Who is the audience for the product?
- Who are they (faculty, admin staff, research staff, students)
- How many use the software (do we have data?)
- How global is the release (by user, by department, enterprise-wide)
- How do our customers currently get support for this product?
What is the magnitude of the version change?
- Is it a major or minor update?
- Is it just bug fixes, or are there new features?
- Is it a security update? If so, does it impact MIT?
- How is the update provided? Via an automatic update, vendor supplied installer, etc.?
What is the value and/or benefit of doing a release project now?
The benefit of updates consist of utilizing the vendor auto-update feature which allows users to update their machines to the latest point release (i.e., 6.1, 6.2, etc) that mainly consists of security fixes and feature enhancements. This allows for more end-user productivity and less consumption of IS&T resources.
Questions we should ask ourselves:
- Does the update add a feature or capability MIT needs?
- Does the update fix a bug or problem experienced at MIT?
- Does the update address a major security vulnerability?
What are the costs/impact of not doing a release project at this time?
- What are the costs/impact of not doing a release project at this time?
- Is it easy for customers to get and correctly apply the update/upgrade?
When does the Product reach end-of-life? What is our planned longevity for this product?
- How many versions of this product are currently supported?
- If new version, will older version(s) be retired?
- What is the vendor end of life statement on the current supported product(s)?
How is the software distributed? How much control do we have over the distribution process?
- MIT network download
- Vendor network download
- VSLS produced media
- Vendor produced media
What are the downstream effects and implications of decisions on various groups? Help Desk, DITR, Security, Training, Pubs, etc.
What are the other external dependencies for this product? e.g. laws, regulations, features, etc.
- Workload, resources, costs for each group.
- External dependencies on a product - laws, regulations, features, functionality
Are we in alignment with the IS&T Priorities and Mission?
What pieces of support do we recommend for this product?
- Help Desk (Tier 1 & 2) - though minimal questions expected
- Product Expert (Tier 3) - Cecilia and DCAD
- DITR - supports FM servers for DLCs under SLAs
- DCAD consultation, development and support
- User Group Support - FMUG
- Distribution through VSLS
- Documentation beyond product front door
- MIT specific Training - various FileMaker level classes
What are the roles needed on the release project?
- Project Manager -
- Help Desk (Tier 1 & 2) -
- Product Expert (Tier 3) -
- DITR - for server support/migration -
- Distribution through VSLS -
- Documentation Pubs -
- MIT specific Training - CSS Training -
- Windows Server Hosting -
What are the resource estimates for delivering this release project as described?
Who can we get to lead the project and when?
When do we have resources available for this release project?
Recommendation
- When should we do this release project? What should happen in the meantime?
- What is the Value vs. Cost?
- Should we do this release project now?