Present: Bill Halahan, Ron MacKinnon, Joanne Oud, Gail Sperling,
Linda Teather
Minutes of October 24, 2003
Approval
The minutes of October 24, 2003 were approved with one correction. They will
be added to the TUG Statistics and Reports (TSR) area on the TUG staff web.
Business arising
Reports database: George Loney is looking at the keyword bug found in the reports
database.
Guidelines and procedures for request form and database
The terminology, content and use of the request form and database was reviewed.
Discussion included:
User documentation should include an overview of the report request process, including a description of each data field, an example of a well-worded request and an indication of who can request a report and who can authorize requests.
Before filling out the request form, the requestor should discuss the report with a report authorizer to confirm that the report doesn’t already exist, determine the priority and date required, etc.
Who should be designated as request authorizers? It was suggested that we start with the TUG TRELLIS functional group members and, if needed, add others to cover areas not adequately represented.
Requests for institution-specific reports should be discussed at the TUG functional group level before they are submitted so that the request can be broadened to address TUG-wide reports needs wherever possible and appropriate.
To manage expectations, the guidelines should suggest a realistic turn-around time (e.g. 6-8 weeks) and also indicate that this could be longer depending on the number of requests in the queue and priorities assigned.
The request form is intended only for requesting new reports. There is another process for submitting change requests via the reports status database.
After a report is developed, Bill and Gail prepare documentation for the report and link it to the record in the reports database. A documentation link is created to the report title.
Who receives/reviews requests for new reports? The group agreed that, initially, requests will be emailed to the requestor, authorizer, contact person if different, and TSR members.
A concern was expressed about the maintenance and sustainability of the system created by George Loney using ColdFusion and MySQL.
The Training Team will be given information about the request form and database so that these can be included in their training session on reports.
To do: Joanne, Ron and Linda will consult at their home institutions and draft a list of reports authorizers appropriate for their local situation. Gail will draft definitions for each field on the request form. Joanne will draft guidelines for the use of the request form and status database. Ron will follow up at UG on the sustainability issue.
Reports listserv (tugreports-l)
The draft introductory listserv message, as revised by Joanne, was reviewed
and two further changes were suggested. The listserv has been created and is
intended as a closed list to which only Bill and Gail can post messages. All
that remains to be done to implement the list is to update the introductory
message that will be received by new subscribers and subscribe the TUG Managers
to the list.
To do: Joanne will revise the introductory message. After the Managers have been informed about the implementation of the listserv, Linda will ask Charles to subscribe the same people as on the tugmanagers-l list to tugreports-l. Linda will also ask Charles to update the introductory message on the list.
TSR update for TUG Managers
TSR will send an update to the TUG Managers about recent and upcoming TSR activities,
including:
To do: Joanne will draft a message for TUG Managers.
New UpFront theme
There was nothing further to report on the issue of creating a new UpFront theme.
The group agreed that it is important to try to address this security-related
issue before the training program increases staff use of the web interface.
Potential resources to accomplish this work were discussed.
To do: Linda will ask Bill Oldfield to review the work required with Gail and estimate the resources and work commitment required. Linda and Ron will then investigate resources available at UW and UG.
Server support document draft
The group reviewed and approved two draft documents: “Cognos Server Support”
and “Cognos Web Server Backup and Restore procedures”. Both will
be added to the TSR web page. The Training Team’s terms of reference will
also be added to the TSR pages and a link to this will be added to the support
document.
To do: Linda will have the support documents and the Training Team mandate added to the TSR web site and will inform TOMG about the support documents.
Documentation review
The current reports documentation will be reviewed for content, format and usability.
Sample reports linked to the documentation may currently display confidential information such as patron name, id, or address. Gail proposed a procedure for redoing the sample reports on Impromptu to display zeroes in place of this data. The group agreed that, to prepare for wider use of the web interface, the sample reports should be reviewed for confidential information and re-created if necessary.
To do: Gail will discuss the documentation review with the Training Team. Joanne, Ron and Linda will each look at a report in current use, review the accompanying documentation and notify Bill and Gail of anything that seems to be missing or unclear. Gail and Bill will review the sample reports and re-do any that contain confidential information (patron name, id, address, donor information) as time permits.
Training Team update
The group discussed the Training Team’s December/January training plan
and schedule and expressed support for the plan and appreciation for the Team’s
hard work. TSR members enquired about the differing lengths of sessions scheduled
for UG, WLU and UW and about whether a staff member unable to attend a session
at his/her home institution could attend one at another location.
Scott has sent a message about the upcoming training to UG Managers. Similar messages will be sent at UW and WLU.
TSR members offered to serve as a practice audience for the Training Team for a run-through in advance of each session. TSR would like to see the final scripts before training begins.
To do: Joanne and Linda will contact Training Team members at their institutions about issuing a message to staff about the training sessions. Ron will follow up with UG trainers about the option of attending at another location if needed. Joanne will contact the Training Team about the practice sessions and script review issues.
Other business
Gail and Bill plan to take the production server down for a short period at
noon next Wednesday for a software upgrade. They will then plan for a longer
downtime on both the test and production servers to upgrade the operating system
and Cognos software, using the test server for backup access while the production
server is down.
To do: Gail will send a message to TUG staff about the planned Nov. 26 downtime.
Next meeting
The next meeting will be scheduled by the Chair.