The proposal is to move the existing IS Alerts system from the current Coldfusion and Access base to a more supportable hosted solution, using as the base an externally hosted distribution of the newly developed EdWeb Framework.
IS Applications believe that we have effectively reached the practical limits of the current technology, and that further economical development and even maintenance will require a redesign of the underlying technology.
There are some strategic advantages to aligning with the EdWeb framework, including interoperability and inherited resources.
Currently the IS Alerts service
is developed in an environment where competency is decreasing
is developed in an environment where support is decreasing
has poorly understood code
is poorly documented technically
is not on a platform appropriate to the service
is hosted on a platform which experiences outages concurrent with some of the services it should be able to report on
Other contributors:
IS Apps Service Management, Neil Bruce (SMI004 input)
What would happen if the project did not take place?:
Without further work, the IS Alerts system:
is unnecessarily wasteful of time and resources when making changes
is not used to its intended vision or potential
is sometimes not available at precisely the times it might be most useful
risks damaging the perception of IS services, and the reputation of IS
Additional information:
Much supporting information is not available for the current IS Alerts system. As well as building the technical base, we must:
bring up the support service for IS Alerts to a comparable standard
create and develop core system documentation for IS Alerts.
Additionally, the current IS Alerts system generates data about availability which is not immediately obvious to either technical or non-technical users of the system, some of which should be preserved. The project will ensure that important information is not lost.
Who does it affect?:
This problem affects four groups of users:
users checking current service status
users preparing their own work around existing planned alerts
users involved in the publishing process, who raise, approve or publish alerts
users consuming availability reporting data, which is generated by the system
Why is it needed/What are the benefits?:
Some staff use IS Alerts to record the technical details associated with an outage and others to provide simplified announcements to end users. Both use cases should be supported, and any conflicts should be addressed, to improve the effectiveness of the announcement process.
External Hosting – use of EdWeb framework should allow external hosting (wherever there is Drupal support). The page could then be hosted off site so that it is less likely to be impacted by local service outages.
Interoperability – use of EdWeb framework should allow information to be available for consumption by other systems such as the self-service portal, MyEd or departmental web sites.
We feel these changes would benefit the end users in that:
It would allow alerts information to be more available, more often, but particularly when there are issues to report within the scope of the IS Alerts service, where information is needed most
It would allow announcement information to be used in more places thereby improving the likelihood of users being aware of issues, upcoming work and outages
It would reduce the overhead of managing and running the service
It would enable us to build on the existing service and develop it further to meet the requirements of the business
We will see less effort expended on running the service reflected in stats reflecting work breakdown for the team.
No outages of the alerts system itself in future.
BI/MI requirement?:
N/A
External costs?:
N/A
Compliance justification (if relevant):
N/A
Fit with University strategy:
Goals – Excellence in Education
Using the existing EdWeb Framework to meet the requirements of the IS Alerts service fits strongly with the current IT strategygoals including:
De-duplication,
Keep it simple,
Integration
Standards, including accessibility (compliance), and
Partnership
Major Initiative
Improved Helpdesk Efficiency
Improve the user experience and reduce the amount of calls taken by the IS Helpline by guiding users to self-help pages before they contact us.