FITS

Been having a discussion today about FITS and I think it's about time we looked at this in more detail for our school.

I'm just wondering, how many people here have successfully implemented FITS? How was it handled?

Been looking through documents on the Becta sites and their seems to be a lot of recording/reporting.

I'm trying to think about how best to tackle this. We already have a helpdesk in place but looking at the forms on the becta site, we're not recording the information we should be if we're going to be 'FITS compliant'.

Do you all use electronic systems or paper systems to manage this? Looking at our current Helpdesk system I'm not convinced it's going to be the easiest to work with for FITS.

I use Spiceworks and it pretty much ticks all the boxes for problem management and change management (amongst others). Best of all, it's free. :)

I am in a similar position to you, I want to start looking more closely at the FITS solution but I am aware that they are having a rethink with the current version and will be looking to release an update - not sure when.

Does anybody have any idea?

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Originally Posted by f21970

I use Spiceworks and it pretty much ticks all the boxes for problem management and change management (amongst others). Best of all, it's free. :)

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I use this an I'm not convinced it does.

Just looking at the information BECTA want you to record for each problem.

How do you make it work for you? I'm keen to find out. We can discuss this in a PM if you prefer.

Not got time to reply in detail so if Tony beats to me it great if not then will reply tomorrow..

Ok ... short version

Task 1 - Single point of contact : keep a consistent approach to how staff log things and how things are communicated (it is 2-way remember!) This is usually helped via service desk software.
Task 2 - Allocate a person to look at incidents and correlate them to spot problems
Task 3 - Change control: make sure that there is a group that manages this, authorises changes and fits it into the school developments and plans. This is usually support by the Configuration Management Database (some service desk software can do this too)
Task 4 - Policies : Makes sure that you have policies and procedures in place to make sure things are consistent. These are built through consultation with a range of stakeholders (including students, teachers, office staff, governors and even parents) and need regular review ... see task 3.

There is a lot more to it but the FITS Practitioner course runs you through all of this and will be live around March / April. The pilot courses are running at the moment and I did mine last week with a few fellow members from Northants and Derbyshire.

SLT buy-in is key. They should be a key part in the group dealing with change control and without their backing then you are unlikely to get far. In a survey we were shown all the schools that had been pretty successful implementing FITS only did the whole lot due to SLT drive.

The Manager course includes more SLT / Business Manager / IT Manager orientated elements (Service Level Management, Finance Management, etc) and that will be coming soon too.

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Originally Posted by Edu-IT

I use this an I'm not convinced it does.

Just looking at the information BECTA want you to record for each problem.

How do you make it work for you? I'm keen to find out. We can discuss this in a PM if you prefer.

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It's not so much that Becta want you to record it but that they advise you record certain things as the more info you can get about an incident means the more likely you can spot problems. This is pretty much a standard procedure and has parallels in teaching, medicine, engineering, etc ...

Out of interest what would you think is worth recording? It might make for an interesting discussion ... people will have a lot of different views on that one I think.

I also have to say a big thanks to Steve and Trevor at The FITS Foundation and George from NEOS IT Training (and Lee from NEOS as well).

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Originally Posted by GrumbleDook

It's not so much that Becta want you to record it but that they advise you record certain things as the more info you can get about an incident means the more likely you can spot problems. This is pretty much a standard procedure and has parallels in teaching, medicine, engineering, etc ...

Out of interest what would you think is worth recording? It might make for an interesting discussion ... people will have a lot of different views on that one I think.

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The information on here is useful and I agree that it's what should be recorded. It's not excessive, just getting used to doing it and also working out how best to record it.

Becta Schools

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Originally Posted by GrumbleDook

the FITS Practitioner course runs you through all of this and will be live around March / April. The pilot courses are running at the moment and I did mine last week with a few fellow members from Northants and Derbyshire.

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Where can I find out more about the FITS courses?

I'd be keen to do one, but I'm out on a limb in little old Cornwall.

RM do one.

Event Detail

The RM one took a while for me to get on to as they had to wait until there was enough people on the course. Turns out it was me and one other chap from a big school in London in the end :D Great for chatting to the trainer though about FITS from both of our own schools perspectives. Great trainer too, although i can't remember his name at the moment.

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Originally Posted by Edu-IT

The information on here is useful and I agree that it's what should be recorded. It's not excessive, just getting used to doing it and also working out how best to record it.

Becta Schools

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Yep ... I know where it is ... but I was trying to see if you thought it was right ... if anything would not be that important to you ... and what things do you think *aren't* there that you would like to be there.

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The information on here is useful and I agree that it's what should be recorded.

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Sorry, I was just saying, the questions asked in the document on there are the sorts of things I would want to record. I didn't want to copy and paste everything from there so I linked straight to it. I suppose it's always something you review and 6 months down the line you might tweak what information you record if you find what works well/doesn't work well. I'm not sure if that would be good practice?

There are a number of training providers that are looking at covering most places (with some overlap) and a list of the planned courses are at Training : The Fits Foundation but it is still in pilot mode at the moment so not many courses running but more courses will come online next year.

Other trainers are also coming online at the moment so people like RM and XMA are not on that list yet.

If you have any questions about it feel free to using the 'contact us' option on the above website and someone will get back to you pretty quickly.