Introduction

This is version 2.0 of the official Computing and Information Services system of classifying supported software. The document explains the three-level support structure for software that is available on the lab computers.

In general, software is installed on a file server because it has been requested by a department or individual faculty member as a necessary resource for academic course work, or because it is perceived to be potentially useful to a significant fraction of the Mudd community. In either case, the requesting party serves as sponsor for the software package, and is responsible for providing legal copies of installation disks (or CD-ROMs) and documentation.

We are legally required to delete any unlicensed software that we find installed on our machines.

Support Level Descriptions

General Guidelines for all Installed Software

CIS will install the software, and will ensure that the software can be launched and exited correctly. The sponsor who requested its installation is responsible for running any tests after the software is installed. If necessary, CIS will run further tests if provided with test files or procedures.

The sponsor should furnish information about the software's publisher, so that CIS can contact technical support, if necessary, and a copy of the manual, or other documentation, as appropriate, to add to our documentation library.

The sponsor is responsible for providing all other documentation and supplying assistance to those using the software; we will route all questions relating to the use of the software back to the sponsor.

At the sponsor's request, we will provide information on how to print from within the software or use the software to access other existing CIS resources.

We will upgrade the software if requested to do so by the sponsor.

Level 1

Software which is used by a single course or department for instructional purposes, or which is of potential interest but limited importance to the HMC computing community.

Level 2

Software which is used by multiple courses or departments, or by a core course which is required for most or all students, or which is of general interest and significant importance to the HMC computing community.

Level 3

Software which is of critical importance to the HMC computing community.

Computing and Information Services is effectively the sponsor of all level 3 software. We will maintain the software's manuals in our manual library, and will contact the publisher for technical support in areas beyond our expertise. The Help Desk (extension: 77777) will be able to answer simple operational questions about the software, and CIS staff members will be able to answer more technical questions.

As appropriate, we will offer periodic workshops to novice users for software considered to be of critical importance to computing campus-wide, and will offer intermediate workshops for particularly complex and/or important software.

Upgrades to level 3 software will usually only be performed during the breaks between semesters.

Computing and Information Services will take responsibility for locating, purchasing, installing, testing, and upgrading the software.

The Supported Software Lists

Every software package supported by CIS has an entry in our supported software list, containing the following information:

• Information about the software itself, including its name, version number, and publisher.
• The level of support assigned to the software.