GN4 Phase 1 - Project Initiation
Document (PID)
0.1.1
Activity SA4- Production Application Services and Infrastructure
Start month
End month
1.4.2015
31.3.2016
0.1.1.1 Background and Reasoning
Production Application Services and Infrastructure Service Activity should define the process and stages a
software product needs to follow in order to get in the production, either for the first time, or during its life cycle.
This activity has to ensure that the products that are considered to be in the production are of acceptable quality,
from the software architecture and the secure coding aspects, that it has all the relevant documentation, that it is
checked from the perspective of industry standards alignment, and that its usage is followed and reported to
stakeholders together with the relevant information from all stages of the pre-production, production and postproduction phase of this activity. In addition, the activity should ensure that all developers in the project could
have the possibility to attend the secure code and quality coding trainings to ensure higher quality of production
software.
0.1.1.2 Timing
Show the timing of the different tasks and their components (Gantt chart or similar)
0.1.1.3 Objectives
The objectives of the Production Application Services and Infrastructure activity are to:
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Define and establish the service assurance and transition process
Enable software quality and security audits for all software products that are planned for production
Ensure that the alignment of the proposed software products with industry standards are checked,
relevance of existing industry standards to the specific software products are referenced, and the process
for the alignment with the standards is defined, as needed,
All requirements needed for the software products are gathered from the developing teams and
communicated towards different operational teams (e.g. networking teams, IT teams, security teams etc.),
Ensure that the timeline and tasks are well defined and coordinated among different engaged teams,
such as developers, IT, networking, service desk support, security teams etc. in order for the process
towards the production is followed smoothly and within agreed resources,
Ensure that valid and sufficient support is provided from and to developing teams, networking, IT, service
desk, security and all other relevant teams, through proper documentation, trainings, written procedures,
etc.
Ensure that the procedures for the all involved processes are well defined, up-taken and followed
Organize the trainings for developers in the areas of quality software development, programming
techniques, secure code trainings, etc. Organize trainings for support and operational teams in order to
be able to support the service/product with the highest quality
Manage the continuity of the software product during its life cycle.
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0.1.1.4 Description of Work
…. will be divided between the following Tasks:
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Task 0: Activity Leadership.
Task 1: Service Validation and Testing
Task 2: Production and Support
Task 3: Production Optimization and Continuity
These are described in detail below.
Task 0: Activity Leadership
This Task is to lead the Production Application Services and Infrastructure Service Activity as a whole, to manage
and coordinate the work of all Tasks, liaise with other activities and project stakeholders. Activity leader should
liaise strongly with Service coordination team for services roadmap, with developing services regarding the
transition to production plans as well as service continuity aspects, as well as with JRA activities for any research
founding that can help to enhance production application services and infrastructure.
Task 1: Service Validation and Testing
Before the software product is ready for production, it has to be assessed from the perspective of source code
quality, and secure code analysis. The results of those two assessments determines is the product ready to
proceed in the next phase of requirements gathering, or should be returned back to the developing teams to
ensure the needed level of the code suitable for production.
In the first phase of the project, minimum and needed set of requirements has to be defined and agreed with the
developing activities. That will determine the thresholds a software product has to satisfy in order to be accepted
for the next pre-production phase, the skills needed for the support teams, the time-line of the transition process
etc. The process will then be executed each time when a new service should go to the production or a service in
production has a newer version that needs to be implemented in production.
Apart from code audits, the process will include requirement definition, installation, pre-production testing,
production teams preparations, and other things as will be defined in the first phase of the first year.
This task will lead the preparations of the supporting teams, both production support team as the second level of
support and service desk team as the first level of support for a service in production.
Objectives
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Define the service validation and testing process
Perform software audits for all software products that are planned for production
Perform pre-production tests
Prepare production and support teams for production
Work Plan
The task will have several subtasks, continuous through the whole project duration.
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Work item number
Work item title
Work item description
1. Subtask 1
Quality assurance
Assess software code quality of service applied for
production. Perform in-depth software audits and
source code reviews of software project followed
by recommendations for developers.
2. Subtask 2
Secure code audit
Perform the secure code analysis and review for
the service applied for production
3. Subtask 3
Application validation and
testing
Based on the infrastructure requirements,
application functionality specifications, application
documentation and instructions, as defined by the
developing teams, perform the installation and preproduction tests in order to assess the proposed
application and prepare the teams for production
4. Subtask 4
Support preparation
Includes documentation validation and trainings for
2nd level support in SA5 and 1st level support in
SA7,
Task 2: Production and Support
Objectives
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Ensure that the procedures for the all involved processes are well defined, up-taken and followed
Ensure that the timeline and tasks are well defined and coordinated among different engaged teams,
such as developers, IT, networking, service desk support, security teams etc. in order for the process
towards the production is followed smoothly and within agreed resources,
Maintain the service in production, monitor its operations and usage
Liaise with T1 for better preparation for production, and with T3 for service continuity
Work Plan
Work item number
Work item title
Work item description
1 Subtask 1
Production infrastructure
Monitor, maintain and manage the production
infrastructure, used by all production services.
Strongly and actively communicate with all
individual subtask leaders, as well as with other
SA5 tasks and developing activities regarding the
needed infrastructure, planned maintenance, etc.
Liaise with SA6 and SA7 for equipment
procurement.
2 Subtask 2
eduPKI
Continue to offer SSL certificates and a trust fabric
to GÉANT and related services that the commercial
sector is unable or unwilling to provide.
3. Subtask 3
eduroam
Prepare the production team to accept eduroam
service in production. Enhance the knowledge of
the production team to prepare to run eduroam in
production.
4. Subtask 4
eduGAIN
Prepare the production team to accept eduGAIN
service in production. Enhance the knowledge of
the production team to prepare to run eduGAIN in
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production. Start with eduGAIN in production from
M9.
5. Subtask 5
Moonshot
Prepare and plan for the transition of Moonshot
service in production in M9.
6. Subtask 6
Federation as a Service
(FaaS)
Prepare the production and support team for
transition of FaaS service in production in M6, and
support the service until the end of Y1.
7. Subtask 7
eduCONF
Prepare the production and support team for
transition of eduCONF service in production,
starting from M1, and support the service until the
end of Y1.
8. Subtask 8
perfSONAR
Maintain the latest version of perfSONAR on the
download site, provide 2nd level support for
perfSONAR installations (to service desk as the
first level), liaise with the developing teams for any
new versions and news, liaise with subtask 9 for
security insurance and with SA5 task 3 for
continuity.
9. Subtask 9
Security
services
of
production
Security of services in production should constantly
be monitored and assessed. The subtask should
liaise with developing activities to enhance the
overall security mechanisms and protection for
production services. The subtask should
periodically perform penetrations tests on the
production services and liaise with developing
teams in case of any important issues.
All subtasks should as their regular work description liaise with subtask 9 for security insurance, with Production
Optimization and Continuity for continuous improvement of the infrastructure and services and possible
optimizations.
Each of the services in production should have their Service Manager who will participate in Task 1 for Service
Validation and Testing (SVT) assignments, and perform Release and Deployment Management within its
particular subtask in T2.
Each Service Manager should ensure that valid and sufficient support is provided from and to developing teams,
networking, IT, service desk, security and all other relevant teams, through proper documentation, trainings,
written procedures, etc.
The T2 deliverable should cover the list of services in production at the end of Y1, KPIs and its values from the
month after the services is released in production until the M10, the lessons learned from the transition process,
and all other relevant aspects for the Service Validation and Testing and Release and Deployment Management
processes.
Task 3: Production Optimization and Continuity
The objective for this task is continuous improvement of production services and infrastructure. It will be done
through constant analysis of the operation processes and production services architecture, including consultation
of industry standards and best practices. The task should liaise with SA4 for the definition of Production Resource
and Services Inventory, as a ground in the optimization process.
Objectives
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Ensure that the alignment of the proposed software products with industry standards are checked,
relevance of existing industry standards to the specific software products and processes are referenced,
and the process for the alignment with the standards is defined, as needed.
Examine the existence of common components and processes among services in production.
Liaise with SA4 to determine potential use of Resource and Services Inventory for the optimization of
production services.
Supervise all services in production from the perspective of its usage, users' and support feedback and
the information feed into respective JRAs and developing SAs.
Work Plan
Work item number
Work item title
Work item description
1
Industry Standards and
Best Practices
Work together with T1 in creation of service transition in
production process, bringing the knowledge of industry
standards (TMForum) and best practices.
Assess processes in SA5 according to industry standards
(TMForum) and best practices.
2
Common
components
and processes
Examine the existence of common components and
processes among services in production.
Liaise with SA4 to determine potential use of Resource
and Services Inventory for the optimization of production
services.
3.
Production supervision
Define the process for production supervision which will
gather all feedbacks and feed them back into respective
production, developing and research teams.
The purpose of this task is to help the service continuity during its life cycle. It should gather all the feedback from
other sources - product life cycle roadmaps, defined KPIs, reports on service usage and uptake, feedbacks from
SA5 tasks - trainings (trainings for developers and trainings from developing teams to other teams and users),
standardization alignment efforts, pre-production preparations, feedback from users and supporting teams and
form them into future description of work for either developing teams from the source activities, or to the future
work of JRA activities.
The results of this task are recommendations about the future development of a product or service, including
proposals on integration with or adjustments to other tools. The results of this task can influence any life cycle
phase of any product prepared for production or in the production.
The Deliverable for this task should describe the results of the analysis performed on the services that are in
production or in the service validation and testing phase at the time of writing, with regard to the common
components and processes among them.
0.1.1.5 Deliverables
Deliverable
no.
Deliverable name and brief description
WP
no.
Nature
Dissemination
level
Delivery
date
(project
month)
DS5.1.1
Service validation and testing process
1
R
PU
M9
DS5.2.1
Production services report
2
R
PU
M12
5
Deliverable
no.
Deliverable name and brief description
WP
no.
Nature
Dissemination
level
Delivery
date
(project
month)
DS5.3.1
Production services common components and
processes
3
R
PU
M10
Table 1: … deliverables (Nature: R=Report, P=Prototype, D=Demonstrator, O=Other)
0.1.1.6 Milestones
Milestone
number
Milestone name
Description
Work
package(s)
involved
Expected
date
Means of
verification
DS5.1.1
Service validation and testing
process
Definition
of
Service
validation and
testing process
Task 1
M10
The process is
defined
and
agreed
among
relevant
activities.
DS5.3.1
Production
process
Definition the
process
for
production
supervision
Task 3
M7
The definition of
process
that
locates all the
sources
of
information
for
any
particular
service, defines
which
analysis
should be taken
and how the
results are fed
back
to
stakeholders
including JRAs,
SA
(dev/production/
support).
supervision
Table 2: … milestones
0.1.1.7 Dependencies
List any major tasks that can only be performed once other tasks are fully or partially completed in your Activity
or any other Activity. It is important to include both the tasks that are responsibility of this project/activity to
deliver or the task upon which your project or activity is dependent upon. Please also list what you expect from
other activities, or what are you going to provide to other activities or any other inter-relations.
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The definition of Service Validation and Testing process has to involve SA7, relevant developing activities (SA1,
and SA4, possibly others), and Service Coordinator. Lack of the interest and involvement from the other activities
side might cause that the process is defined solely within SA5, and that is not followed through the transition.
This could lead to lack of transparency and consistency in the transition, as well as to slow down the transition
and production processes. This should be avoided.
Each of the production tasks depends heavily on the strong cooperation with developing services on one side,
as well as production services in SA6 and support services in SA7.
SA5 relies strongly on the up-to-date roadmap for services in production as a basis for the planning of operational
activities.
Cooperation is also expected with SA4 in the field of Production Resource and Service Inventory, since SA5
should be the user of SA4 results.
0.1.1.8 Project Components
Provide a graphical presentation of the components showing their interdependencies (Pert diagram or similar)
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