Checklist: Technical Operations Issues
Synopsis
The following checklists identify key management, engineering, acquisition, and support issues to address during technical operations.
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Management Activities Checklist
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Adequate technical resources are available (full-time, part-time, or contracted) with skills in key areas such as network operations, telecommunications, computer platform operators, database management system, information security, QA, and applications (e.g., common user tools and customer technical support). |
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The Operations Project Plan clearly states operational goals and their measures (e.g., cost of operations, defect collection, service performance). |
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The Operations Project Plan references documented procedures that will be followed to ensure integrity, availability, security, or other key quality attributes of the operational systems. This may include detailed procedures for rebooting servers, backing up data, securing data, reviewing and analyzing system logs (user access, security events), vendor maintenance, or applying application or system updates (security patches). |
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Measures to identify opportunities to improve the technical operations services and the technical assets are identified and tracked. |
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Operators and support staff receive periodic training or orientation on the technology and the business domain (policies) as relevant to their responsibilities. |
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Periodic assessments (surveys) of user satisfaction are planned and conducted. |
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Engineering Activities Checklist
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All supporting documentation is updated, as necessary, to reflect incremental changes to the operational configuration. |
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System response times and degradation are monitored and managed, especially for anticipated high-usage periods. Capacity and resource utilization is monitored, and critical reserves are managed. |
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Detailed procedures are defined and followed to identify, assess, install, and verify critical (security) patches released from vendors. |
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Technical staff has adequate resources to support the identification and diagnosis of faults. |
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Electronic interfaces with external systems are monitored and periodically reviewed for performance, security, and quality attributes. |
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Acquisition Activities Checklist
Acquisition Activities Checklist
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Responsibility for oversight of acquired products and services is explicitly identified, and authorities are delegated. |
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Individuals responsible for the acquisition receive periodic training or orientation on the technology and the business domain (policies), as appropriate. |
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Performance of external providers is periodically evaluated and/or supervised against the goals stated in the Operations Project Plan (operations or maintenance support contractor). |
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All technology purchases conform to the Agency Technical Architecture and other acquisition regulations as appropriate. |
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Manage the solicitation and contractor formation phase to assure that competition and best value goals are achieved. |
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The Contracting Strategy Document is reviewed and updated as technology changes and as other needs are defined. |
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The Contractor Management Plan is reviewed and updated as technology changes and as other needs are defined. |
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Contractor status reports are received and reviewed periodically, and actions are tracked to closure. |
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Support Activities Checklist
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Individuals on the Quality Assurance Team have both business process domain and technical domain knowledge. They receive periodic orientations, as needed, to ensure they understand the business and technical environment. |
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The Quality Assurance Team participates in the process of creating operations plans and defines key QA activities conforming to the objectives stated in the Operations Project Plans. |
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The Quality Assurance Team periodically reviews and audits technical operations actions against the key procedures identified in the Operations Project Plan-identifying, reporting, and overseeing the resolution of any noted deficiencies. |
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The Quality Assurance Team reviews staff skills and knowledge to ensure that those performing technical operation activities have the prerequisite skills and knowledge to perform their assignments effectively. |
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The Quality Assurance Team conducts periodic reviews to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the operational systems (usage assessments or surveys)-compiling and reporting results to executive management. |
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The Quality Assurance Team collects and reports measures of defects identified and corrected during operations. |
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The Quality Assurance Team identifies consequences associated with various types of defects to ensure appropriate prioritization of defect resolutions. |
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The Quality Assurance Team reviews key business work products, such as reports or notices, to make sure they are reasonable and correct (e.g., policy references on notices for denied cases). These reviews may be generated on a periodic basis (e.g., generating reports daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually) or on a significant-event basis (e.g., policy changes). |
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The Configuration Management Team maintains the integrity of the installed platforms, equipment, applications, and data as the IT infrastructure undergoes changes in the operational environments. |
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The Configuration Management Team performs reviews or audits of the installed applications to ensure that only approved changes to the operational configuration are made (e.g., licenses and product versions). |
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The Configuration Management Team backs up the software or data prior to an upgrade; they can restore the system to that save point, if needed. |
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The Configuration Management Team backs up the software or data immediately after an upgrade; they can restore the system to that save point, if needed. |
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