In this post, Senior Application Developer Manager, Paul King reflects on how an ADM provides value and drives results into the software development lifecycle as an organization grows and matures.
If you are reading this BLOG, you are learning about Microsoft Services and more specifically, Premier Support for Developers. I want to expand on the Application Development Manager (ADM) role by talking about the benefits this type of support relationship provides, consistently delivering on a wide variety of services.
As an example, I support a large, world-wide development organization. They deliver solutions to a field organization that depends on quality software to provide services to their customers. Though they have had a close relationship with Microsoft Services for many years, their needs as a development organization have evolved from a small team of developers 15 years ago to the hundreds of developers they have today. Premier Support has been aligned throughout this journey to support the many changes and challenges that come with growth.
In the early days of .NET, activities focused on pre-release programs for our development tools and server products, many times gaining a competitive advantage from the new features and functionally. The pre-release programs allowed them to work directly with Microsoft’s development teams to help shape each product based on their industry experience before it was released to manufacturing.
Over time, the customer teams grew and so did the need to quickly develop new products and offerings. They began using Agile software development methodologies and products like Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) to allow world-wide teams to contribute offerings in a coordinated manor. New features and functionality were developed for their system at a speed that most software groups would be envious of. Premier Support for Developers provided support and guidance while adapting to the constant growth and educational needs of their growing development organization.
As Cloud Computing began to shape the industry, the customer had a desire to deliver service offerings that could be elastic; allowing them to scale quickly to meet increased peak demand as well as reduce resource use when demand subsided. Premier Support for Developers provided guidance on how to architect and deploy their solution to meet business needs and be cost effective.
As their software became more mature, the customer began to see opportunities to redesign for better scalability. Through their Microsoft ADM, they were matched with a SQL Server Designated Support Engineer (DSE). This added an individual to the relationship who was deeply knowledgeable in SQL Server and accountable for deep product knowledge, design advice, and guidance. The initial work by the DSE and ADM uncovered more opportunities for performance improvement and led to assisted Application Design Session (ADS) with Microsoft Services to greatly increase the capacity of these applications.
Growing through mobile, cloud, and multi-platform opportunities, customers depend on Premier Support for Developers to deliver the right resources at the right time. Activities may include everything from critical troubleshooting, product team advice, architecture reviews, and optimized code development. No matter where you are in the software development lifecycle or where you stand in terms of maturity as a development organization, an ADM can drive results and deliver real business value as an asset to your team.
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