User Support Policy

User Rights and Responsibilities

Users have the right to a prompt response to their support questions. It is the responsibility of users to identify and communicate support issues, including bug reports, ports to new platforms, feature requests, and requests for assistance, by emailing their questions and concerns to the esmf_support@ucar.edu mailing list. Support requests should include the ESMF version, computing platform information (platform, operating system, compiler), the name of the scientific application the user is working with, priority (e.g., urgent, high, normal, low), and desired resolution time.

If the request relates to a scientific application that is distributed to the user with ESMF already incorporated, it is the responsibility of the user to also notify the application developers by cc'ing them or their application support list. The ESMF Core Team will make a best effort to resolve the issue with the assistance of the application developers. The request may be closed if the application developers are unavailable or if the problem is traced back to the scientific application itself.

ESMF Rights and Responsibilities

Following the ESMF Release Support Policy, the ESMF Core Team is responsible for user support of the last two ESMF public releases. User support includes responses to requests for new features, bug fixes, ports to new platforms, patch releases, and help understanding and using the software.

Prioritization Procedure for Requests

The Change Review Board (CRB) sets the Core Team's development schedule, and prioritizes user requests that are expected to take longer than two weeks. The Core Team prioritizes short term requests. The Core Team and CRB reserve the right to prioritize user requests in order to maintain a production schedule that maximizes benefits to all users given resource constraints.