An approach to integration of maintenance services in educational Web portal

Management of change requests and problem reports for ICT systems, no matter if they are related to software, hardware or documents, plays very important role in the maintenance, documentation and planning of systems. These change requests and problem reports can be specified by any person during the whole life cycle of the system. This paper presents an approach in integrating maintenance concepts based on change request and problem report specification services within an educational portal. This portal is used with the virtual networking laboratory (VNLab) in the Computer Networks course at the University. Integration of these concepts makes it possible to manage user change requests and problem reports. Change requests and problem reports are associated to the software components of the system, such as virtual network laboratory, integrated software tools, portal structure; to the networking and VNLab infrastructure; or to the structure of the VNLab exercises and educational material. These services provide users facilities to report problems or to suggest changes to all segments of the educational environment.