Assessments - The Practice of Cloud System Administration - page 433

Sample Assessment Questions
• How is new hardware introduced into the environment? Which teams are involved
and how do they communicate? How long does the process take?
• How is old hardware or software eliminated from the system?
• What is the process for disposing of old hardware?
• Which steps are taken to ensure disks and other storage are erased when disposed?
• How is new software or a new service brought into being? Which teams are in-
volved and how do they communicate? How long does the process take?
• What is the process for handoff between teams?
• Which tools are used?
• Is documentation current?
• Which steps involve human interaction? How could it be eliminated?
• If there is a corporate standard practice for this OR, what is it and how does this
service comply with the practice?
Level 1: Initial
• New products are introduced through ad hoc measures and individual heroics.
• Teams are surprised by NPI, often learning they must deploy something into pro-
duction with little notice.
• NPI is delayed due to lack of capacity, miscommunication, or errors.
• Deprecating old products is rarely done, resulting in operations having to support
an “infinite” number of hardware or software versions.
Level 2: Repeatable
• The process used for NPI/NPR is repeatable.
• The handoff between teams is written and agreed upon.
• Each team has a playbook for tasks related to its involvement with NPR/NPI.
• Equipment erasure and disposal is documented and verified.
Level 3: Defined
• Expectations for how long NPI/NPR will take are defined.
• The handoff between teams is encoded in a machine-readable format.
• Members of all teams understand their role as it fits into the larger, overall process.