How To Manage An Open Source Software

Transcription

1 Shaking the Vending Machine: Management & Pedagogical Implications of Open Source Software Jeshua Pacifici, LT Senior Manager Kim Gausepohl, Manager Learning Systems

2 Virginia Tech; Blacksburg, VA Public research institution 8 colleges & a graduate school 25,000+ full-time students faculty

3 LT Infrastructure

4 Learning Systems at VT

5 Blackboard at VT Sp 04 F 04 Sp 05 F 05 S Sp 04 F 04 Sp 05 F 05 Sp 06 Active Courses Active Instructors Sp 04 F 04 Sp 05 F 05 Sp 06 Active Students

6 Choices

7 Vendor System Vendor learning system support Stability and reliability of online learning environment Data integration (user and course data) System-wide support: Help desk, help pages, documentation, user training Relationship with vendor support manager Ability to leverage your university s technical teams

8 Why are We Interested in Open Source? Vendor annual license and hosting fees Problems with vendor support and migration Leverage University s academic and IT resources Serve institutional goals Ability to modify and customize functionality and interface Proprietary code limitations Ability to address diverse pedagogical and research needs

9 Management Implications Management of: Ourselves Everyone resists change, not just users Never worked with open-source before Requires higher-skilled staff New Open Source Systems Learning, testing, training, developing, documenting, migrating Existing Vendor Systems The big question When is Blackboard going away?

10 New Responsibilities: Part of Systems Engineering Process Concept Phase. OCS new role: Developing user-system interface requirement. Design Phase. OCS new role: Concept demonstration and validation by demonstrating proposed system interface to university community and making necessary changes based on received feedback. Development Phase. OCS new role: Full-scale engineering development. Iterative process of evaluation and programming Operation Phase. OCS continued role. Production & Deployment. Operation & Maintenance Disposal Phase. OCS continued role. System retirement. Figure 1: OCS roles in the Systems Engineering Process. Chart adapted from Chapanis (1996)

11 Managing Ourselves JIRA: management & organization for tasks, bugs, feature requests Confluence: dynamic documentation software/confluence/

12 JIRA Screenshot

13 Confluence Screenshot

14 Managing New Open Source Systems Know your institution s strengths and resources Identify your faculty needs and preferences Line up upper level support Remember without the vendor the buck stops at your desk

15 Managing New Open Source Systems Open source is not free Observers have little influence on the product QA is essential SAKAI QA display/qa/home OSP QA display/ DEV21/Testing

16 Concerns with Open Source Software Participating in the design process (herding cats) Coordinating developers: conflicting skills, schedules and objectives I m just volunteering mentality Sakai Requirements Voting 250+ submitted; working on 1 (statistics)

17 Concerns with Open Source Software Migrating course data from legacy or existing LMS s to open source LMS Transition - moving users away from existing system User concerns Ease of use Stability and Reliability Support concerns Lack of Admin tools!!!!!!!

18 Lessons Learned Supporting 10 people on a new system is more time consuming & resource dependant than supporting users on a known reliable system Work closely with end users they are using systems in ways that will surprise you There s no perfect or easy solution for an enterprise level system (vendor or OS) It s not volunteer work

19 Recommendations Know Thyself Target early adopters & work with them throughout the process (grassroots approach) Focus on strengths Find a niche (low hanging fruit) Partner with similar institutions Partner with other depts in your institution (eg, CS)

20 Questions & Answers Contact Information Jeshua Pacifici Kim Gausepohl Images: Digital Vision