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