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Operational/Policy Questions about Informatics Computing

This document describes the recommended routes for raising questions about operational and policy matters concerning computing in the School of Informatics.

• Operational matters concern the running of the computing operations, including requests and inquiries about desired facilities. Operational matters are ultimately the responsibility of the Head of Computing (Alastair Scobie), with responsibilities for specific computing areas devolved to unit managers.
• Policy matters concern the kind of computing environment the School has and its manner of implementation and management. It should be noted that Computing Officers are not responsible for policy decisions, which are within the remit of the Computing Strategy Group (CSG).

Operational matters

These should be dealt with as follows, in increasing order of escalation, :

1. All queries about current computing services should be reported via the support form (see below for reasons). You will get a ticket number by email in response

2. If you need to follow-up with further information or for progress you should raise the query by email using the RT ticket mail address.

3. If you need to escalate the processing of the query please contact the relevant unit manager - see the list of unit responsibilities. If you are unsure as to which is the appropriate unit manager, please contact the User Support Manager, Alison Downie.
4. Further queries should be addressed to Head of Computing, Alastair Scobie, who runs the Computing Executive Group.
5. In the last instance please contact the Director of Computing, Perdita Stevens.

Policy matters

Policy matters are dealt with by the Computing Strategy Group. Questions should be directed to the following, in increasing order of escalation:

1. Head of Computing (Alastair Scobie)
2. One of the following academic representatives :
   • Teaching (Stuart Anderson)
   • Research (Mike O'Boyle)
3. Director of Computing (Perdita Stevens)

The expectation is that escalation to Director of Computing level will only be necessary in highly unusual situations.

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Reasons for using the support form

We cannot handle queries effectively unless they are submitted via the form.

Firstly, this gets the request into our Request Tracking (RT) system but secondly, and often more importantly, allows additional information to be automatically looked up and provided. This can significantly reduce the time spent identifying the problem.

Time-critical situations: in some very time-critical situations it may be necessary to make telephone contact - see the support contacts page. If the matter is not thought to be that time-critical you will be asked to fill in the support form.

There is a duty computing person who looks at all unallocated tickets within a very short space of time and who will do an initial allocation.

Back to escalation