Closing summary

We reproduce here the executive summary from our final report:

Most universities have a central IT function. Despite this, or sometimes because of it, individual departments and academics are frequently motivated to develop ʻhome grownʼ IT systems, to fulfill unmet needs or to support particular departmental processes. These systems are often small and minimally complex, but highly fit for purpose, and likely to be of wider benefit.

This project took two such e-administration modules, originally developed (or part-developed) for internal use by the departments of Physics and Engineering at the University of Cambridge, and sought to extend their use to other departments, including those which would not have considered developing their own software internally.

The Engineering Department took the lead in developing and deploying a staff teaching duties allocation module generally known as the Teaching Office Database, or TODB. The Department of Physics took the lead in developing a module for recording and managing studentʼs course options, known as the Student Choices module. The Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) provided project co-ordination and development staff.

Student Choices attempted to follow a standard software development and deployment process, in which the needs of a variety of possible users are met (or traded off) within a single piece of software. Users would be expected to maintain the project beyond the development phase using common OSS practices, contributing patches to a central version or ʻtrunkʼ.

TODB followed an innovative ʻtrunklessʼ model. Instead of complicating the software by making it meet many peoplesʼ needs at once, each user received a version customised for their specific needs. By this expedient the software is made simple and is easily related by users to their working practices, so that they are comfortable taking full ownership of it themselves. At the conclusion of this part of the project, TODB has been successfully customised and deployed to seven different departments.

Although the Student Choices module did not find users beyond the Physics department, its development has served as motivation and specification for the Universityʼs centrally-administered student information system, which has decided to offer similar functionality to the University as a whole. The inclusion of Student Choices in the e-Administration project also provided a valuable alternative perspective on sustaining ʻorganically grownʼ IT sytems.