Narrowing a Release Decision
Release Decision - What criteria should we use?
- End users - who are they, how global is the release?
- Upgrades v. updates - what are we gaining?
o Security issues - are people vulnerable, is this critical?
o Costs of not upgrading/patching?
- Product end-of-life/longevity?
- How much control do we have over the software release process? MIT v. Vendor
- External dependencies on a product - laws, regulations, features, functionality
- Estimated Cost - people, equipment, licensing, support, on-time-cost of setup, cost of NOT doing it, cost of not getting involved (i.e. Mathmatica)?
- Alignment with IS&T priorities and mission
- Value v. Cost
- Availability of resources
- Scope of release - just documentation, software licensing, deployment vehicle?
o What is the granularity of the decision?
Type of Decisions
- Small Scope (i.e. Acrobat Reader)
o Single platform
o Time to complete - 40 person hours or less
o Decision can be made and managed mostly within SWRT Team
- Mediums Scope (i.e. VirusScan)
o Project, multiple people
o Multiple platforms involved - 1 month of calendar time
o Resources from CSS
o May have to use a few resources outside of SWRT
- Large Scope (i.e. TSM, Apple Mail, MS Office)
o Large project with multiple people
o Resources outside of CSS are critical
- Very Large Scope (i.e. Operating System)
o IS&T as a department is involved
Scope |
Decision Maker |
Examples |
Time |
|
Small |
Platform Coordinator |
Acrobat Reader |
~40 hours |
|
Medium |
SWRT Leader/Team |
Virus Scan |
~1 month |
|
Large |
CSS Director |
TSM, Filemaker Pro |
1+ months |
|
Very Large |
IS&T VP Staff |
Operating System |
2+ months |
|