Engineering Activities

Provide technical support to administer the applications, data, platforms, and networking to keep them operating efficiently and effectively.

Introduction

Activities

Roles and Responsibilities

Artifacts

Additional Resources

	- IT Products and Data - Operations Project Plan - Project or Product Requirements - A-TARS
Operate & Sustain IT Products and Data Collect and Analyze Operational Data		- IT Products and Data - Operations Status - Status
	- IT Staff - Technical Architecture Team - Support Organization - Other Key Stakeholders

Introduction

These technical activities are performed in the context of one or more technical operations projects. Individuals provide technical support to operate and sustain the deployed IT products. This typically includes platform, application, database, user, security, or network operation and maintenance actions. Documentation associated with the operation of the IT products is kept current (e.g., detailed operating procedures, scripts, log files, user announcements).

Performance and defect data are periodically collected and analyzed, which may include surveys of the technical infrastructure and its use. These surveys are similar to those done to support strategic IT planning and management. This operational information is used to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the installed products and related IT services, and is provided to the evolution planning and management activities. Operational information is used to guide further strategic management, Technical Architecture, and evolution planning and management decisions. This could result in additional maintenance actions, requests for enhancements, upgrades, or retirement of applications or equipment.

Engineering practices, as well as overall adjunct technical operation requirements, are derived from the A-TARS. Unique support requirements are elicited from the HS programs staff. All product and process requirements are communicated through each project's operations plans.

TANF Example: Many TANF tasks are time critical, where processing must be performed within an allocated time frame. Deteriorating application performance may affect TANF processes as well as other dependent systems. Application performance is therefore a key parameter that should be monitored. Performance analysis can be used to determine when processing thresholds may be exceeded, and the preventive actions to be taken. Monitoring may include periodic batch jobs (i.e., batch window) as well as on-line access.

Performance concerns extends beyond the application processing. Introduction of any new equipment may have an impact. Speed and reliability of printers, for example, can have a significant impact on the TANF program's ability to process notices, checks, or other correspondence during required time periods. Engineering staff must consider the end-to-end business processes and carefully plan any modifications that may have a ripple effect on the business process.

Disaster recovery and business continuity is a major concern in today's world. Business Continuity Planning efforts include both risk mitigation and contingency planning elements. The risk mitigation efforts are aimed at reducing the likelihood that risk conditions will actually occur. Contingency plans provide strategies to compensate and work around the change of inputs, threats from external events and loss of resources. They allow the organization to accomplish its critical business process and to continue to supply its essential product or service. Contingency plans remain in effect until normal operations are restored.

The following guiding principles may be used to set functional priorities for selecting and developing specific contingency and risk mitigation plans:

Continue payments to ongoing TANF families on a monthly cycle.

Continue accepting new applications, being able to conduct intake at existing facilities or at an alternative site.

Continue to determine eligibility and calculate benefits based on financial and non-financial eligibility criteria.

Be able to refer TANF applicants to other HS programs to establish cooperation.

Be able to refer and/or determine work requirements for TANF applicants.

Continue Case maintenance by monitoring and tracking cooperation with employment and job training activities to maintain eligibility. This includes being able to accept Case changes, such as address and household composition changes.

Top

Activities

The basic fabrication engineering activities also apply to the operations projects. You may refer to those activities for additional detail. Some technical activities applicable to operations projects are described below:

Operate and Sustain the IT Products and Data. The technical staff performs activities that keep the deployed IT products and data operating effectively and efficiently. This may include:
- Application administration. The IT Staff ensures the proper configuration and operation of business-specific and general-purpose applications (e.g., caseworker applications, office automation, and e-mail).
- Data administration. The IT Staff ensures the proper retention and protection of business and technical operations data (e.g., backup-restore of databases, access, Web logs). They should also monitor the network infrastructure as needed (addressing-naming, routing, firewall settings, intrusion detection, network utilization and performance monitoring).
- Platform administration. The IT Staff provide for planned and unplanned computer maintenance by having detailed procedures for managing these events, reducing any impact to the users (e.g., startup-shutdown, upgrades, preventive maintenance, failure recovery, diagnostics, and desktop configuration).
- User administration. The IT Staff provides technical support to users in an effective manner (e.g., help desk-call center, operation notices, and user account management).
- Operator administration. The skills and knowledge of the IT Staff should be reviewed and updated as needed (i.e., operator training).
Collect and Analyze Operational Data. The technical staff collects and uses technical performance measures to manage the effectiveness and efficiency of the deployed IT products and data. This will include:
- Collect performance measures. The IT Staff will collect operational measures periodically (e.g., CPU utilization, disk usage, network utilization, file system access, and events).
- Collect defect data. The IT Staff will collect data on defects and other planned and unplanned corrective maintenance actions periodically (e.g., hardware, software, network failures, response times, and availability).
- Conduct usage assessments. The IT Staff will collect information on the efficiency and effectiveness of the operational systems and IT services periodically (e.g., satisfaction surveys, cost of operations, availability).
- Analysis. The IT Staff will compile, analyze, and report the state of operations to appropriate decision makers (e.g., anticipated growth rates and defects identified per unit time after deployment).

Top

Roles and Responsibilities

The key roles and their responsibilities are as follows:

IT Staff. These individuals perform the technical activities. They have the technical skills and knowledge to keep the IT products operating efficiently.
Users. These individuals interact with the IT staff, providing feedback on their use of the technology products (help desk requests). Users also receive training and other services from the IT staff as needed.
Support Organization. Individuals with expertise in the QA or CM disciplines oversee the operation activities to maintain the integrity of the Deployed Configuration and assure that critical procedures are followed.
Other Key Stakeholders. Any group or individual with a vested interest in using a deployed product. This includes representatives of IT Project Teams from other interdependent projects and HS program users and management staff.

Top

Artifacts

The following information is used or produced by these activities. Templates, examples, and checklists for identifying and documenting items are available through the Additional Resources section at the end of this page.

IT Products and Data. This is the main result of these activities. These are updated to include operational changes needed for system management and administration (run-time data such as logs, user accounts, and configuration parameters). Changes are documented, managed, and controlled, as necessary.
Status. This data is periodically collected, analyzed, and reported to management for review.
Project or Product Requirements. These are allocated to the technical tasks to ensure that operations actions meet HS Agency and HS program needs (level of service expected).
A-TARS. Technical guidelines from the A-TARS are used as the basis of technical practices for the operations project (operating procedures and convention).
Status. Technical progress and issues are reported to the project management activities. Status is checked against the activities in the Operations Project Plan.

Top

Additional Resources

Resources applicable to this activity are cataloged below. Some items from the fabrication project engineering resources as well as the deployment project engineering resources also may be used to perform the operations engineering activities. Lists of all available resources may be found in the Resources portion of the IT Planning and Management Guides.

Checklist: Technical Operations
A tailorable checklist to use for identifying items that may affect operations. 04-09-02

Guidelines: Assess Existing IT Qualities
A collection of checklists and guidelines to evaluate the usage and maintenance qualities of the HS Agency IT. 04-23-01

Top