DICE development projects - us-unit

Manager:

Unit:

Summary:

To run a lightweight Forum to replace the Forum software which will be deprecated by IS.

What:

Paul is looking into the IS-provided alternatives (Learn & Confluence). His impression at the moment is that Learn (for example) might technically meet the functional requirements, but it comes surrounded by a lot of Learn baggage, and is sufficiently clunky that it would be a significant drop in usability which would discourage the student use that he is attempting to encourage. Paul currently hosts his IJP course pages on our ease.homepages service.

His requirements for this would be:
- clean and simple to use
- authenticates to EASE and available to anyone with an EASE account
- simple api for adding/removing users from groups
- ability to register for email notifications

Still to gather requirements from Austin Tate.

Why:

Proposed by Paul Anderson but Austin Tate also has an interest. Should be of wider interest too.

When:

in production before July 2014 (for use with pre-arrival students)

How:

DIscuss requirements with Paul Anderson
Discuss requirements with Austin Tate
Produce interim report outlining possible solutions
Select most viable solution
Provide a test installation
- Install a DICE virtual machine
- Include authentication mechanism (EASE?). Some content will be restricted and some may be suitable for public view.
- Mirror the service - similar to computing.help
- Standard backup using TiBS
- Obtain SSL certificate

Effort estimate:

4 weeks

Other:

Dependencies:

Risks:

US Unit internal documentation review

alisond — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 09:52:59 +0000

Project ID:

285

Current stage:

0_Pending

Manager:

Unit:

Summary:

Review of User Support Unit internal documentation

Effort estimate:

3 weeks

Other:

Dependencies: project 280

Risks:

SL6 upgrade for US unit

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:19 +0000

Project ID:

218

Current stage:

Manager:

Unit:

https://wiki.inf.ed.ac.uk/DICE/FinalProjectReport218

Summary:

To upgrade all servers managed by US to sl6

What:

Description: Upgrading all US services and servers to SL6.

Deliverables: All US services based on SL6 platform

Why:

Customer:

Case statement:

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources: 6 weeks of effort split between porting/upgrading RT and upgrading servers. This includes CSO time.

Plan:

Final report URL:

Other:

Dependencies: DICE SL6 platform

Risks:

URL: https://wiki.inf.ed.ac.uk/DICE/UserSupportUnitServerUpgrade

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

Evaluate UniDesk as Incident Management Tool

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:11 +0000

Project ID:

177

Current stage:

5_Completed

Manager:

Unit:

What:

Description: The University have replaced their Call Management System with UniDesk and we should evaluate the possibility of using the same tool.

Deliverables: The UniDesk package introduces a more comprehensive tool for Incident Management with scope for providing Problem Management, Change management, Release Management etc. in the near future. It is based on ITIL guidelines.

Delivered documentation:

Why:

Customer: The C(S)Os would use this tool instead of Request Tracker. End-users, in the first instance, should see little difference, but a self-service portal is to be implemented which they will be able to use to report/check incidents.

Case statement: Introducing UniDesk should help us:

provide a more streamlined support service
allow us to communicate with central IT support more easily
allow us to build a comprehensive knowledge base

We will also be able to downgrade our existing Request tracker to read only in the short term and remove it completely in the longer term.

When:

Status:

Timescales: The University hopes to 'go-live' with UniDesk in October 2010.

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources:

Plan: The first action will be to consider whether we should use the IS helpdesk as the first port of call for our support calls.

Other:

Dependencies: C(S)O staff will need to be familiar with ITIL terminology to make best use of this facility.

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

DevProj Improvements

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:05 +0000

Project ID:

152

Current stage:

0_Pending

Manager:

timc

Unit:

What:

Description: Alastair reported that he had attended a presentation by Mark Ritchie on IS app's new "basic" project methodology. It appears to be pretty similar to ours, but unfortunately based on a Wiki rather than a database. There is potential here for aligning our project database with their methodology and perhaps even exporting any modified devproj for use by the rest of the university. It was agreed that this would be done as part of the proposed devproj improvement project.

Deliverables:

Why:

Customer: Computing staff. Members of the School for the purpose of looking at and submitting projects.

Case statement: While the current devproj system provides the core functionality of what is required it lacks in usability, has a number of replicated fields associated with a project description making it unclear what to put where and does not have particularly functional tracking abilities.

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time: 2 weeks maximum.

How:

Proposal: See plan. This is an evaluation only.

Resources:

Plan: Identify core problems with existing system by review.
Evaluate whether refinement of the existing system or an alternative system would be the best option.
Look at the IS Apps system to see what alignment there might be.
Propose solution.

Other:

Dependencies: None of note.

Risks: None of note.

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

Inventory Improvement

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:03 +0000

Project ID:

146

Current stage:

1_Proposal

Manager:

ascobie

Unit:

What:

Description: Ultimately provide an automated inventory solution that will monitor and track items accurately. In the first instance, we should evaluate the current system and identify areas where we need improvements e.g. tracking self-managed machines.

Deliverables:

Evaluation phase

A report on the existing system - covering both good and bad aspects.

Implementation phase

A design for a replacement system.
A replacement system.

Why:

Customer:

Case statement: The current inventory system does not meet all our requirements and there is concern that tracking machines has now become unreliable. This is particularly the case for self-managed machines. We are not able to easily answer fundamental inventory questions - this is a particular problem for planning expenditure and machine allocation.

The current system is overly complicated with the flow of information difficult to fathom.

When:

Status:

Timescales: Difficult to judge - depends on Alastair availability. Aiming to clarify and document requirements by mid T2 2012.

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources:

Plan:

Gain an understanding of existing inventory system
Meet all interested CO/CSOs to :-
- Assess the current mechanism identifying areas where we consider there to be inconsistencies/failings.
- Identify the positive aspects of the existing system so that these are not lost in any future system
Clarify and document our inventory requirements.
Design a simplified system
Implement new system

Other:

Dependencies:

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description
	2012-07-01	Requirements	Aiming to clarify and document requirements by mid T2 2012.
	2012-06-01	Capture	Discuss existing systems with interested CO/CSOs

Devproj enhancements

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:03 +0000

Project ID:

145

Current stage:

0_Pending

Manager:

Unit:

What:

Description: Enhance the current system for recording and monitoring development projects.

Deliverables:

Why:

Customer: All staff involved with development projects.

Case statement:

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources:

Plan:

Other:

Dependencies:

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

Redevelop User Documentation

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:02 +0000

Project ID:

144

Current stage:

Manager:

Unit:

https://wiki.inf.ed.ac.uk/DICE/FinalProjectReport144

What:

Description: Provide more streamlined user documentation using the most appropriate technology as outlined in project 36 - Review of User Documentation.

Deliverables: Accurate and up-to-date user documentation with good search facilities.

Delivered documentation:

Why:

Customer: All users of Informatics services.

Case statement: Current user documentation is out of date and inaccurate. It's not all centrally located nor does it have adequate search facilities. User feedback shows that certain pages aren't being found and it needs a complete re-vamp.

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time: 20 days (up to 6th August 2010)

How:

Proposal: see plan

Resources:

2 C(S)Os + possible student assistance with re-write/porting to new platform.

Knowledge of Zope/Plone.

Plan:

Undertake a review of good practice in other sites.
Establish a small focus group which adequately represents our user community.
Prepare and circulate report from user meeting.
Prepare site map for discussion.
Appoint author.
Familiarisation with zope/plone - assess training requirements.
Build database and port current documentation (where appropriate).
Identify missing documentation and chase potential authors to provide such.
Include the provision of a service alert mechanism.
Produce documentation on resources available for research projects
Produce more "howto" documents - student survey could help identify what is missing
Investigate producing videos rather than producing talks
Add documentation promoting desktop virtualisation
Need a way to hold "secured access" files within @ed

Final report URL:

Other:

Dependencies: project 106 - Final stages of commodity CMS work

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description
2010-03-11	2010-03-31	User meeting	Hold the first user meeting to establish what users feel are the important features of user documentation.
2010-03-01	2010-03-01	Websites	Prepare a list of suitable websites that can be taken to the initial user meeting as an initial discussion point to help identify our requirements.
2010-07-01	2010-07-31	test site	Create partial test site for user documentation.
2011-01-31	2010-08-31	training	Familiarisation with Drupal. Basic familiarisation completed but on-going as we discover more.
2011-03-30	2011-03-30	port	port selection of existing relevant documentation to new platform for circulation for feedback.
	2011-03-31	new docs	Identify new documentation and authors.
2010-04-30	2010-04-30	site map	Produce and circulate proposed site map.
2010-03-31	2010-03-31	summary doc	Prepare summary document from discussions with user group.
	2010-05-31	Author	Appoint an author who will oversee document porting/writing.
	2010-12-31	Service alerts	A means of alerting users to planned/unplanned service disruptions needs to be in place. Has now been added as a separate project.
2010-06-01	2010-06-14	mock up	Produce mock up for user meeting
2010-10-27	2010-08-31	design	Final decision on design/visual appearance of site.
	2011-04-22	User Feedback	COs have been asked for feedback but little response. CSTR e-mailed and asked for feedback by 22nd April.
	2011-05-31	taxonomy	Create vocabulary and terms lists. Tag existing documents and make tagging mandatory for new pages.
	2011-05-05	Collate feedbac	Collate user feedback and discuss relevant points.
2011-05-31	2011-04-11	surfing	Supervised surfing sessions with 4 or 5 users. (1 completed)
2012-04-30	2012-04-02	Maintenance Pla	Maintained service requires plan for timely software upgrades, regular backups and checks on currency of documentation.

Transition from NFS to AFS

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:45:56 +0000

Project ID:

124

Current stage:

5_Completed

Manager:

Unit:

What:

Description: Complete the transition of all remaining NFS home partitions and group space to AFS.

Deliverables:

Why:

Customer: All nfs users

Case statement:

When:

Status:

Timescales: All home directories to be moved by end of August 2009

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources:

Plan:

Other:

Dependencies:

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

AV facilities

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:45:55 +0000

Project ID:

119

Current stage:

Manager:

Unit: