T.U.G. News - March 2013
Linda Spinks presents the latest news from the User Group
We tell you
The last Education User Group meeting was hosted by the University of Bedfordshire, at their Luton site on 20th February 2013. Jan Welch provided a presentation on the University's achievments so far with the Process Library solution.
The University is currently working on a big project focusing on everyday processes rather than just project specific processes. There is also a focus on the development of the Triaster system architecture, so the University could implement a system that appears as one library, but is actually comprised of several different libraries. To date there is a staff library and also a student library which has a more customer facing focus to it.
Jan's presentation slides can be found on the Triaster User Group website. Please e-mail customer.services@triaster.co.uk if you require the log on details for this page.
Jan is retiring in July, and has therefore brought a number of colleagues into the project to provide seamless continuity. We congratulate Jan on her success with this project so far, which was at times challenging, and wish her all the best for the future.
At the meeting there was also a discussion around the fact that the Education User Group meetings haven't had particularly high levels of attendance over the past year. The question was raised as to whether the format should change and even whether the group should continue to meet at all, with or without a Triaster representative.
The background
The Education User Group was started by Claire Nuttall from the University of Bristol in 2011. The main purpose of the Triaster Education Special Interest Group was to provide a forum for Triaster process mapping software users to meet on a regular basis, share best practice and ideas in the application of software in the education environment, and provide mutual support in the process mapping work being undertaken.
Therefore the User Group would like feedback on the following thoughts that came out of the latest discussions:
- What are the key barriers to attendance?
- Should the meetings only go ahead if a minimum number of customers book to attend?
- Should the meeting take place just once a year (instead of twice)?
- Would it be better to have a North and South meeting to make travelling easier for the respective customers?
- Alternatively would customers prefer to request budget from the main User Group to host a single central meeting at an external venue?
It was agreed that the group should redefine the vision and purpose for the group and then decide how it should proceed.
Triaster will be sending a follow up e-mail in order to gather this feedback from as many education customers as possible. However in the meantime, if you have any comments or feedback on the above please send them to: user.group@triaster.co.uk. It would be great if you could share your User Group experience with the rest of the Triaster community. If you would like me to add anything to this section in future issues, please let me know.
User Group
The next meeting is being hosted by Openfield at their Grantham offices on 21st March 2013. This meeting will include the AGM at which the constitution will be reviewed and User Group officers elected (although at the point of writing it looks likely that the existing committee will be re-elected). The constitution requires that there must be at least ten members present to constitute a quorum and agree changes. Note that some suggested changes have already been put forward and are being considered.
