Entoto TVET College

Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

ENTOTO TVET COLLEGE

under

Ethiopian TVET-System

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORT SERVICE
Level I

LEARNING GUIDE # 6
Unit of Competence: Install Software Application
Module Title : Installing Software Application
LG Code : ICT ITS1 L02 06
TTLM Code : ICT ITS1 TTLM 0511

LO 2: Obtain software or software

upgrade

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 1 of 7

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Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
Software that conform to the
Information Sheet 1
organization needs
Software upgrade plan

The most exciting and at the same time, most frustrating things about information
technology is that it is fast changing with which requires new software.

New software products emerge, with fantastic new "must have" features that make it easier
for you and your employees to perform your jobs.

There are two extreme approaches to upgrading:

1. The desire to be updated. Some companies, especially those in the technical industry
themselves, desire to be on the cutting edge and always have the latest and greatest.
These early adopters toss out their old systems and replace them with the new as soon as
it's available.

2. The conservative outdated way. Some companies, especially those in more "traditional"
or conservative fields, go by the "if it's not broke, don’t fix it" philosophy.

These two strategies have something in common: they aren’t really strategies at all. They’re
both reactive - the first driven by reaction to the marketing of new products, and the second
driven by reaction to necessity.

The smarter course is to develop a plan and timeline for upgrading, taking many factors
into consideration including scalability. A long-term plan must take into account future
growth and changes anticipated by your company and the way those changes will affect your
upgrade needs.

The five software upgrade plans

1. Categorize and prioritize

The first step in putting together your upgrade plan is to categorize and prioritize potential
upgrades. Some categories of upgrade items include:

 Operating System
 Client software
 Server software
 Word Processing
 Database software
 Graphics software
 Device drivers and etc

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 2 of 7

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Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
Of course, you don’t have to upgrade all of the items in a particular category at the same
time.

Software is a very broad category and you may upgrade operating systems and/or specific
applications while continuing to use older versions of other applications.

2. Set priorities
Once you’ve identified the categories, you can prioritize them based on the cost/benefits ratio
of upgrading a particular category.

Of course, in real life your upgrade priorities may not always be based strictly on need. If the
big boss wants the top of the line software, there’s a good chance he/she will get it.

3. Consider dependencies
Upgrading some categories may be dependent on first upgrading other categories in
upgrading or installing new software, you need to also check the hardware requirements.

4. Phased rollout
Once you’ve decided to upgrade a particular category, you shouldn’t jump in feet first and
roll out the upgrade to every system or device in that category. What if the upgrade causes
major problems that make systems or the network unusable? The most prudent strategy is to
rollout each upgrade in phases. Test it first in a non-production environment. This gives you
a chance to work the bugs out without any impact on employee productivity.

5. Keeping it scalable
Your upgrade plan should be set out in writing, and you should get input from different
departments and different levels to help you create a plan that will create the least disruption
and proceed smoothly.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 3 of 7

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Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Self-Check 2 Written Test

Name:____________________ Date:_________________

Please ask your trainer for the questionnaire for this self-check.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 4 of 7

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Information Sheet 2 Licensing requirements

Software license

A software license (or software license in commonwealth usage) is a legal instrument

(usually by way of contract law) governing the usage or redistribution of software. All
software is copyright protected, except material in the public domain.

Software licenses can generally be fit into the following categories:

 proprietary licenses
 Free and open source licenses, which include free software licenses and other open
source licenses.

 Proprietary software

The hallmark of proprietary software licenses is that the software publisher grants the use of
one or more copies of software under the end-user license agreement (EULA), but
ownership of those copies remains with the software publisher (hence use of the term
"proprietary").

 Free and open source software

A primary consequence of the free software form of licensing is that acceptance of the license
is essentially optional — the end-user may use the software without accepting the license.
However, if the end-user wishes to exercise any of the additional rights granted by a free
software license (such as the right to redistribute the software), then the end-user must
accept, and be bound by, the software license.

Open source licenses generally fall under two categories:

 Copy left licenses. Those that aim to preserve the openness of the software itself, This
license is aimed at giving the end-user permission to redistribute
 Permissive licenses. Those that aim to give freedoms to the users of that software. which
essentially grant the end-user permission to do anything they wish with the source code
in question, including the right to take the code and use

Product key

A product key, also known as a CD key, is a specific software-based key for a computer
program. It certifies that the copy of the program is original. Activation is sometimes done
offline by entering the key, and online activation is required to prevent multiple people using
the same key.

Product keys consist of a series of numbers and/or letters.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 5 of 7

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Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Self-Check 2 Written Test

Name:____________________ Date:_________________

Please ask the trainer for the questionnaire for this lap test

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 6 of 7

First Edition IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Lap Test Practical Demonstration

Name: ________________________ Date: ________________

Time started: ___________________ Time finished: ________________

Please ask your trainer for the instruction for this Lap Test

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 7 of 7

First Edition IT – Entoto TVET College