Just a thought ...

[leco]

... how would people feel if every time they made an upgrade, or a change, to their environments/networks, there were 23,000 pairs of eyes/users watching their every move? (no pressure ZH just idle curiosity) Users ready to criticise or congratulate on a whim whatever the change was.

[duncane]

... how would people feel if every time they made an upgrade, or a change, to their environments/networks, there were 23,000 pairs of eyes/users watching their every move? (no pressure ZH just idle curiosity) Users ready to criticise or congratulate on a whim whatever the change was.

 

I'd probably feel a sense of power and exhileration - mwahaahahahahahaha!

[leco]

Whilst we all have users (obviously) that are generally quick to point out our pitfalls and not very forthcoming with the praise, since most of our "tweaks" go unnoticed. Here in Edugeek there is the potential for most of the users to actually be knowledgeable about what's going on. The upside I guess is that all those pairs of eyes could spot the little/not so little things that are missed.

[leco]

lol - click the back button? Forums listing - as in all the forums is on the er Forums tab, that's assuming you have a tabbed view.

[Ric_]

@leco You mean ZH has changed something?

[leco]

@leco You mean ZH has changed something?

 

His socks?

[GrumbleDook]

TBH ... the surprise side of things can be fun, but the feedback on bugs, etc might be structured a bit better. Some are better than others about how to give concise feedback, help fault find, etc. Some might take comments from others the wrong way and rather than pull things apart or randomly say "Wow!" I think a more structured UAT would help in the future (coz we all know that this will not be the last change!)

 

I know some folk get to see it earlier than others (not sulking that I don't anymore ... honest) but we have enough folk who are experienced beta testers around for them to stick their hands up and say "Yeah ... I'll help run through the *whole* site to look at things ... erm ... exactly how big is the site again?"

 

Just a thought for the future.

[leco]

Yeah I was thinking (well it is my hols) that usually there is the whole change management thing. I guess that's all down to the beta testers as you say, but feedback on that process is more of a managed environment rather than the randomness of whole site users. Daunting to say the least, but then ZH is well versed in this sort of thing - isn't he?

[GrumbleDook]

Seriously ... don't get me started on change management within software development. Just think what happens every time an LA / RBC change their user admin tools ... then have to retrain schools, etc ... and if anyone in Northants is reading and wants to help with some testing tomorrow please let me know.

[leco]

Even with the smaller installations - the changes I'm about to make at my school - I know there will be some "Why change?" type comments. It's all so much more comfortable not to change anything but then when you look around there is nobody there with you, they've all run on ahead.

[Halfmad]

Happens everywhere, users love to moan but when things are going well (99.9% of the time) nobody thinks to mention it. It's rare for me to be thanked by most of my users even if I've worked overtime or bank holidays to suit their needs, yes I get paid for it but it's completely optional to me and only done to make their life easier.

 

I recently got asked by a group of users at a meeting why they don't see me on site as often (I have 75 sites I support). I pointed out that I'm using remote tools and fixing faults with scripts or silent installers more and more now and pro-actively fixing faults in one site which has cropped up at another before it gets there. They actually seemed upset that I'd not want to go on site and one even asked if they could get a fixed time for me to come out each week as they just "wanted to point out any problems they had on that week", hell never heard of the helpdesk we have staffed 24/7?

 

I.T. is a very thankless job, glad I have a good home life or it'd simply be soul destroying. Thing is, like most folks on Edugeek I actually enjoy the work, it's the people I work for that make it difficult to do the 3 hours commuting each day!

[john]

I know some folk get to see it earlier than others (not sulking that I don't anymore ... honest)

 

You mean the 4am here's your new site learn to manage it in the 1hr before we let the members back on

[leco]

Oh John now don't spoil the illusion

[GrumbleDook]

You mean the 4am here's your new site learn to manage it in the 1hr before we let the members back on

 

I meant the important folk like DB, Ric_ and Russ