Technology Support Plan

Catherine Hernandez
Technology Support Plan
Technology Coordination Q367-Sec01 Fall 2002
Due: September 22, 2002

OVERVIEW

The technology support team at Florida International University’s (FIU) School of Computer Science (SCS) is fairly well developed at this point, and continues to evolve. When I began at SCS in February 1994 the technology support group consisted of two permanent full time staff members and two temporary half time student support staff. Today, the Computer Support Group (CSG) has four permanent full time staff, one permanent half time staff and about 30 temporary student support staff. 

The School of Computer Science is housed in the Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) building on the Main Campus of FIU. The Computer Support Group is responsible for providing technical support to the entire user base within SCS. The Biscayne Bay Campus (BBC), hosts two SCS faculty who teach several sections of three courses each semester. CSG is responsible to provide support for SCS faculty at BBC, but we have no direct responsibility to support any computing labs at BBC. We do provide input, assistance and recommendations to the lab managers at that campus so that curriculum needs are met for the SCS courses taught at BBC.

The CSG is organized into teams so that our response to users is effective and timely. Our support group operates around a strong student base that performs most of the frontline support duties since permanent staff “lines” are very difficult to obtain. Student staff are ranked at evaluation time by experience and time on the job as either Senior or Junior staff. Staffing numbers change as projects and support needs change and SCS has an excellent record of acknowledging the importance of technical support and hires student staff swiftly on the recommendation of the Director of Computing Technology. Historically the core teams of Applications, Systems and Development each have 4 to 5 staff members, with the Computer Lab Support Team employing as many as 15 members to sufficiently cover lab monitoring requirements. The Business Desk functions very well with two student staff. Most student staff works 20 hours weekly, although some work as many as 30 hours. In cases when we have been able to hire students under the Federal Work Study program, we have employed staff that work only 10 hours a week.

Additional information about the School of Computer Science and the Computing Support Group can be found at the following sties:

http://www.cs.fiu.edu/
http://www.cs.fiu.edu/support/
http://www.aul.fiu.edu/

CURRENT STAFFING POSITIONS

The Director of Computing Technology (full time permanent position)
The role of the Director of Computing Technology is critical to the success of CSG. Briefly, the Director is responsible to provide academic computing service for SCS, make recommendations for technology needs in academic and research areas, present new technologies to the SCS community, and oversee purchases of technical equipment and supplies. The Director is also responsible to interact with campus leaders and organizations that provide technology or develop policy about technology for the University. The Director has assembled a team of Managers to assist with the operational aspects of technical support so that he can focus his energy on guiding the direction of support and working with the Chair of the department to evolve technical support services as the School grows. In addition, the Director acts as manager to Business Desk staff and to the Development group.

Business Desk Staff (two student staff at 20 hours each)
Responsible for maintaining equipment inventories and databases, preparing requisitions to purchase equipment and supplies, monitor lab resources such as toner and paper, and track desk and equipment assignments.

Development Group (three student staff at 20 hours)
Works with the Director to create and manage databases for inventory control and purchase tracking for the department. Works with the Director on programming projects for the School or in special cases, for the University community.

Development Group Team Lead One of the staff in the Development group is named as Team Lead. This staff has the additional responsibility to oversee progress on projects and keep the Director apprised of progress within the group.

Webmaster (one student staff at 20 hours)
Works with the Director to develop and maintain the School’s website, as well as the websites of several of the School’s research centers. Performs various ad-hoc programming assignments as needed.

Manager for Desktop, User and Computer Lab Support (full time permanent position)
(Catherine Hernandez)
The Desktop Manager is responsible to maintain academic and administrative computing resources for the School: manage user help questions and inquiries, introduce new technologies to the Director and faculty for curriculum support, work with faculty to develop integration strategies for technology and learning; manage and operate academic computing laboratories, support users and maintain equipment in research centers.

The Desktop and User Support Group is the largest group in CSG. The Desktop Team is organized into two groups: Desktop and User Support specializing in Microsoft Windows, applications and PC hardware support issues, and Computer Lab Support which specializes in customer service to student users in the computing labs. (Note: The two undergraduate open computing labs in SCS are required to be staffed. The graduate open lab is available to students 24/7 with keyed access. Computer Lab Support staff assists both graduate and undergraduate students.)

Within the Desktop group, a staff might be assigned as a liaison to a user group or specific service when there is an intense need for customized support.  Liaison assignments are often created when there is a new service to be provided for which we have not evolved sufficient support procedures or to provide services to particularly “staff intensive” group, project or service, such as monitoring and maintaining portable classroom equipment “kits”. Currently the Desktop group has the following Liaison assignments:

Liaison to Equipment
Liaison to Secretarial Staff
Liaison to FDOI/DMIS (research) Lab

Supervisor for Desktop, User and Computer Lab Support (half time, permanent position)
Oversees the day to day operations of the Desktop group and makes staff assignments from incoming requests for help or assistance. Monitors and supervises staff attendance and performance. Works with the Desktop manger to develop procedures, policies and methods to improve user support and Desktop quality of service. 

Desktop and User Support Staff (temporary student staff, 20-30 hours weekly)
Currently, there are a five student staff on the Desktop and User Support Team. Their principle responsibility is to answer incoming user requests and develop deployment configurations of operating systems and applications for use on departmental computers. 

Desktop and User Support Team Lead  One of the student staff on the Desktop and User Support team is named as the Team Lead. This staff member has the additional responsibility to assist the Desktop supervisor in making staff assignments and monitoring the progress of incoming requests. The Team Lead also functions as a sentry to alert the Supervisor or Manager to issues or conflicts that might impede progress.

Computer Lab Support Staff (temporary student staff, 10-20 hours weekly)
Currently, there are 10 student staff working 20 hours and 4 student staff working 10 hours in the open computing labs. This staff is responsible for all “front line” user help issues that arise from students or faculty in the computing labs. 

Computer Lab Support Team Lead One of the student staff on the Computer Lab Support Team is named as the Team Lead. This staff has the additional responsibility to assist the Desktop supervisor in making staff assignments and monitoring the progress of incoming requests.

Manager for Systems and Networking Group (full time permanent position)
The Systems Manager is responsible for infrastructure and network services for the School. He is responsible to maintain consistent network, printing, mail, web, account generation and Internet services. The Systems Manager assures the health of the SCS network including all network and system security and coordinates our services with University services where dependencies exist. This group has the most extensive UNIX experience, and so it handles most user help questions related to the UNIX operating system.

Supervisor for Systems and Networking Group (full time permanent position)
The Systems Supervisor handles the day-to-day operations of tasks within the group, assigns work and requests to System group staff and monitors the health of services in the School. He is responsible to develop the Linux environment that is deployed in the department.

Systems and Networking Support Staff (temporary student staff, 10-20 hours weekly)
Systems staff handle user questions regarding network services, printers, web server, Internet connectivity. Develop programs that monitor and report the health and activity in the SCS network.

Outsourced Services Most support responsibilities for SCS are handled by the Computing Support Group, however, there are a couple of instances when we rely on outside assistance.

All new equipment is ordered on Florida state contract, so we are careful to verify that best possible warranty options available on that contract. Generally, computers are warranted for three years and printers for one year. This allows us to get immediate parts replacement for failed equipment during the warrantee period. In the case of printers, we additionally contract with a local vendor to provide onsite maintenance for our most critical printers. The cost has been reasonable to provide such consistent reliability, but perhaps more importantly, staff are able to concentrate on tasks they are better trained to handle and provide a high level of customer service for the user.

OPERATIONAL DEAILS

Help Desk The Computing Support Group has implemented a tool called WebReq, written by Jesse Vincent, to track and monitor user requests. This system has been in use at SCS for about 5 years and is highly successful. CSG has made several modifications and customizations to the original WebReq package which haves made it an invaluable tool for the department. (Mr. Vincent has further developed his tool and renamed it RT – Request Tracker – and founded a company called Best Practical. Read more at http://www.bestpractical.com/ )

Using WebReq, all incoming requests are reviewed by CSG staff and assigned to a group or individual staff member. Staff on duty monitors the Request Queue continuously. This system is tightly integrated into our email system, so that response to users and the queue can be made either directly from email or via the web browser.

Staff Development Staff training and development is handled in a variety of ways in CSG. The primary method used for training staff is a mentorship with senior staff within the same group. Mentoring as a training method has worked well for us and we find that it fosters an atmosphere of teamwork and collaborative problem solving.

Although CSG is organized into teams for efficiency, we realize that CSG is actually a support entity, which includes all of the teams. To encourage the sharing of knowledge and collaboration across teams, each semester we formulate a cross-training schedule. Specifically, the Computer Lab Support Team is cross-trained with the Desktop and User Support Team on daily operations. Members of the Lab Team or the Desktop Team are cross trained with the Systems Team on developing projects or to learn procedures when a project is released as a service for the SCS community.

Funding for formal staff training is scarce, however, we have been able to supplement the mentorship and cross-training programs by providing paid time for staff to attend free, local conferences or seminars. Also, the Desktop Group is developing an in-house certificate program based on skills staff are expected to nurture as they are employed in the group. We anticipate that the achievement of in-house certification will improve staff knowledge and ability, help keep morale high, and provide incentive for staff to grow skills that can be documented on resumes when they leave the University. Finally, we have been able to provide study materials for various industry recognized certifications, such as Microsoft’s MCSE and the CompTIA  A+ certification. While we cannot reimburse staff for the cost of these tests, we can provide study materials and a “live” learning environment for them to develop the skills they need to pass the certification exams.

Staff evaluations are another tool that is used in CSG for staff development. Since most of the staff in CSG are students, we have developed an evaluation method that closely follows evaluation guidelines used by the University while focusing on the skills and achievements, which are specific to CSG. This tool allows us to guide staff in their technical skills development, help them to develop professional working skills and reward staff when they meet the goals and achievements presented them.

ENVIRONMENT

User Base:

1000 undergraduates of which about 800 are students actively using lab services
100 graduate students
31 faculty
7 secretaries
25-30 non-enrolled research center employees

Network:

The School of Computer Science maintains its own network, independent of the University network, but with a connection to the campus backbone for Internet access. The SCS network is comprised of several subnets and includes a Virtual Private Network subnet, a subnet dedicated for support functions (appsgate.cs.fiu.edu) and a subnet dedicated to undergraduate student services. Details of the network organization at SCS can be found at http://www.cs.fiu.edu/support/netmaps/index.html/

Computing Labs and Equipment:

An estimate of networked computing equipment in the School of Computer Science includes:
	600 desktop workstations
	30 departmental servers
	30 laptops (wireless and wired)
	30 printers
	
The highlights of that estimate include:

Faculty office computers, 31 computers, 2 printers
Faculty office equipment at BBC, 3
Secretary computers, 7 computers, 1 printer, 1 fax machine
Graduate open lab, 22 computers, 1 printer
JCCL undergraduate open lab, 61 computers, 1 printer
ExLab undergraduate open lab, 13 computers, 1 printer
Undergrad instructional lab, 16 computers, 1 data projector, 1 printer
Laptop bar with Ethernet drops, 3 bars with 8 drops each
Electronic Classroom, 2 computers, 1 data projector
Portable Computer Kits, 3 kits each containing laptop computer and data projector
SCS Research Centers, 250 computers and 15 printers
Faculty and researchers home computers and printers
	All faculty are eligible to receive support for home equipment whether
it is University equipment or personal equipment. Various researchers are assigned University equipment for home use. This equipment can be connected to our network via VPN or modem, or might be using DSL, ISDN or other fast networking.
Wireless computing service located in:
	First floor, east wing
	Second floor, entire wing, including atrium
	Third floor, entire wing
Jamaica Program
Laptop computer configurations provided to administrator of equipment for a program of SCS undergraduate curriculum being taught in Jamaica.

Research Centers:

High Performance Database Research Center
http://hpdrc.cs.fiu.edu/
This research center is the largest in the School and has about 8 computing labs and a conference facility within the ECS building. HPDRC employs students in their research projects, as well as researchers who are not enrolled at FIU. The major impact of this research center on our support group is the size of the facility and the complexity of the computing needs they present.

Center for Advanced Distributed Systems Engineering
http://cadse.cs.fiu.edu/
CADSE operates 4 computing labs and a conference facility in the ECS building. Most of the researchers in CADSE are also SCS students and the computing needs for this center are extremely similar to our academic computing environment. As a result, the impact of CADSE on the support team at this time is relatively low, since we can meet their needs within the scope of academic lab support requirements.

Distributed Multimedia Information Systems Laboratory
Florida Department of Insurance Project
http://dmis.cs.fiu.edu/
Most research staff are also graduate students in the School. The major support impact of FDOI/DMIS is the specialized nature of the computing services their research requires and the support we provide to collaborators across campus. There is one DMIS computer lab in the ECS building, one suite of offices in MARC building, one faculty in Statistics department in DM building and, one faculty in Business department in BA building.

PROPOSED CHANGES TO TECHNICAL SUPPORT AT SCS

The Computer Support Group in the School of Computer Science is a fairly well developed and organized technology team, however, there is room for improvement and a need to grow and evolve with the School.

As CSG has been cultivated, we have worked hard to integrate equipment support with user support. There is a style of technology management that segregates computers from users, but we have taken a more holistic approach. CSG staff are trained to listen carefully to users in order to derive a clear and complete assessment of technical trouble. This helps to avoid situations when the user is unable to fully express troubles; several support visits are required and frustrated users result. For this reason we do not seek to hire “hardware techs” or “software techs” or “customer service staff”. We hire staff who can perform the many functions of user support and work with them to develop those critical skills.

One area that requires significant attention in CSG is the notion of supporting faculty to integrate technology into the curriculum, rather than merely train them in how to use new applications and innovations. We have done a rather poor job in the past to assist faculty to integrate technology and explore new modes of teaching and learning. The responsibility to work with faculty falls squarely on the Desktop Manager. As was mentioned in the Michigan Staff Guidelines, a sound technology staffing plan must take into consideration the educational goals of the school. The educational goals for technology integration at SCS are still emerging, however, with a new Department Chair, anticipated growth in the School to include 5 additional full time faculty and predications that the graduate program will triple in size in five years, the time is ripe to explore possible educational goals and pursue them. To accommodate this need, I propose that the Desktop Supervisor position be increased to fulltime and that a new position be created that will provide an assistant to the Desktop Manager.

Throughout CSG, the concepts of Liaison and Team Lead should be developed to better refine staff responsibilities. Since the Desktop Group has such a broad range of responsibilities, they are the best candidates to explore the possibilities of formalizing these positions. Liaisons in CSG should be identified to handle specific recurring tasks for which a procedure can be adopted but which require focused attention of trained staff. Team Leaders should be given a degree of authority to assist the supervisor in expediting work and seeing it through to completion. Team Leads should be trained and charged with “Queue Review” responsibilities and authority to assign incoming requests, reporting staffing troubles in the absence of the supervisor, quality control of work accomplished and verification that procedures are followed.

CSG has always been open to hiring staff to train and keep “in the pipeline”, so that as senior staff graduate and leave the technology support group, others will be coming up the ranks to fill their positions. This is an effective method that should be continued. There are two recommendations that will help facilitate the continuation of this process: 

First is to recruit from local high schools for students who are college bound and are likely to attend FIU. There is a program in Miami-Dade County Public Schools that requires students to perform a number of “community service” hours prior to graduation. This would be a prime time to bring in students with interest in computer science to “test the waters.” It is likely that some will be talented and interested to continue in the support group, which would provide a student staff with a potential 4 years of availability.

The second recommendation is to pursue locating Federal Work Study students with talents and interests in Computer Science. If a work-study student is placed and proves to be a good worker, the department benefits from their talents, but also from a reduction in the rate for FWS students, since their wages are subsidized. Saving money is always appreciated in the School.

Supervisor
(1/2 time permanent)

Supervisor
(full time permanent)

Systems Student Support Staff
(4 staff)

Manager of Systems and Networking

Manager of Desktop, User and Computer Lab Support

Director of the School of Computer Science

Director of Computing Technology

Business Desk 
(2 staff)

Webmaster

Development Group
Support Staff
(3 staff)

Desktop and User Support Staff
(5 staff)

Computer Lab Support Staff
(14 staff)