Definition and description of key roles involved in software support and maintenance

The following roles are involved in the software support and maintenance process:

1. End users – End users use software systems on a day to day basis. They are responsible for reporting any issues encountered in the software to the support team. End users also request for enhancements or improvements in the software based on evolving needs
   
2. IT Support/Support team - The primary function of a support team is to provide technical assistance for any issues that arise with the software that are reported by end users. This includes troubleshooting problems, answering questions about features and functionality, and helping users understand how to use the software
   
3. Business Analysts – Business Analysts are responsible for analysing the requests for enhancements from users and making recommendations on their implementation
   
4. Developers – Developers make software changes that require coding to either fix issues or to introduce new features
   
5. External Vendors – Where the software was acquired from a third party vendor, the vendor may provide some of the maintenance activities such as addressing issues that the institution's support team cannot fix, providing software updates/upgrades and making changes requested by users
   
6. System administrators – System administrators monitor technical performance of software, manage security and access control and also deploy patches to Production environment