Closure Report
Project Summary
This project was to deliver the annual upgrade of Moodle, to move the University from version 3.4 to the latest version (3.6).
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Priority |
Delivered? |
Comments |
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O1 To ensure that the UoE instance is kept up to date with community supported software releases and GDPR requirements |
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D1. A fully tested and working upgrade of Moodle to the latest version of the 3.6 build, including all plug-ins |
Must Have |
Yes |
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| D2. An updated Technical Architecture Document | Must Have | Yes | |
| D3. An updated Business Requirements Document | Must Have | Yes | |
| D4. An updated System Design Specification | Must Have | Yes | |
| D5. Bring Moodle sourcecode into version control | Must Have | Yes | |
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O2 To deliver an enhanced user experience to learners and teachers through improved functionality |
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D1. A communication plan for Moodle users to inform them about upgraded features |
Must Have |
Yes |
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| D2. An updated user help and guidance materials | Must Have | Yes | |
| D3. Enabling Moodle Mobile | Should Have | No | Feasibility was investigated. Not possible on current Server Operating System. Upgrade to Server O/S not in scope. |
| D4. Incorporate Moodle Analytics | Should Have | No | Not included. Agreed with Project Sponsor that this be excluded from scope. |
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O3 To update the web design theme as appropriate for version 3.6 |
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D1. An updated theme |
Must Have |
Yes |
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Analysis of Resource Usage:
Staff Usage Estimate: 75 days
Staff Usage Actual: 54 days
IS Staff Usage Variance: -28%
Other Resource Estimate: 36.8 days (Digital Learning Applications and Media)
Other Resource Actual: Not declared (not time tracked)
Other Resource Variance: N/A
Outcome
Moodle was successfully upgraded to version 3.6.3 and made available to users within the advertised outage alert window.
Explanation for variance
Less project effort than anticipated was used for:
- PM time and Project Team meetings.
- Load testing (not completed due to wider issues impacting on infrastructure - which would have skewed the results and provided an unreliable outcome).
- Moodle Mobile (effort capped in estimates but initial investigation showed that the work would not be feasible - potentially requiring an update to the server Operating System, which was out of scope).
- Deployments to each environment as a result of bringing the Moodle source code under version control; once in place the new process has allowed additional deployments including a later Moodle release.
Key Learning Points
- On issue that affected the previous year's Moodle upgrade project (TEL051) was the inclusion of an additional Moodle point release at short notice late in the project. This possibility was anticipated in the planning for TEL059 and was a factor in introducing the new deployment process. This revised process was designed collaboratively by SWDev / DevTech and Production Management in consultation with DLAM colleagues, and ultimately resulted in more rapid turnaround not only for the main upgrade work but also for multiple updates to the template by DLAM colleagues.
- Weekly 30 minute team meetings were effective and efficient and ensured prompt action on decisions and actions.
- Feedback from the previous upgrade project led to a more detailed comms plan on this project.
- baselining on infrastructure is required prior to load / performance testing to ensure the output is meaningful.
Outstanding Issues
A few issues to be carried forward by the Moodle Service Team now the project is being closed (none that prevent the project from closing):
- Performance: some performance issues are being experienced on the platform, but this is not understood to be related to the upgrade of the Moodle application. Intermittent issues are being experienced on Test and Live servers (pre and post upgrade), and appear not to be restricted to Moodle; user experience also appears to vary depending on location; DevTech have set up monitoring across the Moodle environments in order that Production Management can correlate application performance issues with potential infrastructure issues and provide more detailed information to ITI to assist troubleshooting.
- Final handover (to include DLAS team) with Production Management to agree process for future theme updates (Production Management satisfied that project closure does not have to wait for this to happen).