knowledge area. For example, I have seen similar losses when a school
replaces its registrar.
With respect to website development, we have three employees with
substantial website programming expertise, which should cover us in case of
bus-developer collisions. The use of a popular, open-source development
platform (Drupal) increases our chances of replacing knowledge through
hiring. We also fully document work, including configuration choices and
custom-developed modules. We use the Drupal API and adhere to Drupal
programming standards during development.
Richard
--=20
Richard Kassissieh
Director of Information Technology
Catlin Gabel School
kassissiehr@catlin.edu
http://kassblog.com
On 9/19/10 4:16 PM, "Bill Fitzgerald" <dwfitzgerald@yahoo.com> wrote:
> RE: "How do you train your developer(s), and what are the contingency pla=
ns if
> your main developer gets hit by a bus?"
>=20
> Documentation, using open source code, and avoiding nasty one-off hacks (=
that
> many schools do, for reasons of expedience and cost). Far to often, I hav=
e
> seen=20
> schools be penny wise pound foolish about taking shortcuts. Maintaining a=
nd
> growing a system requires work and maintenance, and just as the professio=
nal
> development of teachers is essential for a school to continue to flourish=
, the
> professional development of the support professionals who design, build, =
and
> maintain systems is equally essential.
>=20
> Using eternally hosted commercial solutions is an option, provided all of=
your
> needs can be met by these solutions. The risk here is that pedagogical ne=
eds
> get=20
> bent to fit what the service delivers. Then, of course, there are the
> additional=20
> issues that arise around cost, privacy, data portability, and the reality=
that
> in paying for an external solution you are spitting money out of your sch=
ool -
> this is a stark contrast to a salaried person working for the school.
>=20
>=20
> And then, of course, external, commercially hosted systems require
> maintenance,=20
> adjustment, and tweaking over time. Nothing runs without some type of
> maintenance, no matter what the sales teams tell you.
>=20
> There really isn't any one size fits all, absolutely right answer. My big=
gest
> concern with many of the roll-your-own vs outsource discussions is that t=
he
> costs and benefits of both approaches are generally exaggerated.
>=20
>=20
> Cheers,
>=20
> Bill
>=20
>=20
>=20
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Derrel Fincher <derrel.fincher@graded.br>
> To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Sent: Sun, September 19, 2010 7:43:23 AM
> Subject: Re: Google Apps in Schools
>=20
> How do you train your developer(s), and what are the contingency plans if
> your main developer gets hit by a bus? My goal has been to move all of ou=
r
> systems to commercial hosted solutions and get rid of all of the homegrow=
n
> (and labor intensive) tweaks that grew up over the years. Most schools j=
ust
> have a really hard time spending money in order to keep their developers
> up-to-date and I've seen the results when the person who developed a syst=
em
> leaves. Maybe I'm missing something.
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