MAP stands for "MIT Application Platform." It MAP is a set of services provided by IS&T for software developers in the MIT software-development community. This charter lays the foundation for:
The primary team members are currently selected from development teams across IS&T, with plans to expand. Facilitation and management of MAP is provided by ISDA (Infrastructure Software Development and Architecture). MAP is part of IS&T's goal of better supporting of, and engaging with, the larger MIT developer community.
We will leverage all necessary technologies to make software development and system implementation by the MIT Community faster and easier, and to make access to enterprise data both easier and more secure.
The road map for our services is set by the MAP Working Group. All aspects of MAP are supported by DSPS. Formalization and prioritization of MAP services are reviewed by the MAP Steering Committee.
This road map will be public information at all times and subject to comment and review by the MIT community.
Roles by Team
The MAP Working Group
Community.
The mission of MAP is to:
- Make local system implementation and software development faster and easier by providing more standard infrastructure.
- Allow for easier and secure access to enterprise data stores for the Community to use in innovative ways.
- Make all the services we provide useful options without turning them into barriers to entry.
A service is any supportable technology component. We will continually evaluate application-server environments, code and project management systems, integrated software-development environments, and any other type of technology that the developer community needs and that IS&T can successfully support.
The MAP Working Group designs and develops MAP. The MAP Steering Committee provides research and direction to the Working Group, and prioritizes the rolling out of services to formal support. The Infrastructure Platform Support team supports all MAP Services and provides the infrastructure for the Working Group's development.
The MAP Working Group
Membership: Working-Group contributors are Programmer/Analysts who do hands-on programming projects at MIT. They are not project managers, supervisors, or senior architects. Working-Group membership is an assignment. The supervisor of the contributor must allow for 2-3 days per month to work on tasks related to MAP.
Contribution: Working Group members can contribute any or all of their work to MAP under "map-contrib" status. This contribution is supported by the Working Group and possibly ISDA on a best-effort basis. Map-contrib materials must go through the Steering Committee (below) to graduate to "map-official" status.
- Members
- The Working Group is composed of Programmer/Analysts with hands-on programming projects at MIT.
- They develop reference implementations and developer documentation useful to one another.
- They evaluate products that ISDA can use to provide useful services to developers.
- They plan prototype, with ISDA their developer support and infrastructure needs, systems for software-development infrastructure.
- They have access to ISDA web-services and client-integration platforms which they can extend on their own, source-control, and other systems that are designated part of MAP to extend or enhance on their, per the review of the rest of the Working Group.
- They are the liasons between ISDA and their own respective development teams. ISDA expects them to represent their department accurately and responsibly.
- To limit membership to a manageable size, each interested DLC can select only one developer for Working Group membership. (1)
The MAP Steering Committee
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Membership: Members must be senior technology architects in IS&T. Membership is voluntary.
Contribution: The Steering Committee evaluates all "map-contrib" materials for promotion to "map-official" status.
- Members review the Working Group's code contributions and determine which should migrate from "contrib" status to the official MAP Handbook and code repositories.
- They review the Working Group's documentation contributions and determine which contributions should migrate from "contrib" status to the official MAP Handbook and Repository.
- They review the processes and systems prototyped by the Working and help IPS prioritize infrastructure services specified by the Working Groupformalize them into supportable services.
- Based on the current problems being examined, Steering Committee members research technology trends and advise the Working Group and IPS on solutions to consider.
The Infrastructure Platform Support
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Team
- Based on the Steering Committee's input, IPS polishes map-contrib material for inclusion in the MAP Handbook and code repositories.
- They support working group Working Group members with their use of MAP systems.
- They are the liason to vendors whose products become part of MAP, representing the needs of the Working Group and the Steering Committee.
- They support and update the fundamental MAP infrastructure.
Service Level Agreements
These are some notes about SLAs we will need around MAP.
Managers' SLA
- Steve arranged with other Managers that the members of the Working Group are assigned to the effort, so this is not a user group or club.
- A Manager is someone who reports to a Director. This represents a "wing" of a given organization.
- That manager commits to a 2-3 day-per-month availability of the developer for MAP work.
- In return, that manager knows the developer has access to web-services and client-integration platforms to do work directly related to their immediate integration needs.
- Right now, each "wing" gets one representative only. That person is a liason to the rest of his/her team.
SLA between IPS and the Working Group
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- Example: The Java framework must be designed around tools from which we can get consistent support from a vendor (right now, SourceLabs). Adding new tools to the supported framework have to come by taking the time to work with the vendor.
- Example: The client-integration platform's features, and therefore the architecture for UI clients to MAP services, will be constrained by the platform we choose.
- They gate the roll out of work to "map-official" status based on the ability of the IS&T infrastructure to support the overhead of a new service.
Notes
- One member per DLC is the normal rule for the community. However, IS&T has so many software-development teams that several divisions of IS&T are represented by one member each from 1) Student Information Systems, 2) SAIS Technical Services, 3) SAIS Administrative Computing, 4) ISDA Content and Collaboration Services
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