Business Guidelines

Computing and Information Services

Computing and Information Services (CIS), a department within Texas A&M University (TAMU), is a service facility reporting to the Associate Provost for Information Technology.

Mission Statement for CIS

We provide computing and information services to help our customers achieve their missions. We serve the full range of university functions including teaching, research, public service and administration.
Our most important services are those that need to be shared by multiple divisions of the university, those that need to be coordinated between multiple customers, and those that need to be ongoing to assure continued availability over the years.
Our primary customer is Texas A&M University, its students, faculty and staff. We also support the agencies and institutions of the Texas A&M University System as well as other customers who contract for services, provided such services are compatible with meeting TAMUs needs.
Our staff is our most important resource. Their technical and management expertise is available to our customers both directly through consultation and contracts for services, and indirectly through CIS work to provide the other resources: computing systems, networks, software and information.

Visit the CIS Web site

To learn more about CIS and its many services, please visit the CIS Web site at http://cis.tamu.edu/.

The Customer Applications Group

Customer Applications is a group within CIS that offers computer application software support for offices within the Texas A&M University System. This support includes the design, development, tailoring and maintenance of computing systems on a var iety of hardware platforms. Support may involve developing customized applications that serve unique requirements, or installing and supporting commercial software packages.

Customer Applications also provides office computer and local area network (LAN) support. This support includes, but is not limited to, setting up new computers, configuring or installing Ethernet cards, installing LANs, and troubleshooting problems. For more information, please call 979.845.8144.

In summary, the services provided by Customer Applications include:

office computer and LAN support
custom programming
Web application development
consultation for software and hardware requirements
training on customized software applications
installation and/or maintenance of purchased systems.

Visit the Customer Applications Web site

To learn more about Customer Applications and its many services, please visit the Customer Applications Web site at http://cis.tamu.edu/ca/.

General CIS Policies

General CIS policies for customized application development and maintenance are designed to promote the development of a customized application that best fits the customer's needs, and to encourage a cooperative effort between the analyst team and the customer. In order to achieve this objective, CIS has established the following policies:

CIS asks each customer to select a person to serve as a liaison with CIS personnel. This person will ensure that all tasks assigned to CIS personnel are properly defined in writing and will establish the relative priorities of multiple tasks.
CIS is committed to providing excellent service, therefore staff members are required to undergo periodic training as part of their full-time workweek.
CIS may ask staff members to cross-train on a customers projects or on other customers projects. CIS must also retain the option to reassign personnel as projects evolve. This helps to ensure a depth of support and knowledge about each customers projects, and allows CIS employees to grow professionally. It also enhances CIS ability to provide a well-qualified support staff and better, ongoing service.
Established working relationships are developed and cultivated, as personnel become familiar with the customers concepts, terminology, business practices and computer systems. Occasionally, however, it may be necessary to reassign personnel to continue to provide the best overall customer support and service.
Should it become necessary to reassign project personnel, the customer will be notified, in advance, so that appropriate steps may be taken to ensure a consistent and continuous level of support and service during the transition period. CIS will coordinate personnel changes with the customer(s) affected, and will do its best to minimize the impact of the personnel change on its customer(s).
A customer may request that specific CIS personnel be assigned to a project. However, while CIS is sensitive to customer requests, the assignment of requested personnel is not always possible. In this regard, CIS asks that the customer provide advance notice of personnel requests to help CIS schedule its resources.
CIS personnel also help steer the direction of CIS through participation in CIS teams. This will average no more than two hours per 40-hour week.
CIS has developed an Application System Development Procedures (ASDP) document that defines the methodologies that are approved for use when developing new applications or making major enhancements to existing applications. The use of these procedures helps control costs, ensures that the customized system meets the customer's requirements,and contributes to the timely delivery of applications.

CIS Obligations

In the process of providing a customized application, CIS is committed to keeping its customer informed throughout the process. To facilitate communication, CIS utilizes the ASDP guidelines to provide written descriptions of work to be completed. Other project management services include status reports as well as risk analyses, record retention, and copyright information.Cost estimates are provided, and include change budgets to allow for changes that the customer may desire.

As an additional measure of service, it is CIS policy to send surveys to customers every two years. The customer is encouraged to provide comments regarding CIS support or service to the support person or the project leader. Feedback from customers is appreciated, and CIS requests the customer's assistance to achieve its service goals by completing and returning the provided surveys.

Customer Obligations

The custom programming that is performed by CIS analysts is only part of the process for system development; the customer's role is vital to the success of the project. Customized application development is best approached as a cooperative effort between the customer and CIS, where a continuous loop of feedback helps to ensure that the finished product meets the customer's needs.

The customer's role is defined as continuous participation throughout the development process. Specifically, the customer agrees to the time commitment required for meeting with the CIS analyst(s) and providing information regarding the current system. During the design process, the customer should review the system as it is developed to ensure that their needs are being met. This reduces misunderstandings, helps to catch errors, and reduces costs by making corrections early in the process when they are less expensive. Finally, the customer must test the system prior to its implementation in order to verify that the customized application development meets their needs.

Support Types - Contract and Non-Contract

CIS provides two types of maintenance support: contract and non-contract. Contract support customers hire CIS analysts for continuous and routine support of their application(s) on a percentage of full-time equivalency (FTE). Non-contract support customers choose to pay for non-contract support on an hourly basis, as the need arises. Table 1 presents the differences between contract and non-contract support.

Support Type	Rate	Analyst Support	Priority	Contract Duration
Contract	Percent of FTE	Dedicated personnel	High	Ongoing or long term projects; usually span several years
Non-Contract	Hourly	As available	Low	Short term projects; usually require a day, week, or month

(Table 1)

CIS Custom Development Procedures

CIS uses a customer-oriented design approach to developing automated systems. As such, application system development is a team effort between the customer and the development team. It is the primary function of the customer to define the needs in terms of outcome. It is the primary responsibility of the development team to design and implement an automated system that produces the expected outcome. Thus, an analyst will manage the design of the system based upon input from the customer. Screens and reports are carefully designed to maximize their ease of use.

CIS analysts follow the ASDP methodology when programming a customized application. These procedures are designed to keep the customer advised and in control of costs in the course of custom software development. Using these guidelines, the customer and the development team leader are able to select an appropriate procedure that best addresses their particular system needs.

Project Development Methodologies - Small, Memorandum and Four-Phase

The exact nature of the ASDP process differs according to the size and scope of the work requested by the customer. Project classifications are often referred to on the basis of required work hours; however, work hours alone do not determine project cl assification. Other important factors include:

The customer's ability to communicate what they need
The complexity of the system needed to meet the customer's defined needs
The technology required to implement the system
The analyst's experience.

Table 2 presents the recommended methodology for a project based on the project size and support type.

Methodology	Project Size	Support Type
Varies by Contract	1-24 Hours	Contract
Small Development Procedure	1-24 Hours	Non-Contract
Memorandum Development Procedure	25-120/160* Hours	Contract/Non-Contract
Four-Phase Procedure	More than 120/160* Hours	Contract/Non-Contract

(Table 2)
*Note: 120/160 hours is a flexible range provided to better serve the customers particular needs.

CIS also recognizes that custom programming requires flexibility; therefore, limited exceptions to classifications are considered at the project leaders discretion. In the event that the project leader and customer liaison determine an exception may be appropriate, final approval from the Associate Direct or is required.

Small Development Procedure

This procedure is required for any development work that takes 24 hours or less to complete. A single-page form is used in place of a longer, time-consuming proposal to describe the terms of a small, low-risk development that CIS believes the customer and the analyst understand completely. If the scope of work increases during development, CIS will usually recommend changing to a more formal development procedure.

Memorandum Development Procedure

This process is utilized when the total effort involved in meeting the request of the customer is less than the specified range of 120/160 hours (see Table 2). In this case, the work to be performed is documented and a cost estimate is provided to the customer in the form of a memorandum. Work begins once the client forwards written authorization to CIS and CIS resources become available. Memorandum Development Procedure is more rigorous than the Small Development Procedure, but at the same time it represents an attempt to reduce development costs encountered with larger projects. The Memorandum Development Procedure eliminates some of the steps that CIS believes are essential to minimizing costs and errors in larger projects, but has found to be less effective and prohibitively time-consuming when applied to smaller endeavors.

It is important to note that a small development project can rapidly increase in size when seemingly minor changes are made to its definition. Should a project increase in scope, CIS, in coordination with the customer, reserves the option to request to change to the Four-Phase Development Procedure.

The Four-Phase Development Procedure

Pre-Phase 1 Memorandum. This memorandum from CIS to the requesting department or agency outlines the cost to do the Phase 1 for the requested modification or new application. CIS does not charge the customer for this service. The memorandum specifies that approval in writing must be received from the customer before work can begin on Phase 1.

Phase 1 Preliminary Analysis. The Preliminary Analysis is produced after receipt of written approval to proceed from the customer. The study describes the process to be automated and proposes a general approach to a satisfactory solution. It contains the cost for the preparation of the Phase 2 document, and estimates the cost for Phases 3 and 4. The customer is billed for the Phase 1 Preliminary Analysis after presentation of the Phase 1 proposal and the Acceptance and Authorization To Bill memorandum. All personnel costs for the Four-Phase Procedure will be waived if the effort can be performed under an existing contract for application support.

Phase 2 Detailed System Design. In this phase, CIS and the customer collaborate to produce detailed specifications of the automated system. Files, database tables and their relationships, reports, screens and edits are defined. File update and maintenance procedures are determined. The CIS analyst produces a detailed design document that serves as a plan for the creation of the software. The cost for accomplishing Phase 3 is presented as well as a refined cost estimate for Phase 4. The customer is billed for the Phase 2 development after presentation of the Phase 2 proposal and the Acceptance and Authorization To Bill memorandum.

Phase 3 Design Implementation and Final Documentation.In this phase, the programs to create the system are coded, debugged and tested. In addition, final documentation and initial end-user training is performed. A successful system test and receipt from the customer of a Customer Acceptance Form conclude Phase 3. Upon completion, the customer is billed for the Phase 3 development. A refined estimate of the cost to operate the system, Phase 4, will be included.

Phase 4 System Operation. Once implementation is complete, the new system enters Phase 4, System Operation. The system begins to support the customers operations as specified in the design. Maintenance support is provided by CIS according to the customer's choice of maintenance options:

The customer provides all system maintenance without the involvement of CIS personnel.
The customer arranges for contract support for system maintenance by CIS.
The customer chooses to request non-contract support as needed for system maintenance by CIS.

CIS Software Maintenance Policies

Within the First Three Months of System Operation

If there are errors or problems in the system with development performed by CIS, CIS is responsible to correct these problems at no charge to the customer providing that the customer has made no changes to the source code of the system, and also providing that no changes have occurred in the working environment in which the system operates. When such problems are encountered, please call the Customer Applications office at (979) 845-8436 to report the problem so that we can correct it.

However, if staff at the customer's site makes any changes to the source code of the software application or the working environment in which the software application operates, CIS will not be able to guarantee our work during this three-month period. In this case, it would require CIS to charge for correcting the errors or problems. Changes to the working environment include:

Changes in the application software
Changes in the operating system environment
Changes to the network configuration

Another category of support within the first three months of implementation involves changes to the system that are not due to errors with the system, but rather are changes or enhancements that the customer desires CIS to make to the system. If such a change is needed from CIS, please contact the Customer Applications office at (979) 845-8436 for an analysis of the estimated number of person-hours required to perform the changes. There is a charge for this service.

After the First Three Months of System Operation

Any kind of maintenance after the first three months of system implementation that the customer wishes CIS to perform may be covered on a contracted or non-contract hourly basis (please see section 4), as scheduling permits. This would include errors that are experienced in the new system, as well as enhancements to the system. As mentioned above, if such maintenance is desired, please contact the Customer Applications office at (979) 845-8436 for an analysis of the estimated number of work-hours required to perform the changes.

Over time, customers may find it advantageous to upgrade their hardware, operating system software, etc. All such costs are the responsibility of the customer. These changes may require that the proposed system also be upgraded.

Ownership of CIS Developed Products

All CIS developed software and associated documents are owned by the system member. Unlike many commercial software development firms, CIS does not charge royalties or license fees for the continued use of developed products. If the customer so chooses, a copyright or patent may be registered to further protect the system parts right of ownership.

For information on how the University handles technical product ownership, contact:

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Technology Commercilization
1700 Research Parkway, Suite 250
College Station, Texas 77845
Phone: 979.847.8682

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