Unidata User Support
Fall-Winter 2006/2007

Tom Yoksas
March 4, 2007

Unidata Inquiry Tracking System

The UPC's transition to the use of a new inquiry tracking system was announced to the community in Unidata Transitions to a New Inquiry Tracking System. We interpret the fact that we have received no end-user comments about the new system to mean that the transition was smooth, problem free, and painless for the community. This was one of our original transition goals.

Since January 26, 2006 over 5600 community member "transactions" (new inquiries and follow-ups) have been processed through the Unidata inquiry tracking system (SupportSuite from Kayako Infotech Ltd). Comments by Unidata staff indicate that transitioning to use of the new system occurred without difficulty. It typically takes only a small number of interactions with the system before it feels natural to the UPC staff providing end-user support. OPeNDAP experts outside of the UPC were given access to the tracking system for DODS/OPeNDAP inquiries. It is our intention to allow non-UPC, domain-specific, expert users access to the tracking system if they are willing to assist in the direct support of community members.

The next phase in our transition will be the integration of web-based access to the new system by end-users. This effort will require integration with our single sign on management system (CAMS) and conversion of the user interface to the look-and-feel of our website.

Unidata User Support Inquiry Metrics

Above are histograms that portray the number of Unidata email responses for categories of support for a one year period ending Marcy 3, 2007. The histograms are arranged by yearly activity averages with the highest on the left and lowest on the right. Each quarter year within the period is depicted from oldest to newest from left to right. The number of responses has been normalized to weekly averages so that the support load over the various periods can be easily compared.

Total support averaged 133 responses/week over the entire year; 148 for the first quarter; 132 for the second quarter; 124 for the third quarter; and 129 for the current quarter.

Individual support activities included in the categories depicted above are listed in the following table.

Category	Packages, Groups, and Lists
data	casestudies, casestudies-list, conduit, c2-linda, craft, craft-nws, craft-ty, datastream, difax, level2, level2-linda, level2-ty, noaaport, noaaport-ty, noaaportldm
dods	dods, dods-core, dods-list, dods-tech, dods-team, linda-dods, opendap, opendap-core, opendap-list, opendap-tech, opendap-team
gempak	gempak, gembud-list
ldm	ldm, ldm-users-list
lead, leadusers	lead
idd	cluster, idd, idd-antarctic, idd-brasil, idd-caribe, idd-inject, idd-status, scoop, suominet, tigge, venezuela
idv	idv, idvlist, idvsteering, metapps, visad-list, visad-renderer
mcidas	mcdevelop, mcidas, mcidas-list
miscellaneous	esupport, fxlinux, license, misc, network, notrack, platforms, wxp, wxp-list
netcdf	data-models, libcf, ncml, netcdf, netcdf-miss, netcdfgroup-list, netcdf-hdf-list, netcdf-java, netcdf-perl
nws-changes	nws-changes
outreach	agu-linda, agu-ty, ams-linda, announce, barbados-ty, cbmet-ty, chile-ty, egrants, egu-linda, external, iai-ty, meteoforum-ty, noaa-linda, nws-linda, unidata, workshop
thredds	java-dev, java-dev-list, thredds
utilities	decoders, ldm-mcidas, udunits

Comments:

• The LEAD numbers are an underestimate of its activity since few LEAD email transactions go through User Support (but the numbers are increasing).
• Support numbers for individual packages, groups, and lists can be seen in full support statistics.

Some tentative conclusions:

• The total support provided by the UPC remains high. Overall support activities are for the most part seasonally invariant.
• Support required for the legacy visualization packages GEMPAK and McIDAS continues to be substantial with GEMPAK leading the way as the most widely distributed analysis application. The IDV support load has surpassed that for GEMPAK.
• Support required for LDM, IDD, and data continues at a high level and shows some variability throughout the year.
• Support for netCDF remains substantial, but is considered modest given the number of users of the package worldwide.
• The overall higher numbers for outreach reflect inclusion of more categories of support/outreach provided by Linda and the high level of activity in organizing a special session for the Spring 2007 AGU Joint Assembly that was held in Acapulco, Mexico on 22-25 May.
• Taken as a whole, the support required for visualization packages (GEMPAK, IDV, and McIDAS) is reasonably comparable to the support related to data reception (LDM, IDD, noaaport).
• Support for any package increases after a new version of the package is made available.

Notes:

These numbers and conclusions should not be taken too literally, for several reasons:

• For some packages, multiple responses in the same thread may be bundled into a single archived email. Other packages have each response in a thread counted separately.
• After a new release of software, there may be a flurry of the same or similar questions, which can be answered in separate emails or in a single mailing list posting.
• The graph primarily represents support of end users and site administrators, not developers. Support for non-Unidata developers in projects such as OPeNDAP/DODS, THREDDS, IDV, GEMPAK, and McIDAS requires significant resources, but is difficult to assess.
• Not all support records were indexable for this report. Given this, the above numbers are an underestimate of the actual support being provided by the UPC.

by Tom Yoksas