Activities

NAAUG Enhancement Request Process

NAAUG Enhancement Groups

Charge

The NAAUG Enhancement Groups are appointed on an annual basis with a mix of experienced and new volunteers. An attempt is always made to represent as many sites as possible and to balance representation so no one institution has influence above the others. This year for the first time, each Enhancement Group has a Systems Analyst. The Systems Analyst is asked to help in the writing of the requests, adding technical specs as neccessary to ensure the problem can be clearly understood by the Ex Libris programmers.

Each Enhancement Group is charged with identifying enhancements desired to the functional module to which they are assigned.

Each Enhancement Group shall: 

1. identify needed enhancements,
2. clarify and describe the requests, and
3. prioritize the requests (or at least the top 10).

The Enhancement Group may use a combination of the requests developed in previous years and new requests that devolve from everyday use of the system. Requests shall be limited to a single function rather than a whole family of functions.

Each enhancement request will contain a NAAUG tracking number, a descriptive title, a problem statement and a clear and concise description of the enhancement requested as well as concise examples [see Template]. The requests should be descriptive rather than proscriptive (i.e., they need to describe the desired result, not the process the system must use to achieve that result).

A closed listserv^© is assigned to each Enhancement Group. The restricted enhancements directory on the NAAUG Website houses previous years' requests and other support documentation for the use of the Enhancement Groups.

Liaison(s) from ICAU shall be non-voting members of the Enhancement Group and will help coordinate requests for enhancement to the functional module from the international Aleph community.

Liaisons from Ex Libris shall advise on the feasibility of the request, shall verify that the function is not already available, under development, or in an existing contract.

The Enhancement Group will submit their top 5 requests by the deadline established by the Steering Committee and the Enhancement Coordinator.

NEW for 2003-2004: The voting to prioritize the requests will take place BEFORE the requests are pointed by Ex Libris, to ensure that those we deem most important across all the modules do get examined and pointed. (Ex Libris will only examine up to 150 development points.)

The Chairs of the Enhancement Groups will meet with the Enhancement Coordinator(s) and Ex Libris to review the top 30 prioritized list before it is pointed by Ex Libris.

The Enhancement Group will have an opportunity to react to the response from Ex Libris after development points have been assigned and a solution proposed. Requests for clarification will be channelled via the Enhancement Coordinator to Ex Libris.

NEW, beginning in 2003-2004: Beginning with the enhancement requests for Release 17, prior to coding, Ex Libris will present functional specs for each request. The Chair and Analyst of the Enhancement Group will be responsible for signing off on the spec.

Regarding the enhancements for Release 16, the Enhancement Groups will be asked to inform the Coordinator whether the enhancements as programmed satisfy the requests (procedures for testing the enhancements are to be determined).