the code
- A Pega FINAL rule not adapted to the application’s needs
- Temporary performance degradation due to an external Webservice under strain
- Surgical optimisation of Pega database queries
- IT security or data protection vulnerabilities
Topics are cross-functional, and consequently a wide range of skills is useful to address all these issues.
The MCO manager’s role: much more than incident resolution
The MCO manager is probably the only person (secretly) pleased to see an incident occur. To me, every new incident means an IT analysis adventure that can prove fascinating.
Bug decryption and team awareness
A bug reflects, in most cases, a malfunction upstream in the chain: a missed non-regression test (NRT), a marginal business case that escaped the Business Architects’ attention, or a small piece of inaccurate code with unfortunate consequences.
The MCO manager’s role is not simply to identify the “culprit” — it is above all about identifying and rallying the right contributors to first build a solution, then raise awareness and actively participate in post-mortems (REX).
The key: communication on both the project and client sides
The MCO manager occupies a delicate position, worthy of a double agent:
- Ambassador for the development team with the client
- Client advocate with the technical team
Constantly switching between the technical and business worlds enables translation, simplification, management of client frustration and absorption of their expectations’ pressure. This is a role conducive to developing soft skills.
The 4 stages of the MCO role
My MCO role at IRIZ Consulting
What I particularly appreciate in my current position, at IRIZ Consulting and with my client Agirc-Arrco, are two complementary aspects.
The possibility of rapid advancement in responsibilities and skills. The Individual CRM is a thriving project whose birth I witnessed and which I continue to support — a mine of learnings.
The freedom to sculpt my own role, defining my distance from Pega development, business, scoping, change management and infrastructure teams.
MCO is no doubt an adventure as epic as an IRIZ team-building event! If my account has convinced you, come and join a dynamic team.
Interested in the MCO project manager role at IRIZ Consulting?
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