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MyUW uPortal Partnership Service Terms
The purpose of this document is to inform campus partners of the base level services they can expect from the MyUW Service Team. It also describes services available at additional costs from the service team or other teams within DoIT.
1. Purpose
MyUW uPortal provides a centrally funded platform available to all campus stakeholders that is secure, robust, scalable, and easy to use. The platform can be leveraged by campus partners to deliver user-focused solutions.
The purpose of this document is to inform campus partners of the base level services they can expect from the MyUW uPortal Service Team. It also describes services available at additional costs from the service team or other teams within DoIT.
2. Base Level MyUW uPortal Services
The MyUW Service Team will provide the services described in this section at no charge.
2.1 Initial consulting
Initial consultation includes:
- Gaining an understanding of the user needs being addressed;
- Assessing alignment with MyUW Service offerings;
- Identifying stakeholders;
- Identifying possible dependencies or relationships to other systems, initiatives, projects;
- Reviewing the design process;
- Reviewing techniques for integrating with MyUW uPortal.
2.2 Design
The MyUW Service Team will provide limited design assistance in alignment with the MyUW styleguide. Additional design work can be secured at additional cost as needed (see below).
2.3 Design review
The MyUW Service Team will provide peer design review that includes: 1) Review and input from the perspective of a consumer of the service; 2) Review and input on alignment with style guide and any applicable University Marketing guidelines; 3) Review and input on branding composition.
2.4 Technical consulting
The MyUW Service Team will provide technical consulting on integration and development of apps.
2.5 Development
The MyUW Service Team will perform a limited amount of development. This work would be coordinated by the MyUW Service Coordinator. Additional development work can be secured at additional cost as needed (see below).
2.6 Identity and Access Management
The partner is expected to work with IdM/Middleware on determining the identity management and access requirements and gaining the appropriate authorization. If needed, the MyUW Service Team will work with DoIT Middleware to implement these requirements within MyUW uPortal. Additional development performed by the Middleware team needs to be be arranged directly with Middleware.
2.7 Security
To minimize risks, the MyUW uPortal environment is regularly scanned for infrastructure vulnerabilities. If the partner anticipates storing any restricted or sensitive data, the MyUW Service Team will refer a review of the application to CISO office. Currently MyUW does not and has no plans to store restricted data.
2.8 Testing
The MyUW Service Team will provide limited assistance with functional testing of the app in the MyUW uPortal environment. Full functional testing is expected to be arranged by the partner. Additional testing (e.g., performance and load testing) can be secured at additional cost as needed (see below).
2.9 Support handling
The MyUW Service Team, in conjunction with the DoIT Help Desk, will work with partner in establishing documentation and processes, including support handling documents.
2.10 Maintenance
The MyUW Service Team will manage updates, upgrades, and maintenance of the MyUW uPortal environment and framework. We will communicate about planned and unplanned outages to partners and the Help Desk.
2.11 Analytics
The MyUW Service Team will provide some standard usage analytics. Advanced analytics can be requested but may require additional development costs.
2.12 Application front-end hosting
MyUW uPortal will host purely static application front-ends and small amounts of static data. That is, MyUW uPortal will host the front end, the HTML, JavaScript, and CSS portion of a uw-frame-based application. The front end will typically be talking to JSON web services hosted elsewhere, as proxied through MyUW uPortal.
2.13 Application directory entry hosting
MyUW uPortal will host and maintain the application directory entry data and metadata that allows an application to be represented in the MyUW uPortal directory of apps and the MyUW uPortal search results. This is information like application title, description, authorized groups, keywords, and screenshots.
2.14 Expanded widget configuration and template hosting
MyUW uPortal will host and maintain the static templates and web service usage configuration that drive the dynamic widgets users may add to their MyUW home page. (Currently this is an aspect of the application directory entry metadata associated with the application.)
2.15 MyUW uPortal infrastructure services
MyUW uPortal hosts and operates various generic services in support of rapid application development and sustainable delivery. Currently these include: a service for proxying JSON web services through MyUW uPortal to avoid cross-domain JSON limitations, an image hosting service in support of application directory entries and widgets, a generic key-value store suitable for storing simple non-sensitive user preferences, and a notification system for showing action-oriented messages to targeted user groups.
3. Design and Development Guidelines
Design and development guidelines are provided at http://uw-madison-doit.github.io/uw-frame/latest/. The guidelines encourage a consistent user experience and a user-centered brand through standard style recommendations. If content is inconsistent with the "brand", all partners are impacted. While deviations from the guidelines can be considered as needed, the MyUW Service Team reserves the right to reject content that it determines is not consistent with the brand. As the guidelines evolve over time, partners are responsible for updating their apps accordingly.
4. Change Management
The MyUW Service Team uses a robust controlled process to encourage a successful launch of new or modified content and to maintain MyUW uPortal as a high quality service. The process includes approval steps as the change migrates through various environments. Partners are active participants in this process. For more information on the process see MyUW (uPortal) Change Management Overview .
5. Roles and Responsibilities
The partner is responsible for filling the following roles and responsibilities:
5.1 Communications
Communication to end users regarding new content is generally the responsibility of the partner. In some cases the MyUW Service Team may play a role or assist in the communication. The partner may choose to work with DoIT Communications. A communication plan should be developed and vetted no less than 2 weeks prior to release of new content.
5.2 Support handling
The partner is responsible for ensuring support case handling has been arranged. For UW-Madison partners, the DoIT Help Desk is the primary first point of contact. The cases can be passed through to the appropriate partner contact or arrangements can be made for the Help Desk to provide further support.
5.3 Creation of support documents
Knowledge base documentation for end users regarding new content is a responsibility of either the partner or the MyUW Service Team. The partner may choose to create their own knowledge base or work with DoITs Knowledge Base Team. Documentation should be available in advance of content being released.
5.4 Participating in design review
The partner is responsible for collaborating with the MyUW Service Team o a review of the content as to how well it aligns with the design guidelines prior to going live.
5.5 Participating in security review
The partner is responsible for collaborating with the security team in a security review prior to going live. In some cases, this may be as simple as a single meeting or phone call.
5.6 Functional and Load Testing
The partner is responsible for ensuring proper functional testing has been performed prior to going live. They are also strongly encouraged to arrange for any relevant load testing.
5.7 Change management approvals
MyUW uPortal has a well defined change management process. The partner is responsible for ensuring appropriate approvals are obtained prior to requesting changes be moved to the QA and production environments. Most approvals of this nature are recorded in the scrum team migration board. See https://jira.doit.wisc.edu/jira/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=181
5.8 Maintaining contact information
The partner is responsible for ensuring the MyUW Service Team knows who to contact regarding the application or content. This may include a sponsor, business specialist, authorized change approver, and/or support contact.
5.9 Required ongoing maintenance and upgrades
Periodically MyUW uPortal maintenance and upgrades will require corresponding maintenance and upgrades of the hosted apps. The partner is responsible for arranging the necessary resources to perform the maintenance work in a timely manner.
6. Out of Scope
Base Level MyUW uPortal Services do not include any services described below:
- Project management
- Additional design work
- Additional development work
- Additional Middleware development
- Detailed Security assessment
- Full functional and load testing
- Extensive support handling documentation
- Advanced analytics of MyUW uPortal activity that are not part of standardized data analysis
- Non-static front end application hosting
- Server-side dynamic application hosting (e.g., Java Servlet applications, PHP, ASP, .NET, CGI scripts, Ruby on Rails)
- Database hosting
- Software source control repositories
The following two sections provide information on where to secure these services at additional costs.
7. Additional Services Available from MyUW uPortal
If resources and priorities allow, the MyUW Service Team may agree to perform additional work for the partner. This is subject to a fee and will be described in separate Statements of Work (SOW). The SOW will include any associated roles, responsibilities, deliverables, and fee structure for the work to be performed.
8. Additional Services Available from Other DoIT Resources
From time to time, partners may desire additional support, not specifically provided by the MyUW Service Team. The following other DoIT resources may be able to assist the partner. Any work performed by these units will be by separate arrangements and agreements as needed.
- Web Platform and Services (WPS) provides enterprise platforms, tools, and other resources that facilitate the economical creation of standards-based websites, web applications, and mobile applications. WPS also provides front-end or web development services more broadly to campus. Contact Jamie Gutkowski at jamie.gutkowski@wisc.edu
- The Academic Technology My UW-Madison Academic Applications (MUMAA) service works closely with instructors, advisors, researchers and other partners to design, implement and support innovative solutions in MyUW. Their focus is on developing applications that leverage the unique capabilities of the MyUW platform to serve a specific academic audience. Recent projects include the Advising Gateway and SOAR Advising Module (SAM).
- The Office of Cybersecurity provides a number of security scanning and consulting services. They range from risk and compliance, threat management, incident monitoring and reporting to security awareness programs. Questions on any security topic, requests for presentations, assessments on a service, etc. can be directed to cybersecurity@cio.wisc.edu.
- The User Experience Consulting and Design group will partner with developers and clients to create accessible, easy-to-use digital tools and web experiences. Their goal is to surface the best digital user experience in a succinct interface design.
- The Web Hosting service provides community test and production web hosting environments with rapid setup of new accounts/domains. Web accounts are hosted on four platform types: 1) Free Static HTML websites, 2) LAMP (Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL), 3) Windows/IIS/ASP.NET, and 4) Java via Tomcat. All accounts include custom domains and a high level of security with encrypted HTTPS connections, which employ trusted SSL certificates. Complete service documentation, technical support and automated nightly backups of all files and databases is entailed with the service. We support many popular open source applications (Wordpress, Drupal, Moodle, Magento, etc.) and offer easy integration with NetID Login, Wisconsin Federated Login and Manifest resource management. See https://webhosting.doit.wisc.edu/
- Database hosting services are available that provide high availability, disaster recovery options, and a secure environment. Custom solutions or economical shared servers are available. See https://it.wisc.edu/services/database-hosting/
- Manifest is an easy-to-use tool for managing access to resources for groups of people (limited to the UW-Madison population). Manifest works by creating groups (e.g., departmental, project-based, team, etc.) to which individuals can be added. Administrators can then configure their application or resource, such as a departmental wiki, so that only members of a predefined group can access it. Manifest groups can inform access control and audience targeting in MyUW. See Manifest - Getting Started
- Help Desk support handling is available through the UW-Madison DoIT Help Desk. Representatives from the Service Initiation Team will meet with the Service Provider at least 4 weeks prior to go-live to discuss and review the on-boarding process used by the team to set up processes and procedures across the Help Desk and the SNCC to support a service.