Overview

During the Operations & Maintenance phase, the fully tested and accepted system is released into the full-scale production environment for sustained use with operational and maintenance support. This activity focuses on planning for the transition from the implementation phase to normal operational use and handover to the Operations and Maintenance Team. The Operations and Maintenance Plan should define the tasks, activities, and parties responsible for carrying them out, to ensure that the live system is fully functional and is performing as expected.

Steps:

1

Top Tips for a Business Continuity Plan

  1. Develop a formal policy with the authority and guidance necessary to develop an effective plan.
  2. Conduct the business impact analysis (BIA). The business impact analysis helps to identify and prioritize critical CRVS systems and components.
  3. Identify preventive controls. These are measures that reduce the effects of system disruptions and can increase system availability and reduce costs.
  4. Develop recovery strategies. Thorough recovery strategies ensure that the system can be recovered quickly and effectively following a disruption.
  5. Develop an IT contingency plan. The contingency plan should contain detailed guidance and procedures for restoring a damaged system.
  6. Plan testing, training and exercising. Testing the plan identifies planning gaps, whereas training prepares recovery personnel for plan activation.

Define your operations and maintenance approach by answering the below questions:

  • What is the handover process to the operations and maintenance team following formal acceptance of the system?
  • How will outstanding issues be resolved where completion criteria has not been fully met at the time of handover? How will this be formalised?
  • What system monitoring is required, including system performance and security monitoring tools and procedures?
  • How will staff performance be monitored and reported on?
  • What support will be provided for end-users, technical and systems administration staff? Will there be help desk infrastructure, staff and call-in procedures? What is the escalation process?
  • How will data be curated and managed?
  • How will the software be managed and by whom? What is the process for feature and change requests? How will software upgrades be managed e.g. vendor releases or off-the-shelf applications software upgrades? 
  • What is your business continuity plan, including disaster recovery and backup procedures?
  • Who will develop SOPs on how to use and manage the system and how will these SOPs be managed and enforced?
  • Who will update system and user documentation and how often?
  • What Service Level Agreements need to be in place, considering service needs, roles and responsibilities, service level expectations, escalation levels and actions, service hours and contact methods, and performance guarantees?
  • How will supplies by acquired and stored e.g., paper, forms?
  • What refresher training will be provided to end-users and administrators?
  • How will this training be delivered/accessed? Who is responsible for training and curriculum development?
2

Identify the required team to implement the operations and maintenance approach, with an identified person responsible for managing the handover during the transition period. On-board these resources onto the CRVS Digitisation Team and ensure that they understand the scope and objectives of the CRVS Digitisation Project.

3

Before handing over to the operations and maintenance team, a detailed operations and maintenance plan needs to be defined. Use the Operations and Maintenance Plan Template to complete this activity.