Duration 4 Days – 28 hrs.
Overview
The Application Support, Debugging and Troubleshooting Training Course is a comprehensive, hands-on program designed to equip IT professionals with the practical knowledge and technical skills required to effectively support enterprise applications, diagnose system issues, perform root cause analysis, and resolve application incidents efficiently. Participants will learn structured troubleshooting methodologies, debugging techniques, log analysis, database validation, API testing, performance monitoring, and production support best practices commonly used in enterprise environments.
The course emphasizes real-world scenarios involving web applications, APIs, databases, middleware, and cloud-based systems. Through practical labs and case studies, participants will develop the confidence to investigate incidents, collaborate with development and infrastructure teams, minimize downtime, and improve application reliability.
Objectives
- Understand the roles and responsibilities of application support professionals.
- Apply structured troubleshooting and incident resolution methodologies.
- Diagnose application, database, and infrastructure-related issues.
- Perform debugging using development and browser tools.
- Analyze application logs and monitoring data.
- Validate SQL queries and troubleshoot database issues.
- Test APIs and integrations using common tools.
- Perform root cause analysis (RCA) and document findings.
- Resolve production issues while following change management processes.
- Implement preventive measures and support best practices to improve application stability.
Target Audience
- Application Support Engineers
- Production Support Engineers
- Software Developers
- Systems Analysts
- Technical Support Engineers
- DevOps Engineers
- QA/Test Engineers
- Database Support Staff
- IT Operations Personnel
- Service Desk Analysts (Level 2/Level 3)
- Junior Solution Architects
- Technical Consultants
Prerequisites
- Basic understanding of application architecture and software development concepts
- Familiarity with operating systems (Windows or Linux)
- Basic knowledge of SQL and relational databases
- Basic understanding of networking concepts (HTTP, TCP/IP) is recommended
- Experience supporting or developing applications is beneficial but not mandatory
Course Outline
Day 1 – Application Support Fundamentals
Module 1: Introduction to Application Support
- Application support lifecycle
- Roles and responsibilities
- Support models (L1, L2, L3)
- Incident, problem, and change management
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
- Production support best practices
Module 2: Enterprise Application Architecture
- Client-server architecture
- Web applications
- Three-tier and multi-tier architecture
- Microservices overview
- APIs and integrations
- Common enterprise technology stacks
Module 3: Troubleshooting Methodology
- Problem identification
- Information gathering
- Issue isolation
- Hypothesis testing
- Resolution verification
- Documentation and knowledge management
Module 4: Log Analysis Fundamentals
- Application logs
- Web server logs
- System logs
- Event logs
- Logging levels
- Log correlation
Hands-on Lab
- Analyze application architecture
- Review production log files
- Simulate incident investigation
- Document troubleshooting steps
Day 2 – Debugging Applications and Database Troubleshooting
Module 5: Debugging Techniques
- Debugging principles
- Exception handling
- Stack traces
- Breakpoints
- Debugging tools
- Browser developer tools
Module 6: SQL Troubleshooting
- Query validation
- SQL syntax troubleshooting
- Joins
- Stored procedures
- Transactions
- Locking and blocking
- Deadlocks
Module 7: Database Performance
- Indexes
- Query execution plans
- Slow queries
- Connection issues
- Data consistency
- Performance optimization basics
Module 8: File and Configuration Troubleshooting
- Configuration files
- Environment variables
- Application properties
- Version mismatches
- Dependency management
Hands-on Lab
- Debug application errors
- Troubleshoot SQL queries
- Resolve database connection issues
- Analyze configuration problems
Day 3 – API, Integration, and Performance Troubleshooting
Module 9: API Troubleshooting
- REST fundamentals
- HTTP methods
- Status codes
- Authentication
- JSON validation
- Request and response analysis
Module 10: API Testing
- API testing using Postman
- Headers
- Authentication tokens
- Response validation
- Error handling
- Mock services
Module 11: Integration Troubleshooting
- Middleware concepts
- Message queues
- File transfers
- Batch jobs
- Third-party integrations
- Data synchronization
Module 12: Application Performance Monitoring
- CPU and memory utilization
- Response times
- Throughput
- Bottleneck identification
- Monitoring dashboards
- Alert interpretation
Hands-on Lab
- Test REST APIs
- Analyze integration failures
- Troubleshoot batch process issues
- Identify performance bottlenecks
Day 4 – Production Support Best Practices and Incident Resolution
Module 13: Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
- RCA methodologies
- 5 Whys
- Fishbone Diagram
- Timeline analysis
- Corrective actions
- Preventive actions
Module 14: Production Incident Management
- Incident prioritization
- Escalation procedures
- Major incident handling
- Communication during incidents
- Change and release considerations
- Post-incident reviews
Module 15: Documentation and Knowledge Management
- Incident reports
- RCA documentation
- Knowledge base articles
- Support runbooks
- Operational documentation
- Lessons learned
Module 16: Application Support Best Practices
- Monitoring and alert tuning
- Automation opportunities
- Health checks
- Preventive maintenance
- Continuous improvement
- Support metrics and KPIs
Capstone Workshop
Participants will work through a realistic enterprise production support scenario involving:
- Application failure analysis
- Log investigation
- Database troubleshooting
- API validation
- Root cause analysis
- Incident resolution
- Documentation of findings
- Presentation of the proposed solution and preventive recommendations
