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Project SAM: Overview __________________________________________ IntroductionThe School Administrators year can be divided into phases within which various task need to be performed. My vision for SAM is that it will steamline the performance of these task. This phase/task perspective is my way of making sense of the complex and demanding School Admins role, inspired from conversations with Keith Zimmerman in particular and others involved in the Schools Administration process. Thanks: Keith, Jo Smith, Betsey Smith and the SHiPSS and Law secretarial staff in particular. I hope this view is a useful way of looking at the problem for you and that presenting SAM in this way is useful and informative too.
The Phases of the Administrator's YearThis list of phases also acts as links to within the Task Outline table below.
SAM Development PlanI believe the central core of a working system is there now. It is usable now, in fact SHiPSS are running it as a working system at this present time. All data structures, bar some minor extensions, are solid and (I believe) right. The general 'look-and-feel', the form design and interaction of menus and forms, is good. The detail of the behaviour of forms, in terms of keyboard control is still not perfect but it is usable. The distribution procedures, so that fast fixes and new developments are easily and quickly available, are well developed. The server, and hence sharability, aspect are in place and work for the Amory 'guinea-pig' Schools. This includes the availablilty of SBS (CHA) data 'at the press of a button' (or several). More development work is needed though, and the following list outlines some of this work, in no particular order of priority:
Task OutlineThis section lists the tasks associated with each phase. Column one (briefly) describes the task, column two indicates where in SAM you find the tools to perform the task, and column three notes how well (or not) SAM works in this particular area. The third column makes reference to the SAM release/version numbers in respect to fixing any shortcomings. This column may also have a Details link to a page with more information relating to a particular release and the developments and problems it addresses.
Examinations Note: The Examinations Focus area is currently (SAM 2.34) disabled. Work is need to re-engineer the Exams queries, forms and procedures into the upgraded data structures. This work is scheduled for completion by mid-October. If you have concerns over the Exams area I can demonstrate the earlier version of SAM that was used for both the SHiPSS and Geography & Archaeology exam process earlier this Summer.
PostscriptI am not a Schools administrator and there are almost certainly ommissions and possibly some misunderstandings of the processes as presented here. Please give me feedback on this in any of these ways:
I look forward to hearing from you!
Ray Burnley
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26-Sep-1999
R.D.Burnley |