INFORMATION RESOURCES Dave Little, Business Group Manager Bringing Information to the Desktop

INFORMATION RESOURCES Dave Little “Performing a Successful Upgrade”, or “How to minimise the pain” EUUG, Madrid, September 2000

Introduction to DERA (current) zDERA - Defence and Evaluation Research Agency, a part of the Ministry of Defence in the UK. z12,000 staff on a high number of sites across the UK. zOver 8,000 scientists, many of them world- leading experts in their field researching in all fields of science. zA large number of evaluation facilities for testing and measuring. zAlso involved in non-defence research.

Introduction to DERA (future) zReducing MOD demand for DERA’s services as more requirements are fulfilled with off-the-shelf products. zHence a need to find a new model for DERA in the future. zPrivatisation of 75% of current organisation so that commercial opportunities for growth can be explored - “NewDERA”. zRemaining 25% will stay with MOD with a close connection between the two organisations - “Retained DERA”. zMajority of Information Resources will be in “NewDERA”.

Information Resources - Background zOriginally formed in 1995 from the joining of 15 disparate Information Centres on a number of different sites. zFor historical reasons, each Information Centre has different subject specialisations and a different way of recording their stock (and sometimes their own unique cataloguing methodology!). zIntroduction of guidelines and “desk instructions” to bring uniformity across the whole organisation (except for the catalogues). zDecision to introduce one Information Management System for whole department.

How Many Information Management Systems? zDecision taken that only one system would be chosen for all the cataloguing needs of the department. zDespite the wide variation of material held; –internal reports (of varying levels of security up to Secret), –defence publications including standards, handbooks and manuals, –large collection of commercial publications including over 1,000 journal titles and 100, 000s of books, –maps, photographs, multimedia and vast numbers of ephemera (including an Enigma machine), –and a shocking number of catalogue cards!

Which Information Management System? zTender process selected Sirsi Unicorn. In the words of Peter Gethin, “No system could do what DERA wanted, but Unicorn could do it better than any of the others.” zInternal reasons meant that the timetable for implementation of the system had to be accelerated. Go live for 98.4 was planned for August 1998 (always a good idea to do these things in the summer holidays). zSystem required to import data from a number of different platforms using over 15 different cataloguing formats.

A Perfect Catalogue - Not zDespite the best efforts of Sirsi and Information Resources’ staff, the result was an inevitable mess of duplicated and overwritten records (not to mention the records which were missing as they were not in a machine-readable format).

Panic 1 SCrikey I think I’m giving the wrong presentation. This is supposed to be about successful upgrading, not a history of disasters incurred during implementation. SNo, hold on, I’ve checked my notes, I’m getting on to upgrades soon. SAnyway, they’ve all dropped off to sleep again. They won’t wake up unless I get out my maracas!!!

Panic 2 zThe customers think we’ve gone mad. Here is this great new system available on the Intranet for the first time ever, but it’s full of rubbish. zIn response, we set up a special project to identify the problems, prioritise them and set out to solve them. zThese problems came to be known as “Issues”. Each one had an owner and a reporting structure (so that the Issues Manager, that’s me, can’t hide them under the rug. zAlso a procedure was set up to ensure that future issues could be raised, prioritised and solved (in most cases).

Procedures, Procedures, Procedures zI am the last person to stand up for bureaucracy, but it was the only answer to regaining successful control of our IMS. zWe now have a procedure for managing issues and another for managing upgrades. zEverything is defined and all responsibilities are appointed (even if the buck always appears to end up with me!).

Responsibilities zUnicorn Issues Manager zUnicorn Systems Administrators zUnicorn Advisory Group zSuper Users Group zSkill Groups, including; –Reports Cataloguing –Journals –Inter Library Loans

Lines of Responsibility

Issues zWe have now registered over 120 issues. zAll but a handful have been resolved. zEvery time we start work on a new upgrade, the first task is to raise it as an issue. By doing so, we ensure that the procedures is followed correctly to retain full control.

So you want to upgrade? zAs a result of previous experience, if we are to upgrade, we will not do so until a number of other UK sites have already done so. In this way we should be aware of any problems that are likely to be encountered with the new version of Unicorn. zAnother prerequisite is that our Systems Administrators must attend the Unicorn Upgrade Seminar to gain precise first-hand knowledge of the changes. This will help them to assess whether we should upgrade at this point.

Yes please Mr Gethin zThe initial step for the upgrade is to update the software on our test/training server (Hedge). zThis is essential to achieve approval from the Network Controllers. All new software must be tested for compatibility with current systems (we don’t want to be responsible for crashing the payroll program). zAny significant technical problems are raised with Sirsi (they do not have remote access to our systems).

Testing zWhilst the new version of Unicorn is on Hedge, the Superusers carry out a series of test scripts. The purpose of these is to expose bugs and glitches as well as changes which might affect the working procedures within IR. zIf a change represents a significant deviation from current working procedures, then this needs to be discussed with the owners of the procedure. If agreed, all paperwork must be amended to reflect the changes (including the manual). [Thankfully, we have already passed through the Infoview -> Workflows nightmare.]

Training zThe Superusers are also responsible for identifying any necessary amendments to the internal Unicorn Manual as well as any training that is required by IR staff. zThe Superusers produce crib sheets to assist the staff and to forewarn them of any significant changes. zFinally, after carrying out any training and amendments to the manual, the two “real” systems are updated.

All systems are GO zNotifications are sent out to all users 3 days in advance that the systems will be down for upgrading for a day. Another reminder is sent out 24 hours before upgrade. zThe systems are updated and the System Administrators test compatibility with the Network. zOnce these tests are passed then the users are again allowed access to the brilliantly enhanced library system. zAnd everybody involved breathes again!

We have lift-off zAnd that hopefully will have led to a successful upgrade. Any problems encountered will have been logged and hopefully we will have learned something in the process so that next time it can be even more successful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alternative Plan Number 1 zIn case you missed it earlier, an alternative to getting everything written down in procedures (and, of course, following them) is to time your upgrades for the summer and to leave the country (without leaving a forwarding address). zUnfortunately, a lot of us work for organisations who could probably track us down, especially when it all goes wrong.

Alternative Plan Number 2 CENSORED BY SIRSI

Gracias, Adios zThanks for listening and snoring quietly. zI am happy to send out copies of our Unicorn procedures to anybody who is interested, or to discuss further in the bar. zYou can contact me by at the following address: