Unidata Support Tools and Plans Unidata Policy and Users Committee May 2005
Jan 03, 2016
Unidata Support Tools and Plans
Unidata Policy and Users CommitteeMay 2005
A User’s View of Unidata Support• Email exchange with UPC staff
• Search archived email: Google, glimpse, ...
• Web presence: FAQs, tutorials, user guides, workshop materials, newsletters
• Topical email lists
• Drop-in consultation
• Telephone consultation
• Workshops: package-specific, regional, special-purpose
• Proactive support
• Conference presentations, seminars, webcasts
• Site visits, community outreach, buddy system, ...
Another Kind of Support
• Making new data available to the community
• identification of new data source of value to community
• negotiation for access to new data
• work with provider to adopt standards (e.g., netCDF conventions)
• incorporation of data into existing analysis/visualization packages
• announcement
• monitoring data changes
The Current Unidata Support Process
• Home-grown system developed and evolved at UPC
• Initiated by site or UPC
• contact through email, web form, phone
• routed to appropriate staff expert for response
• interactive questions/answers cycle via email
• resolution
• solution saved and indexed for future use
• Topic email list exchanges moderated by staff experts
Limitations of Current Support Process
• First-level routing of email is time consuming
• Not scalable to anticipated growth
• more users in current community
• new communities
• lack of expertise in unfamiliar disciplines
• Current web interface is primitive
• Providing support competes with development resources
• this is not new
• support also benefits packages
• contact with users is necessary and rewarding
Plans for Improving Support
• Better facilities and tools for developers
• Improving users ability to help themselves
• Evaluation of commercial solutions for features, ease of use
• eSupport www.kayako.com
• Request Tracker www.bestpractical.com/rt
• Each has different advantages, and we could transition to either easily
• Two sets of users: UPC support staff and community members
• Either system should improve efficiency of our support process
Plans for Improving Support(continued)
• Roll out eSupport with facilities for submitting and tracking queries
• in version 2 of Unidata portal
• let users know it is experimental
• Incrementally add
• knowledge bases from support archives
• FAQs
• troubleshooting networks
• Evaluate maintainability and extendibility