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Platform Management Workflow

Run the Platform Management Workflow MicroSim fullscreen

About This MicroSim

Most clubs do not choose a platform. They accumulate one -- a grant buys Chromebooks, a company donates Windows laptops, a parent contributes an old MacBook -- and end up managing three fleets without ever deciding to.

The diagram makes the shape of that cost visible. Everything before the diamond is shared: the same accounts, tools, and restrictions go on every machine regardless of platform. Everything after it is not. Each branch is a different console, a different enrolment process, and a different set of things that can go wrong.

The branches converge again at Ready for Student Login, which is the honest part: all three paths get you to the same place. The difference is how much work it takes and how many consoles a volunteer has to learn. That is the argument for standardising on one platform, and this diagram is the cheapest way to make it.

How to Use

  • Hover a step to preview it; click to pin the details.
  • The grey nodes are the start and the shared end state; the amber node is the configuration every machine gets regardless of platform.
  • Each coloured branch is one platform's management path.

Lesson Plan

Bloom level: Analyze (L4) -- differentiate

Learning objective: Given a newly purchased laptop's platform, the learner differentiates the configuration and ongoing management path it will follow among Chromebook, Windows, and macOS management.

Before the sim (5 min). Count the club's laptops by operating system. Most groups discover they have two or three kinds and had never counted.

With the sim (10 min). Walk the shared configuration step first and note how much is common. Then take each branch and ask what console it requires and who in the club knows how to use it.

After the sim (15 min). Ask the group to decide, on the evidence, whether they would standardise on one platform for the next purchase -- and to write down what they would do with the machines they already have.

Check for understanding. Ask: "A parent donates two MacBooks. What does the club now need that it did not need yesterday?" Naming the MDM enrolment and the extra console is the objective met.

Embedding This MicroSim

Paste this into any page of the book, adjusting the relative path to docs/sims/ for the page's depth:

<iframe src="../../sims/platform-management-workflow/main.html" width="100%" height="682" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Specification

The full specification below is extracted from Chapter 22: Purchasing and Configuring Club Devices.

Type: workflow
**sim-id:** platform-management-workflow<br/>
**Library:** Mermaid<br/>
**Status:** Specified

Purpose: Show how one newly arrived laptop moves through initial configuration and then splits into one of three platform-specific management paths, so a mentor can see where their own fleet's laptops fit.

Bloom Taxonomy: Analyze (L4)
Bloom Taxonomy Verb: differentiate

Learning objective: Given a newly purchased laptop's platform, the learner differentiates the configuration and ongoing management path it will follow among Chromebook, Windows, and macOS management.

Steps (flowchart with a decision diamond):
1. Start: "New Laptop Arrives" -- click reveals "A laptop as it arrives from a vendor, before any club-specific setup has been applied."
2. Process: "Laptop Configuration" -- click reveals the Laptop Configuration definition above.
3. Decision: "Which Platform?" -- click reveals "The laptop's operating system determines which management path and console it will use for the rest of its service life."
4a. Branch "Chromebook" leads to "Chromebook Management" -- click reveals the Chromebook Management definition above.
4b. Branch "Windows" leads to "Windows Device Management" -- click reveals the Windows Device Management definition above.
4c. Branch "macOS" leads to "MacOS Device Management" -- click reveals the MacOS Device Management definition above.
5. All three branches converge on End: "Ready for Student Login" -- click reveals "Once its platform-specific management is in place, the laptop is ready to receive the student account setup covered next in this chapter."

Interactivity requirement (satisfied): every node has a Mermaid `click` directive tied to an infobox showing its revealed text, matching the definition already given in this chapter's prose.

Color coding: Gray for the start node, amber for the shared configuration step, purple for the decision diamond, blue/green/orange for the Chromebook/Windows/macOS branches respectively, gray for the converged end state.

Implementation: Mermaid flowchart (`graph TD`) rendered in main.html with `click NodeId call showInfo("NodeId")` directives for every node, opening a side-panel infobox; a "Reset View" button re-centers the diagram after any zoom or pan.

References