“Outsourcing” Your IT Support

At ITS we recognize that in today’s dynamic online world there are many department-level initiatives that we simply do not have the resources to accommodate. This demand falls most heavily on web and database projects. The Ancillary Systems Development (ASD) Team provides project development in those areas, however, its size was reduced a few years ago and has not been restored. As a result, waiting queues are between one and two years long for new requests.

What can an aspiring department do in order to stay relevant in today’s environment? The frequent answer is either to hire a student worker (cost effective if you get a quality result), or to outsource to a developer (typically a last resort as it’s very expensive). However, both of these approaches present concerns that we would like you to take into account.

All issues can be at least ameliorated if you coordinate with ITS before, during, and after undertaking needed projects. For example, students tend to develop software using tools they are familiar with or are using in classes. While there are many correct ways to do something in IT, compatibility with the environment is essential for ongoing functionality and maintenance. Student workers also have been known to provide little or no project documentation. When they leave, it can require another IT professional to decipher and then update or fix the work. Additionally, engineering a solution for future maintenance is not typically a consideration for students who lack real-world experience in which short-term whiz-bang solutions lead into expensive refactoring, redesign, and recoding.

To minimize impacts on your department’s operations, here are some suggestions to either insist upon with student-worker help or to write into your developer contracts:

• Use ITS (ASD Team via the Solution Center at 523-1511 or the SOS trouble report gateway at www4.nau.edu/its/sos/gateway/main.asp) as consultants and honest brokers during the planning stage. Even if unable to develop the project for you, we will be happy to help avoid future problems by assisting.
• Insist on complete documentation, including reference copies of all code.
• Require that developed applications be compatible with the NAU computing environment.