How do you manage change (specifically new software versions and testing?)

[DMartin]

Hello,

 

I work for a university and have been tasked with creating a change management process specifically focusing on new software versions and image testing for classroom needs. I have some background in this area as I used to work for a large insurance company as a junior business analyst and have done some study in these areas with the ISEB.

 

The goal is for us to focus on staff agreeing which software versions (highly technical media production software mainly) are going to be rolled out for that academic year, also, they will be testing said software and signing off from a UAT perspective as to avoid those ad-hoc panic fixes mid way though the year. It sounds simple but its the first time I have approached this issue from an academic perspective (I previously worked at schools)

 

I am thinking of approaching this issue from a 4 phase perspective for simplicity and transparency (detailed below, just a rough idea at the moment).

 

How you you manage software change in your organisation?

 

-----

 

Pre-Phase (8 weeks)

 

- Ascertain latest versions of available software and list any changes that we feel might impact teaching.

- Pinpoint any licencing concerns.

- Present this to the selected staff members (staff will then agree version change with a signature)

 

Phase 1 (6 weeks)

 

- Technician to build image with the software versions previously agreed.

- Technician to deploy to a small number of computers.

- Technician to identify issues and apply fixes.

- Technician to sign off development test with a peer review (test basic software functionality)

 

Phase 2 (4 weeks)

 

- IT Manager will inform staff that the software image is now ready for testing.

- Staff member to test their software for their course needs and report any issues that occur (each member of staff will have a UAT (User Acceptance Testing) form to fill out and sign when happy with the software.

 

Phase 3 (2 weeks)

 

- IT Technicians to roll out finished image prior to teaching.

[kennysarmy]

Looks good.

 

We more or less do the same in this school but a lot less formal.

 

Teacher email us and says I need SoftwareA updated to the newer version.

 

I download and create MSI and deploy to test PC in office

 

If it installs fine I roll out to their department PC's via GPO.

 

Timeframe - 20 minutes!

 

 

If it's software that cannot be installed via MSI then we install on ONE PC in their department and get them to test for a few days then schedule some access time to their rooms to update the others.

[DMartin]

Hi Kennysarmy,

 

Yeah that's the sort of thing we do at the moment if its just a small piece of software (we have a 50/50 split of Mac and PC), however most of our software is specialist like Avid Pro Tools, Final Cut, Ableton to name a few, with add-ons needed most of the times.

 

This is why it needs to be formalized as a lot of these little tweaks can rapidly snowball if the software has not been tested by the end user for their needs after our dev testing. We have had some nightmares over the past 12 months.

[steve]

We adopt a similar approach, but getting academic engagement can be an issue.

 

I'd ensure you started early enough to cover a couple of cycles of phase 1 / 2 in case other versions need to be tried, fixes etc. Plus any staff holidays. We start around Feb for a cluster roll out at the end of August / early September..

 

Things to remind academics of - does the new verision work with thier existing files? Does the interface differ to whats in there teaching documents. These might also affect when a decision on version needs to be made, time to write and publish revised documents or update files.

 

I'd also get some files / guidance from the academics for your basic testing of the software.

 

On the licensing front its worth knowing when applications are due for renewal and when new versions tend to be released.

 

Good software documentation is your friend :-)

 

One other thing to beware of is scheduled replacement of computers. No point re-imaging if they will be replaced in a couple of weeks.

[pcstru]

@DMartin. That looks very similar to what we attempt here. Additionally, we restrict change to two main images a year so the schedules are fixed. We actually schedule 4 images a year but two are reserved for technical fixes/patches only. We struggle a little to get teaching staff engaged, particularly in the user acceptance testing.

[DMartin]

Cheers all for your input, I agree that good documentation will be our biggest asset (I am working with our share point team to get something transparent and simple put in place)

 

Academic engagement is the tricky part, maybe I could offer cake as a reward for completing their part of the process? Could work?!

[Tezza88]

If only life was that easy the amount of software that we have given to us from members of staff, demanding we have this put on the network. Even though application cannot be run on our network due to system requirements or its just simple to old and they don’t want to update to the latest version of the software. Trouble is educational software is not as straight forward as a simple MSI and have had to turn away staff on a number of occasions. Recently we sent out an email to all departments regarding 'Future Software Purchasing' but as you can guess we still have staff members knocking on our door giving us new bits of software which haven’t been approved.

 

Just thought I’d give you a heads up working in education isn’t as strictly structured as the private sector. As you have to deal with umpteen different requests from multple departments. We currently have 102 applications on our network and growing.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Tezza88

[DMartin]

Id argue to say that my situation is actually a bit more formal than you might think, I have worked in schools previously (secondary and primary) and know all too well the perils of staff members and their 16bit software that MUST go on the network otherwise their career is over haha!

 

My current situation is a university campus that houses several schools (media/film/radio, video game design, journalism and nursing) each with their own professional software sets which are pre-approved by a committee. The problem is afterward the software sets are just let out into the wild and not managed properly with updates and extras. This has caused some major headaches in the past mainly with students working at home with the wrong versions then not being able to continue their work at the university and some problems with practical sessions in lessons/lectures.

 

This does require academic engagement to preempt what needs to be tested with some guidelines from us to help them along the way. I need to keep the fact in mind that students pay in excess of £9000 to be with us so it needs to be as professional and audited as possible with clear instruction to students/staff. Its quite a task!

[Tezza88]

Wish I was in your boat seems like an exciting task and of course with that sort of funding I bet all areas tied down. Trouble is with our work place we are always financially constraint and have to live with what we have . Good chatting to you hope it all goes well and with that sort of stratgey i'm pretty sure you will be fine.