Terms of service

Welcome to the Low Code Service. We are excited to be able to offer you this service, and hope that you will find it beneficial.

• Description of the service
• Basic level of service
• Definition of roles
• Eligibility
• Responsible use
• Division of responsibilities
• Privacy policy

Please note: This document is subject to change as the service grows, industry standards and best practices evolve, and technologies change.

The Low Code Solutions service and low code/no code platforms enable UW-Madison administrators, application managers and software development teams to build applications of varying complexities. The goal is to increase business and developer productivity and deliver apps with high-performance low code or no code. The low code or no code platforms will support a wide range of application use cases, from transactional apps for business to consumers (B2C) to business workflows and system integrations.

As a service funded by the University, the Low Code Solutions Team will provide the services described in this section at no charge.

Application Request Assessment

Assessment and approval of all applications by the Low Code Solutions service team to determine best fit with Kuali, Betty Blocks or some other tool not available from the Low Code Solutions team.

Application and Integration development

Application development services for Betty Blocks applications from areas on campus without access to a local low code developer, highly complex applications, and campus-wide or system-wide applications.

Application development support (see below) for most Kuali applications with a few exceptions, such as campus-wide applications or other case-by-case circumstances.

Integration development services for integrations with campus APIs (e.g. financeAPI, personAPI) and complex integrations with other services. (Approval to access specific data must be obtained by the application admin/developer).

Training

Approved developers have access to online self-paced training courses for Betty Blocks, and teams/groups wishing to complete training together may request a cohort training. This training provides the knowledge to add low and medium complexity features to your Betty Blocks application with little to no additional assistance.

For Kuali Build applications, Kuali provides substantial training videos and documentation. The Low Code Solutions team provides some Kuali KB documentation as indicated below.

Customer/partner communications

A Low Code Solutions Info Teams channel and Developer Community Teams are provided to keep customers/partners apprised of upcoming features, enhancements, maintenance, and changes to the service.

Customer/partner support documentation

KnowledgeBase (KB) documentation for end users of the service is available at the service’s KB site.

Customer/partner support

The service team will help answer questions and requests that come through the customer support form or lcs-support@doit.wisc.edu.

Hours of operation: M-F, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (excluding holidays)

During these hours urgent requests will be responded to within 1-4 hours and standard requests will be addressed within 2-3 business days with the following caveats:

• Application creation with SSO capabilities may take up to 2 weeks based on team availability and dependencies.
• SSL certificates may take up to 2 weeks. Note that most support for the Betty Blocks platform itself is provided from their Netherlands headquarters.

Application End-User

Refers to the users of the custom applications created on the Low Code Solutions platform. Depending on the application the Application End-User may have to log into the application using a NetID in order to use the application.

Application Managers/Application Admins

Refers to both the business owner(s)/contact(s) and technical contact(s) roles for an application using the Low Code Solutions service. Technical contacts may include developers or testers. This person(s) is ultimately responsible for the application’s content and maintenance as well as ensuring it adheres to campus policy on data, privacy, copyright and accessibility. One Application Manager/Application Admin must be identified as the application owner if more than one manager is identified.

Organization Administrators/Admins for S/C/Ds

Refers to those who manage one or more organizations/spaces within the Low Code Solutions platform by creating reusable content, ensuring reusable content is appropriately available, supporting Application Managers/Application Admins, assisting in admittance, training, communicating updates, and awareness of resources relative to the S/C/D’s/department’s/group’s business case and their needs.

Low Code Solutions Service Team

Is the team that manages and supports the infrastructure, Low Code Solutions platform, associated integrations with other systems, training programs, development of prioritized applications, support of Application Managers/Application Admins who don’t have their own Organization Administrator and campus communications.

Eligibility

As a university funded service, applications on the Low Code Solutions platform can be created and maintained by any UW-Madison faculty, staff, or student workers under faculty/staff guidance who are authorized and have undergone appropriate training.*  Applications must be for university/job-aid use and related to the goals and mission of the university. Applications are not intended for personal use.

The following classifications are eligible to access the service as Application End-Users, but they are not eligible to be Application Managers/Admins/Developers or Organization Administrators.

• Retired faculty/staff/emeriti
• Students* (unless currently employed as a student worker)

Refer to the customer support form for more details about how to request platform access or create new applications.

Student organizations, including registered organizations, will not be authorized to use the platform to develop applications.

*Limited term employees and student workers under the guidance of UW-Madison faculty/staff are allowed to work as Application Managers/Application Admins/Developers. However, the faculty/staff to which student workers/limited term employees report are ultimately held responsible for checking that any applications developed by student workers/limited term employees uphold and abide by the terms of responsible use. In addition, the faculty/staff to which student workers/limited employees report will be held accountable if data isn’t made secure or if data security policies are not upheld.

The following types of data are NOT allowed to be used (collected or displayed) in applications: 

• Payment card data and any application that interacts with a payment processer requires express permission as note by UW Policy 3031 “Payment Card Merchant Services and Payment Card (PCI) Compliance” 

Applications containing the following type of data must be reviewed and approved by the Office of Cybersecurity prior to publishing/release.

• HIPAA data
• Sensitive data
• Restricted data

Responsible use of the Low Code Solutions platform also includes:

• Applications must be for university/job-aid use  
• Applications must be related to the goals and mission of the university 
• Promotion of blocks/templates/applications to an organization’s block store and the global block store should only be done by the LCS service team or Org Administrators following the Promotion of Blocks and Application Templates guidelines. 

Application Managers/Application Admins and Organization Administrators are required to: 

• Abide by the Betty Blocks Terms & Conditions
• Abide by the Kuali Terms of Use
• Abide by the Low Code Solutions Policies
• Follow the UW System Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources Policy
• Protect the data, privacy and confidentiality of all persons, entities, and other institutional data as required by FERPA (privacy of student information), and HIPAA (privacy of patient information), and UW-Madison’s Institutional Data Policy
• Refrain from collecting and/or distributing restricted data. Please see Data Governance Data Classification for specific data definitions. Approval will be needed from the appropriate UW-Madison Data Stewards or Universities of Wisconsin Data Stewards for each application. Approval will be needed for use of Web Analytics from the Office of Compliance as well.
• In accordance with federal regulations and UW-Madison policies, all research involving human subjects must be reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board prior to any research intervention with a participant. See Human Research Protection Program for details. 
• Ensure that their applications do not negatively impact the university tenant as a whole 
• Report outages to users of their application(s)
• Comply with all other applicable university policies, state and federal laws, including for example: 

• • Copyright law, described Here 
  • The student code of conduct, by the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards as defined Here 

• • University Record Retention Policy to ensure compliance with the university’s legal and compliance record keeping requirements. 
  • Wisconsin public records laws 

The Low Code Solutions Service Team is responsible for maintaining a stable environment for application development and access. The service team will strive to maintain the availability of the services at all times. In the event of an outage, the service team will notify and work with the vendor to resolve the issue promptly. The service team will provide appropriate information to campus via available channels, such as the UW Madison outages page, the Universities of Wisconsin outages page, and email notifications to any contacts listed for an application which is impacted.

UW-Madison respects the legitimate privacy interests of all Low Code Solutions users within appropriate limits for educational, ethical and legal reasons. 

Usage may also be subject to security testing and monitoring. 

If the university receives a credible report that a violation has occurred, or if, in the course of managing the service, discovers evidence of a violation, then the matter will be referred for investigation, university disciplinary action, and/or criminal prosecution. 

Complaints that specific material violates the law or university policy should be reported to the Office of Cybersecurity via their Reporting an Issue to the Office of Cybersecurity Form or abuse@wisc.edu. 

If you are employed by the university, you should be aware that any documents or data that you publish, save, or collect in a Low Code Solutions application may be subject to the Wisconsin Open Records Act. For more information on Records Management, please go to Legal Requirements for University Records.