Problems within support (upfront maintenance)

Software support (upfront maintenance) processes are one of the most diverse and complex to define. So far, they have not achieved enough attention. Most research effort has been put into the development and maintenance processes and the improvement of these processes. However, very little research has been done within their supporting processes - the processes that extensively mediate or eliminate the need for changes in software systems. We report on the problems experienced within 37 support organisations in Sweden. Our results show a great variety of problems. The dominating ones are: complexity of applications, customer knowledge, and complexity of support organisations.