With the poliferation of platforms in the CIS Department it is becoming increasining difficult for students and faculty to determine the availability of specific software. This makes the task difficult for students to determine which platform has the software needed for specific courses and makes it difficult for faculty to maintain the number licenses needed to support the educational mission of the department. Furthermore, with the lack of knowledge regarding systems comes the problem of keeping the software updated. Patches, fixes, and upgrades need to be coordinated from a central location and applied as needed to keep the systems running at optimum effectiveness. A knowledge of version number is critical for faculty, and students, since certain facilities may be available under versions while not under others. It is important that facultyu users of the software be notified when upgrades occur.
As part of the decision process for choosing software there needs to be a historical record of which faculty have used which software to support various educational activities in the department. This will encourage the interchange of ideas and the sharing of usage scenarios within the educational activities of the program.
Develop a system that will allow faculty and students to determine the state of software on the platforms supported in the CIS Department from any desktop system on campus through the use of a standard web browser. The information provided should include: 1) current version, 2) platform supported, and 3) number of licenses.
Develop a system that will notify faculty when new software licenses or software updates have been added to systems.
A working prototype for the system and all associated documentation for operating and maintaining the system. The accompanying documentation should include data from initial user testing to determine the level of interest and accessibility of the system.
Work on the project begins February 1, 1999. The work concludes on or before the first day of final exams.
Customer: Richard Upchurch, Professor, CIS Department.