Managing Today´s Support System

A support system is not an end itself despite the fervent and emotional desires of today\´s support systems managers. Support systems managers and support personnel are, by definition, dependent on some other prime system that is designed and intended to accomplish a particular mission. Therefore, it becomes immediately obvious that support is relegated to the status of a secondary function and will, therefore, receive attention (and necessary funding) only after the prime system is reasonably under control. The purpose of this paper is to promulgate some ideas and suggestions, learned through experience, on the effective operation of a support manager in the present environment, regardless of the "built in" frustrations that exist.