Software for Staff

You must request new software for Autumn teaching block before the end of February and submit requests for the Spring teaching block by the end of October. If requests aren't received before these deadlines or are received during the current teaching block they will be completed on a “best efforts” basis with no assurances as to the completion date. These request deadlines are referenced in the software form under the “required by” section.

The form may ask the requestor to identify the application software “deployment type “. This term refers to the way in which the application is to be delivered to, and installed on, the end-user’s workstation. The choice is between manually installing the software on individual workstations (Local Installation) or delivering the application across the University computer network and automatically installing it on multiple computers (Enterprise Deployment). The later method requires an Application Deployment Package to be created to contain the installation files which is then published to the University Intranet. This work will be carried out by the IS Application and Client Services (ACS) team. A local installation will be carried out by the local site support team that support your Faculty.

In general, the deployment type chosen will be dependant on the type and number of licenses available for the application (as defined below). Applications which are licensed for a small number of individual workstations or users, are best suited to a Local Installation. Applications for which a site licence or multiple-user license is held, are better suited to an Enterprise Deployment.

If the requestor is uncertain as to which deployment type to select, they should choose “Enterprise Deployment”. ACS will review the request and may contact the requestor if “Local Installation” would be more appropriate.

• Freeware: is software provided on a free to use license.
• Multiple User - Concurrent: limits the maximum number of simultaneous users.
• Multiple user - Fixed: limits the number of installations of the software up to the license limit.
• Site License: Site licenses allow unlimited use of the application across site. That is, the application may be used by any number of users and on any number of workstations on site. The requester should be aware that the definition of the word “site” may be specifically defined by the vendor. In general terms however, the term may be judged to mean “across campus”.
• Not Sure: If you are not sure what type of license your software uses please use this option.

A UAT email will be sent to a customer when the application deployment package is built. The customer will then be required to schedule a time with the ACS team developer to test the application, via the Service Request. Normally User Acceptance Testing will take place in the ACS team office, the address of which will be provided to the tester. Testing is carried out on a Managed Service PC with the current University build installed. The tester should provide any non-standard peripherals, data or equipment that may be required to fully test the application. It is the tester’s responsibility to run test sequences to verify the full functionality of the application as the ACS developer will not be familiar with the specific functionality of the software. When the tester is assured that the application is fit for purpose, they should authorise the UAT via IS Self Service as instructed by email. If the test fails, the ACS developer will attempt to resolve the highlighted issue. A new testing session will then need to be scheduled between the Tester and Developer.