[269] in Tooltime
Scopus Implementation Meeting Sep 25, 1996
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Wade Neiterman)
Mon Sep 30 13:12:53 1996
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 13:13:55 +0100
To: tooltime@MIT.EDU
From: Steven Wade Neiterman <wade@MIT.EDU>
Scopus Implementation Meeting September 24 - 25, 1996
Attending 9/24: Ragone, Pakulat, Rosato, Saylor, Wade, Yanow
Attending 9/25: Ragone, Rosato, Smyser, Sousa, Wade
The two meetings accomplished the following:
1. Reviewed Status 1.0b6
2. Performed testing against the production database
3. Decided on a rollout date of October 15, 1996
4. Welcome Tom Rosato
5. Training
6. Roundtable/Status/Action Items
-----
1. Reviewed Status 1.0b6
Items for the task list to produce 1.0b6 were reviewed. Status of
each item was updated. See enclosed notes for remarks as of 9/25.
Decided 1.0b6 would be available at end of day 9/27. Tooltime team
to begin testing on Monday 9/30. Goal is to release 1.0 by end of
week, October 4, 1996.
2. Performed Testing against production database.
Team members issued updates for about 15 minutes to test the
stability of the database. Further "stability" testing should be
done prior to release.
3. Decided on a rollout date of October 15, 1996.
Initial cut at a rollout schedule completed. Tooltime team will
review for changes on 10/1. Wade to send copy for review prior to
team meeting.
4. Welcome Tom Rosato.
Tom works in W91, mostly Service Process and to a lesser extent the
Delivery Process. Tom is learning about Scopus ("what is it", "What
the Help Desk application does", "How to develop"). Hopefully Tom
can fill the role of "service" and "development" liason as release 1.0
is moved into the Service Process.
5. Training.
Decided to conduct student training on October 8th, Tuesday pm.
Expected to take 1 1/2 hours for an introduction to screen presentation,
features (incl. searching), and issues related to migration of
Filemaker.
Action Items:
- Need room with a projection, either Electronic Class Room or
the Building 11 training center. Lynne to investigate.
- Need to alert Alicia (coordinating student agenda and
activities).
Issues:
- Who will do the training?
- Should we promote "playing" prior to actual release?
- Who will take lead to structure the training session?
6. Roundtable/Status/Action Items
-----
Wade:
- Production database is available for testing
- Completed following database changes:
- New data warehouse feed to correct department name
- Reload data for software, missing column in database
- Phone numbers in warehouse need hyphens
- Need to make following database changes:
- Netinstall table - room number field too small
- mit_lk_hardware field too small in mit_logs table
- Filemaker data has lastname, firstname switched, need reload
- Test machine backup procedures evaluated and enhanced. Scripts
to generate accounts reviewed with database services. Changes
made to allow certain individuals the proper privs. to execute
this command.
ACTION ITEMS:
- Check with Scopus on availability of fixed Macintosh client
- Complete database changes needed for release 1.0b6
- Refine SLA with Facilities Management on production machine and
coordinate loading of Scopus software on the production machine.
- Confer with database services to install SNS on test machine after
production release. After initial testing on test, migrate SNS to
production machine.
- Automate warehouse feed
-----
Rosen (via Wade):
- Submitted response to Scopus on InformTEAM issues (8/29). Brett
sent a clarification of the Scopus response, but Scopus closed the
log.
ACTION ITEMS::
- Follow up on InformTEAM, if Scopus wants to close the log, I
guess we should submit a new log/transaction.
-----
Sousa:
- Working on task list for 1.0b6 (see motd for updates), priority
includes problem with backfill, issues with lock and fix oracle
error message in Housecall screen.
ACTION ITEMS:
- Complete release 1.0b6 - see enclosed notes
- Lynne will complete the Programmer's Guide with the latest 1.0b5
changes and send back to Esther. It should then be complete and
ready for the Web.
-----
Ragone:
- Installed Brio Query and connected to database. Beginning to
learn tool and compare it's functionality against the list of
reports generated during the requirements phase.
ACTION ITEMS:
- Continue exploring Brio Query, report progress to team, including
a demo on 9/24.
- Help with QA on training document
- Continue with QA on the 1.0b6 application changes from Lynne
-----
Smyser:
- Completed test Scopus Windows over Tether
- Currently working on training document, see additional notes in
this document.
ACTION ITEMS:
- Helping out with training document.
- Continue with QA on the 1.0b6 changes from Lynne
-----
Yanow:
- Working on the training document
- The 9/10 meeting brought up issues related to:
- Who's responsible for long term maintenance of the document?
- Can we link the document to the Consultants Web page?
- Who will do the training?
ACTION ITEMS:
- Agreed to add information on Housecalls, Netinstsall, and a table of
contents. Additionally, an appendix (e.g. FAQ) will be included.
- Complete final version on October 4, 1996, Esther/Wade to place
version on the Web
-----
Rosato:
ACTION ITEMS:
- Become familiar with the Scopus environment. Help generate a
plan for technology transfer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status of on-going tasks - last updated Monday September 25, 1996
DETAIL OF ACTION ITEMS AND COMMENTS:
2. The Secondary Information fields are a waste of screen space.
Added issue is the font size, greatly affects near-sighted people.
ACTION: Remove secondary information from the screen,
leaving the database untouched for revisit of this
function in release 2.0
Assigned: Lynne (1/2 hour effort)
9/16 STATUS: Mostly done, problem with callback
9/25 STATUS: DONE
ACTION: The main help screen will be rearranged (required with
the removal of the secondary info) to allow more white
space between fields, and a smaller window frame.
Assigned: Lynne - 3 hours.
9/16 STATUS: DONE
9/25 STATUS: There are issues with the Mac and Unix display
ACTION: Larger font will be researched to determine solution.
Two options: 1. Test using the Scopus options settings
for fonts and screen real estate. 2. Evaluate machine
resolution, changing from 1024 to 800x600.
Assigned: Rob and Peter R. - deadline Thursday 9/12 for
research and next steps determination (Friday 9/13 meeting)
9/19 STATUS: DONE, Rob to include findings in training doc,
determined that font can be changed for log history,
otherwise, use 800 X 600.
9/25 STATUS: DONE
4. "op-update-rel: dbsqlexec failed" and "ORA-01401: inserted value too large
for column"
Tooltime team comments: Need to further identify which field is having
the problem.
9/25 STATUS: Wade to review mit_role, mit_os_version fields
Assigned: Wade to send mail to originator the the bug report.
9/19 STATUS: Still need to locate which fields have problems
5. Clicking in the "History Entries" box, then pressing [Tab] puts an
entry into the Summary box then *two error messages* appear.
Assigned: Lynne to research and report. Effort - 1/2 hour.
9/19 STATUS: Decided to remove automatic save to eliminate errors
9/25 STATUS: DONE
6. In the Housecalls section, clicking "Save" resulted in the error:
"op_get_field_update_info: key field mit_log_id may not be updated"
Assigned: Wade to send mail to originator for more information.
Estimated possible 1 hour to fix based on understanding of Tcl code.
9/19 STATUS: Lynn to work, estimated 3 hours, broken Tcl code
9/25 STATUS: DONE - Could not duplicate
7. Scopus repeated error messages often. That is, an
error dialog box would appear, I would dismiss it by clicking "okay", then
the exact same error box would pop up again. Clicking "okay" once more
dismissed it for good.
Assigned: Rob and Peter R. will investigate to determine sequence of
when this occurs. Report by end of day Thursday.
9/19 STATUS: Rob and Peter were able to recreate problem. Determined
to be problem with not using items in pick list for constrained fields.
Decided to identify (via a label change) those fields that are
constrained.
9/25 STATUS: Open
8. In the Mainframe Maintenance section: the MITVMA and MITVMC fields are
not totally visible. The last letter of each word is mostly cut off.
Assigned: Lynne Effort - 20 minutes
9/19 STATUS: ???
9/25 STATUS: DONE
9. The % (wild card) symbols for blank fields are confusing and
unnecessary when doing a search.
Tooltime team comments: The % sign is used by scopus to determine
the field is used for searching. This may be a Scopus design
feature/limitation. Options were discussed, including a. training,
b. user types an asterick (another internal scopus feature) on each
field used for searching, c. user issues a clear primary.
Assigned: Lynne to evaluate mail from Terry Arnett on possible
options/solution. After information gathering, decision to be made
at Friday meeting.
9/19 STATUS: Mail sent, reply received. Decided not to take any
action. Will evaluate usage and problems after release 1.0,
specifically if % signs are being stored in the database.
12. Department name is missing on data from warehouse (item added by wade).
Assigned: Wade to revise data feed from warehouse and reload data
Effort 45 minutes.
9/19 STATUS: Discussed problem with data warehouse team, change
made to warehouse data to allow access to department number. Next
step is to populate Scopus with this information.
9/25 STATUS: DONE
13. Locks may still be an issue (item added by wade)
There was a desciption during the feedback meeting regarding using
the View Hits button and causing an item to be locked. If there is
no workaround, this is identified as a training issue.
Issue may be more complex if existing code for locks is not working.
9/19 STATUS: Lynne will evaluate work arounds via the callback
routine and report progress to team. Specifically, check for
issue Clear as well as check for unsaved changes.
9/25 STATUS: Decided to implement proposal by Lynne regarding
adding a new button for career staff to unlock records
"All Locks" and a "My Locks" button.
Lynne and Wade will evaluate adding a line of Tcl/Sql
to callback Tcl to unlock records.
14. Mac model list is incomplete (item added by wade)
Assigned: Wade to evaluate reloading data, Effort: 30 - 45 minutes
9/19 STATUS: Completed. Determined there is a problem with a missing
field. The load will need to be redone.
9/25 STATUS: DONE
15. Eudora to Scopus copy and paste (item/concern added by wade)
Assigned: Lynne will do a quick test to copy an eudora mail message
into Scopus and show that it works.
9/19 STATUS: ???
9/25 STATUS: DONE
16. Lastname and Firstname from Filemaker data appear switched in Scopus
9/19 STATUS: Peter Lee informed, need to load new Filemaker data
9/25 STATUS: Waiting for new Filemaker file from Peter Lee, Peter
Ragone to check with P. Lee.
17. Problem with inconsistent edit masks in phone field. Warehouse data
does not use a hypen, default phone field stored in logs table displays
a hyphen.
9/19 STATUS:
Lynne to confirm that the Tcl code does not strip out hypens prior to
any change being made.
Wade Agreed to make a change to the warehouse to store hyphens in the
phone field if the Tcl code acts as expected. Waiting on answer.
9/25 STATUS: DONE
17. Remove defaults on New Button
9/25 Assigned Lynne. Tradeoff is we lose the "quickie" ability, we
gain in ease of use when using the Lookup button to find an entry in
the warehouse.
18. Research Filemaker Linefeed problems. Filemaker data migration looks
fine on a Macintosh, does not look good on a Windows machine. Most
likely due to a Windows using a CR LF combination character.
9/25 STATUS: Rob Smyser to run a test where a file is sent via ftp
to a Windows machine and then to Unix. Test will confirm if the CR LF
is present. If so, we need to determine it's affect on the Mac.
19. Clean up menu items. Items such as Data Probe, which is not supported
in release 1.0 should be removed so that questions on it's usage do
not need to be answered.
9/25 STATUS: Assigned Lynne.
