[MACEP] change management software?

[Sam Powers]

Chris Hayden wrote:
> Greetings all Macepers,
> I am wondering what Districts are using for change management software - 
> as per SMS Manager, Changeauditor 
> <http://www.netpro.com/products/changeauditor>, etc? We are at the stage 
> where we need to log and report accurately any changes made at the 
> administrator level, for Active Directory, etc.

I know of at least one other school district IT department using PmWiki 
on an internal web server for documenting things like that. Once it's 
set up, this is *SO EASY* to use.

If you are okay with perhaps trading rigidity in reporting for 
timeliness and ease of updating, maybe setting up a wiki on one of your 
web servers is for you, or maybe something like jotspot.com (an 
externally hosted wiki) would be better.

One downside is that it's not automatic. It's all manual. It's something 
to write in, rather than something that tracks your changes for you.

Another aspect that, depending on your point of view could be a pro or a 
con, is that a wiki is a fairly organic information storage device, and 
tends to take form as it grows, where a package that's set up for this 
kind of thing from the get-go already has its form.

It may turn your reporting process into an editorial kind of thing, 
where you go through the different wiki pages' printable views and 
summarize manually.

 > Any input of solutions that are easy to implement and use would be
 > greatly appreciated.

For all of its shortcomings, I think this meets your ease of use 
criteria, because of its sheer simplicity. Regarding installation, some 
wiki software is easier to install than others. PmWiki for example does 
not require a database, but does require a webserver with php.

Wiki is not for everyone, and it may not be for you, but when it works, 
it works well.

-Sam