Just been asked for a development plan . . . .

[bodminman]

that will see us through the next 15 years!

 

Am I be right in thinking that this is impossible?

 

For the next 5 years then that's not a problem but beyond that is any ones guess!

[hardtailstar]

we struggle with just 2 here!

 

I have a plan for three years but its never carried out as no money and moving over to Academy status means everything is put on hold until everything is sorted!

[localzuk]

15 year development plan? That's a ridiculous concept. IT has completely changed in this school in 8 years, let alone 15. Go back 12 years and we were using Acorn thin clients here.

 

Yeah. 5 years is the best you can hope for with a plan. Strategy can be a bit longer, covering say 10 years, but they would both be a "moving target" as new technologies appear and change things. I'd suggest a rolling 5 year plan is more appropriate.

Edited December 8, 2014 by localzuk

[tekins]

Do a 5 year plan, then add a picture of a crystal ball!

[pcstru]

It is not impossible to provide such a thing but the further into the future you go, the larger the error bars. I'd probably laugh but cough up something based around renewal of all infrastructure over a maximum 7 year rolling time scale. Anything after year 7 I'd consider vapid nonsense (albeit expert vapid nonsense) but if someone wants to pay me to do such things, who am I to argue?

[tech_guy]

Just tell them in 15 years time everything will be Google and implants.

[X-13]

I dare you to put something in about replacing teaching staff with robots.

 

 

Welcome to Nao, your robot teacher - Telegraph

[Quackers]

5 Years ago the iPad did not exist except behind closed doors. So to ask for a 15 year plan is bonkers, and i would use the iPad as a good illustration on how much things change in just a few years.

[bodminman]

I dare you to put something in about replacing teaching staff with robots.

 

 

Welcome to Nao, your robot teacher - Telegraph

 

LOL - I actually said this to the Governor who asked me to do this development plan. He has a sense of humor and thought it was hilarious.

[unixman_again]

In 15 years time, XP and IE6 will still be causing us problems, with teachers still wanting to use their pet bit of software, which only works on the aforementioned combination.

[pcstru]

I dare you to put something in about replacing teaching staff with robots.

Year 8 : Teaching staff moved into the cloud.

Year 9 : Student population virtualised on Hyper-X or Ritalin.

Year 10 : Replacement of 10G fibres with Quantum Entangled Google-BrainWare.

Year 11 : Install of Skynet Beta 0.8a

Year 12 : Most support staff replaced by Raspberry Pi C series

Year 13 : Skynet upgrade to release 1.0 ... oops.

[bodminman]

Year 8 : Teaching staff moved into the cloud.

Year 9 : Student population virtualised on Hyper-X or Ritalin.

Year 10 : Replacement of 10G fibres with Quantum Entangled Google-BrainWare.

Year 11 : Install of Skynet Beta 0.8a

Year 12 : Most support staff replaced by Raspberry Pi C series

Year 13 : Skynet upgrade to release 1.0 ... oops.

 

Brilliant!

[X-13]

LOL - I actually said this to the Governor who asked me to do this development plan. He has a sense of humor and thought it was hilarious.

 

Show him that link. Tell him you were serious.

 

£4k per robut, per class, 1-off < £Teacher, per year, until they leave.

 

Double it for a TA-bot/spare and you're still saving money.

 

 

Hire a couple more techs for teacher repairs... STILL saving money in the long run.

[Jamman960]

...Year 10 - Robots replace teachers

...Year 15 - Robot teachers retired, information beamed into pupils brains

 

I wish I could get my school to think beyond the next year, I ask for more each year due to aging assets and they cut the budget further

 

edit: oops too slow!

[GrumbleDook]

Are we talking IT development plan or school development plan?

 

You can only consider the IT one once you have the school one.

 

After all, if the school dev plan talks about opening multiple campuses, running as a teaching school, etc then possible requirements will differ. The school development plan will also have to be based on the LA / County plan around what the expected growth is of your are, including economic and non-economic migrants, rate of birth, the family bubble (where families are not moving out of a central urban area once they start having children), etc ...

 

Oh, and then throw in about what impact do you have to take into account for OFSTED's requirements on evidence of learning when more of it is done digitally ...

 

You can throw a bunch more queries and dependencies in if you want ...

[tmcd35]

My Current development plan is looking over a 10 year life cycle. The truth is the actual development plan only runs over 3-5 years, beyond that is extrapolated as rolling replacements. But that's not important. The thing is, the development plan isn't a fixed document you do once and forget. You change and amend it every year, and then redo the forecasts over 5, 10, and yes if necessary 15 years, based on the new assumptions.

 

If I look at the IT spend and development strategy for this coming year and compare it to the forecast I made in the development plan 5 years ago the two are not even remotely close. But if I look at each of the intervening development plans I can see the changes in priorities and assumptions that got us were we are today.

 

Our current IT priority is to move from a wired infrastructure to a wireless infrastructure. So the 10 year plan looks at removing IT suites and replacing them with bookable laptop trolleys. So I'm making educated guesses as to when the best time to decommission each IT suite is and what we're likely to need in extra IT resources. I'm sure when I revisit the plan next year it'll be subtly different, and in two years when the changes we make this year have had chance to bed themselves in...

 

That said 15 years is a crazily long time skill. Still If that what they need for their own budget planning requirements, including projected IT spend in to a longer whole school plan, then let them have it. Should be that hard to create if you have some idea of the next 5 years spending. And it's nothing anyone is going to be holding you to in 15 years time, that's if you are they are even still working there!

[Ephelyon]

I'd argue maybe you can't do all that much without the school dev plan, but there are still some generic infrastructure development priorities you can list in the meantime until you get it (never hurts to look busy, especially when the Govs are involved).

 

Things like when the next server/client OS upgrade is due; how old various bits of kit are; how your platform stands in terms of physical, virtual or a hybrid; where do you stand with backup and (off-site?) DR etc... some of this is impacted by broader planning at school/county level, but you can still make some inroads for now. It gets the juices going and puts questions like "Do we need to talk to IT about putting some wireless in this new extension?" in the backs of people's minds if you've already got something in the works to show them at planning meetings.

[jdoyle]

just ask for the 15year School Development Plan. That should drive the IT development plan (shouldn't it???)....

[psydii]

Brain dump, which I am sure repeats some/much of the above:

 

 

The details need to align with what ever the curriculum demands are, however Not much really changes between institutions when It comes to long term planning:

 

Then plan 10-15 years out will be vague.

 

The plan 1-5 years will be detailed.

 

The plan 5-10 will be less detailed.

 

Think about equipment life cycles.

 

With the right Desktops you get 7-10 years of life.

 

Laptops, no more than 5

 

Switches: 10 years, but make sure 10g to the core in delivered in the next five.

 

Cabling? To what standard is it, and what is the quality of the install and documentation. 15-25 years for good installs, the cheaper it was done the sooner it will need replacing.

 

Internet bandwidth, consider how much you use and what the school dev plan calls for in terms of use of Internet services... It is a known unknown and should appears as such in re plan with costs associated wth the options available.

 

Wifi has a five - seven year life at the moment.

 

Projectors / IWB 5 and 10 respectively.

 

Costs are not really going down, the capabilities are improving.

 

Don't forget about training as each tranche of refresh occurs.

 

Align support and warranty to lifecycle, once support runs out it is time to replace. If you are not moving forward and delivering continuous improvement, you are moving backwards.

Edited December 8, 2014 by psydii

[bossman]

I used to do a 10 year development plan with 3 and 5 yearly replacement hardware, OS and server platform increments (Dependent on OS/Server platform development) the last one I did involved the infrastructure i.e. fibre design of routes and implementation plus switch gear.

 

Problem is if the SLT decide there is no money for any of this then it is purely a wish list or required only when everything goes south!

 

Money is tight for most schools and the SLT's in these schools look at buildings, Staff, Students and then maybe IT as an after thought, trouble is this becomes a major problem for those members of staff whose job it is to maintain the ageing equipment.

 

Our infrastructure is now 13 years old and the OS/Server platform with hardware is now nearly 7 years old with no sign of being updated in the near future because of financial restraints and it is causing me concern but no matter how you put this over to management they seem to think that the LA will always be there to take it over at the drop of a hat.

 

Good luck to them is what I say, the LA can have it and I will just manage what they decide to move onto if anything.

 

Apologies for having a little rant on a Monday but feeling a little lost atm.

[win]

15 years?! You'll be lucky if you can stick to a 5 year plan.

 

In 15 years you will need engineers to maintain the Matrix style knowledge plug-in equipment. "I want to be a doctor - upload medical training into my brain pls!"

[DalekSec]

look where we were 15 years ago, no one would of predicted where we are now and also about the rise of tablet's which came in the last 5 years. never know a new tech brainstorm will come in 7-10years time and wipe out all desktops and laptops. The rise of the AI! Professor Hawking's said it himself!

[PotNoodleTech]

that will see us through the next 15 years!

 

Am I be right in thinking that this is impossible?

 

For the next 5 years then that's not a problem but beyond that is any ones guess!

 

It would be a requirement for you to see the 15 year school development plan first in order to inform a possible 15 year ICT development plan. It may take the SMT team a while to get you a copy...

[GrumbleDook]

Schools will have a 5 year school dev plan, documented and published ... good schools go up to 15 years, but a bunch of that will be based on receiving information and decision points in earlier years.

 

In reality a 5 year plans goes like this.

 

Year 1 - All the targets line up and being worked on ... several will finish in that year and produce information for decisions about years 2-5. Not much movement in the plan unless something surprising comes up like another local school is closed and you get asked to take on most of the kids, etc.

 

Year 2 - Targets are starting to move as the data comes in and draft adjustments are made for future years. Large presumptions on years 5-10 start getting RAG on them.

 

Year 3 - Full review on what has and hasn't worked, with large adjustments to either improve (increase or decrease) original targets and to formally introduce additional targets. Worked started on fleshing out Years 6-8.

 

Year 4 - Ofsted will have been in probably twice by the end of this year so targets are are either met or changed. Local dependencies takes into consideration in firming up years 6-9

 

Year 5 - The coasting year ... either you made it or you haven't. If you have made it then you get to formally sign off years 6-10, and rescope things in 11-15. If you haven't made it then you do a major cyclic evaluation, get support from a variety of sources and rip up years 6-8 and start again. The aims for year 3-5 should be in there, but with a few of the original 6-8 areas too ... to try to get back on track for year 9.

 

This is a very simplified version, and most for in business will recognise the process too ... just because it is education it doesn't mean it it is that different. Shareholders can be just as fickle as governments when it comes to strategies and targets. Consumers as mystifying as parents!

[tmcd35]

look where we were 15 years ago, no one would of predicted where we are now and also about the rise of tablet's which came in the last 5 years.

 

The purpose of the development plan isn't to predict the unpredictable. It's to forecast spending based on current known assumptions. Assumptions that will have changed by the time you come to re-write the development plan next year. Hell we might have a change of government next April that could have a serious impact on any assumptions made this year. I can work out a 25 year spending plan based on current assumptions if higher ups needed for some strange reason.