RefTool is currently running on an unsupported version of PHP. It also does not represent unified account information well. Its feature-set has crept over time, and it now contains many unimplemented functions and fields of questionable utility.

As such, I am working with Client Services student developers (currently Chris V. and Jorge) to put a fresh face on RefTool. This is arguably our most critical tool in the call center, as well as for field, walk-up and bench. (I am aware that other teams outside of Client Services have been given access to “RefTool Lite”, as well.)

The primary functionality of RefTool remains the same: to facilitate quick look-up of user information to help diagnose an issue and create a ticket. RefTool front-ends various other systems including Active Directory, ONID LDAP (via Contool), Cyder, and Inventory.

I also want RefTool to organize information in a way that is more intuitive for technicians, particularly for new techs who are not going to be familiar with the history of our complex IT environment.

We are in the early stages now of collecting “user stories” to ensure we capture all the requirements for RefTool.  This is a work-in-progress. The current list of user stories is here.

Please provide your user stories to Jorge.

The next step will be to create issues in Jira, a project and task-tracking system; we are working on getting access to that now. This will make it easier for everyone to see the status of feature requests and features being developed.