Shared Device Management - September Update
Summary of September activity
Shared Device Management update at the 18 September ITSS Pre-Year Round Up
At the recent ITSS Pre-Year Round up, Siddhant (Scrum master) and Darren (Technical lead) provided a general update on the project's status and the team's achievements so far. They also discussed the milestones planned for the next six months, including the ability to test Microsoft Intune with a small number of devices in a live environment.
You can see the plan below and watch the recording.
The team plans to deliver this project in two phases: Phase 1 in Michaelmas term and Phase 2 in Hilary term.
In Phase 1, as part of the pilot, the focus will be on onboarding 4-6 Windows devices from MSD Divisional IT and GLAM Divisional IT. The team will also deliver features such as downloading the Company Portal and make other apps available, and configuration of device policies (e.g. screen-lock timeouts etc.). They will ensure that security baselines are met, compliance is monitored, and operating system patching is facilitated. Regarding the ability for device managers to maintain control of their groups in Microsoft Intune management, the team is working through the most viable option before deployment and will also work on configuring code to standardise how devices are enrolled in Intune. All of the above will be tested in the live environment to enable the team to make necessary improvements.
Support documentation will be available on SharePoint for users who have onboarded their devices in the pilot phase.
Phase 2, taking place in Hilary term, will involve onboarding ITSS Windows devices from departments within MSD and GLAM. The team will continue working on apps and configurations, such as adding IT staff to local admin groups, adding local admin accounts to devices, and allowing admin access to device owners. Remote wipe and lock features will also be activated. At this point, the team will enable on-premise file management through SSO, and all will be tested and continuously improved in the live environment. The team will also work on the operating model of this service, including terms of use, management support, and the financial model to run the service. Intune logs will be accessible as well.
User Experience within the Discovery Phase
As previously mentioned, the team has been conducting research with device users to understand their current experience of using existing device management services. This research is being used in our discovery phase. A discovery is the initial stage in product development or service design where teams investigate user needs, business goals, and technical constraints to define the problem and shape the right solution. It sets the foundation for informed, inclusive, and purposeful design decisions. The research has involved speaking with a number of device users who have been issued a laptop in the last five months. The findings are currently being analysed and written into a report, which also includes research with device managers. In addition, it will include recommendations of what we need to consider when designing and providing the service based on user and business needs. We aim to complete and share the report by the end of October.
Questions or interested in joining our next sprint review?
The next sprint review is taking place on Wednesday 8 October from 14:30 to 15:30.
Email us to join: shared.infrastructure@admin.ox.ac.uk If you’d like to receive these updates directly in your inbox, you can sign up below.
