Contracted Active Directory maintenance for a government agency

How the brief came about

This work is maintenance of an Active Directory system the agency already uses, not the installation of a new system. Users must go through this system to sign in to computers and to authenticate with connected work systems.

Requirements and constraints

The main constraints of this work are that every instalment must have evidence for the agency to accept, and that system information must be confidential. Maintenance work leaves no tangible deliverable to inspect, so the report is what the agency uses to accept the work of each instalment.

• The work of each instalment must have a report in the format set by the contract, to support acceptance.
• Problem fixes must stay within the scope of the contract.
• Renewal of the user account management software licence must be completed on time.
• The agency's data and system configuration must be confidential, both in reports and in external communication.

Why must a maintenance contract separate PM work from CM work?

The contract must separate PM work from CM work because the two types of work start differently and are measured differently. PM (Preventive Maintenance) is checking work on a schedule planned in advance, while CM (Corrective Maintenance, meaning fixing problems when they occur) starts when the agency reports a problem. Separating the two lets the report for each instalment show clearly what was checked according to plan and what was fixed on notification.

System configuration reviews and software licence renewals do not occur in every check cycle, so the scope of work lists these two tasks as items of their own. The steps below are the main work under the contract scope.

1. 1

   Scheduled system checks (PM)

   Check the operation of the user account system at the cycle set by the contract, then record the results in the report.

2. 2

   Fixes on notification (CM)

   Receive problem reports from the agency, fix them according to the contract scope, and record the corrective work in the report.

3. 3

   System configuration review

   Review the configuration of the user account system according to the scope of work, and report the results to the agency.

4. 4

   Software licence renewal

   Renew the user account management software licence as set by the contract.

Deliverables

The deliverables under the contract scope are the maintenance service and reports by instalment, as follows:

• Scheduled system check service (PM)
• Fix-on-notification service (CM) according to the contract scope
• System configuration review, with a report of the results
• Renewal of the user account management software licence
• PM and CM reports by contract instalment

This list is the scope under the contract. The details of the reports delivered in each instalment are still awaiting confirmation.

Confirmed results

What the documents can confirm is billing by contract instalment. We hold invoices and receipts for the instalment work. This page does not show amounts or document numbers, because the agency's contract information must be confidential.

The documents we hold contain no measured figures, such as system availability time or the number of problems fixed, so we report only the scope of work and the delivery status.

What we learned

The key principle from this work is that the scope must separate scheduled work from corrective work, and every instalment must have agreed delivery evidence. The full set of principles is as follows:

• The scope must separate scheduled work, fixes on notification, and work that does not occur in every cycle, such as system configuration reviews and software renewals. Each part should have its own report format, because the report is the evidence of each instalment's work.
• Set out the delivery evidence for each instalment in the contract, such as PM and CM reports and acceptance documents, because maintenance work leaves no tangible deliverable to inspect afterwards.
• For security work, agree from the outset which information may be disclosed. External reports and project references should state only the service scope, without revealing the structure or configuration of the system.

How can you apply this approach to your organisation's user account system?

If your organisation uses Active Directory and needs a maintenance contract, you can use the division of main work in this case as a starting point. What needs adjusting is the check cycle, the list of systems in scope, and the report format your organisation requires.

• Prepare a list of the systems and software you want in scope, with the licence due dates
• Agree the conditions for the service provider's access to systems and data before work starts
• Define the report format and acceptance documents for each instalment clearly in the contract from the start