D: Design and planning documents
This appendix contains suggested details of the types of design documents, plans and standards documents that should be produced and maintained by IT, and also outlines the minimum contents of IT technology architectures and plans. However, it should be stressed again that all these documents should be frequently and regularly reviewed and revised and should be actively used within everyday IT processes and procedures.
They must also be maintained in alignment with all similar documents in use within the business and the overall organization.
D1 DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURAL DOCUMENTS AND STANDARDS
The design documents and standards developed and maintained by IT should include:
- Design and planning standards, policies, processes and
procedures
- Application architectures, design methods and
standards
- Business requirements, business impact assessment
and prioritization and business case methods and
standards
- Functional requirements standards
- SoR and ITT standards and methods for their evaluation
IT technology architectures, design standards and policies, covering all areas of technology, including mainframe, server, desktop, laptop, hand-held and mobile devices, telephony systems, storage, backup, network and network addressing
- Operating systems, systems software, utilities and firmware architectures, design policies and standards
- Data, information and database architectures, design policies and standards, including information flows, Knowledge Management, information security and access, Data Management, data storage, data warehousing, data analysis and data mining
- Management systems, platforms, tools and agents and their architectures and design polices and standards, including functionality, domains, interfaces, management protocols, event and alarm handling and categorization, automation and escalation
- Cabling architectures, designs and standards
- Development standards, methods and policies
- Testing methods, polices and standards
- Handover, acceptance and sign-off standards and methods
- Partners, supplier and contract standards and policies
- Communications policies and standards
- Document and document library standards and
policies
- Internet and intranet architectures, design standards
and policies, including e-commerce and e-business
- E-mail and groupware architectures, design standards
and policies
- Environmental requirements, design policies and
standards
- IT security design policies and standards, including fire
walling, virus checking, service and system access
levels, methods and policies, remote access, user
account and password management
- Procurement standards and policies
- Programme standards and policies, project methods
and project planning and review policies and
standards
- Quality standards and policies
- User interfaces and standards.
D2 IT PLANS
IT should produce and maintain a number of plans in order to coordinate and manage the overall development and quality of IT services. These should include:
- IT business plans: the business plans for the development of IT services
- Strategic plans: providing plans for the achievement of the long-term vision, mission and objectives of IT
- Tactical plans: providing plans for the achievement of the short- and medium-term vision, mission and objectives of ICT
- Functional plans: providing plans for the achievement of the vision, mission and objectives of key IT functions
- Operational plans: providing plans for the development and improvement of operational processes, procedures and methods
Project plans and programmes:
- IT and business programmes
- IT projects
Processes plans and programmes:
- Objectives and targets
- Process improvement
- Roles and responsibilities
Transition plans:
- Build plans and schedules
- Testing and release schedules
- Development and test environments
- Transition schedules
- Service Management plans:
- Service Quality Plan(s)
Service Improvement Plans and Programmes
- Financial Plans and budgets
- IT Service Continuity and Recovery Plans and
Business Continuity Plans
- Capacity Plan
- Availability Plan
- Service Support Plans
- Release Plans and schedules
- Configuration Management Plans
- Change Management Plans and the Change
Schedule
- Service Desk, Incident Management and Problem Management Plans
- Supplier and Contract Plans.
All IT plans should be developed, maintained and
reviewed in line within the business and the overall organization. This should be achieved using the impact
assessment process of a suitable Change Management system. Organizations should take the legal requirements
for systems into consideration and also look into International and national standards and regulation and
the need for corporate governance.
